Cape Verdean Museum 1st Annual
Golf Classic

Museum Spring/Summer Hours

Tuesdays & Thursdays: 1pm - 5pm
Saturdays: Noon - 4pm

The CVME opened for the season on March 1st. For group visits or more information, please click here for our contact information.

The Cape Verdean Longshoremen

Rhode Island artists, historians and filmmakers are working to preserve an important part of our history. Click to read the story, "New efforts to preserve stories of Cape Verdean longshoremen" from the Providence Journal.

T-Shirts For Sale

Cape Verdean Sub-Committee Presents CVME With Plaque

The plaque’s inscription reads: "In recognition of the grassroots efforts to educate and promote the Cape Verdean history and culture in Rhode Island through artifacts, words and pictures. We thank you! July 5th, 2009."

Summer Gifts

Cecelia Court Glover gave us some fascinating documents connected to her research into her family’s history as owners of the Providence-based packet ship, the August W. Snow. They are part of the Manuel M. Court (born Manuel Marques do Couto) collection donated by his daughter Cecelia on behalf of the family.

Another gift that we were excited to add to our collection is a set of photographs from Mrs. Marie Azevedo, widow of jazz musician George Azevedo. Her gift augments the saxophone presented to us by the The Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society of Rhode Island (see below).

Remember, if you are interested in preserving Cape Verdean history for the community, we welcome your donations. Even items that might seem small and overlooked- from old passports to Fox Point photographs- could give museum visitors and scholars a unique perspective on our history. Email us today if you have something you’d like to share.

Cape Verde’s First World Heritage Site

Cidade Velha on the island of Santiago has been named a World Heritage Site for its “outstanding universal value” by the UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In its announcement, the agency stated that the historic center, “bears testimony to the history of Europe's colonial presence in Africa and to the history of slavery.”

Cidade Velha (or Ribeira Grande as it was first known) made up one of the largest Atlantic slave trading outposts in the 15th and 16th centuries. Men and women captured by the Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone were imprisoned here in a long valley, seen in the 1755 engraving to the right. Often, they were taught Christianity before being shipped out to work the plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean.

This important history is represented by a number of items currently on display at the Cape Verdean Museum Exhibit. One piece is a pano, a traditional cloth from the island of Santiago once used as "slave trade money," presented to us in 2008 by RCV President Pedro Pires. Other artifacts include a copper armlet, made by the Portuguese to be exchanged for slaves (above left) and a clay replica of the town’s infamous pelourinho, the whipping post. Engravings, such as the one below by Theodore de Bry and dating from 1602, chart the early history of this port and the British consular reports of the 1800s in the museum’s library provide a rare look at later efforts to end human trafficking in West Africa.

Museum at 34th Annual CV Independence Day Festival!

Recent Visits and an Elephant Tusk

Volunteers from the museum held workshops at Vartan Gregorian School on the history of Cape Verdeans in Fox Point for six classes and education coordinator Yvonne Smart was interviewed. The students put together an exhibit and play about the history of their neighborhood. We also had a youth group from Brockton, MA and a class from the Blackstone Academy in Pawtucket come to see the new additions to the museum this Spring. In early June, Presidente di Camera of São Nicolau made a surpise visit. If you’re interested in bringing your school group, please contact our education coordinator.

In other news, we have received a fascinating 250-year old elephant tusk recovered from the ocean floor around the island of Maio. The tusk, riddled with holes made by decay and sea life, is from the English ship, Princess Louisa which wrecked on a reef off Maio in 1743. It was recovered by explorers from Arqueonautas Worldwide between 1998 and 2000 and donated to us by them. It joins several other artifacts donated to us by Arqueonautas (see earlier announcements in the newsletter).

Rhythm & News: Our 100th Donor!

The Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society of Rhode Island became the 100th donor to the Cape Verdean Museum Exhibit with the gift of a saxophone and other memorabilia belonging to the late musician George Azevedo. Members of the Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society along with Mrs. Marie Azevedo made the presentation to Denise Oliveira, President of the Board of Directors at the museum on April 23rd.

George Azevedo along with his cousin Paul Gonsalves began his career in the 1940s by playing in a small combo that played jazz and rhythm and blues in the Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts area.

Earlier in his career George toured for long stints on the road in the USA and Canada with the Charlie Lewis Band. After marrying his wife Marie in 1951, he stayed closer to home playing locally, working with a number of jump, blues, swing and R & B bands. They included The Clarence “Bubbie” McKay Band, The Duke Oliver Band, The Skyliners, The Nate Robinson Orchestra, The Professor Coates and The Dynamics R & B group. He also jammed with the local saxophonists Joe Livramento and Art Pelosi and Newport Jazz Festival producer and pianist George Wein.

George Azevedo played with many great musicians when they were in the Boston area or playing at the Celebrity Club in Providence. Some of them were Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter Hot Lips Page, Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, Count Basie and vocalists Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughn and Carmen Mac Rae.

It is said that George Azevedo was a “regular guy” who was comfortable playing with any group, low society, high society or following his roots in local Cape Verdean clubs.

The Boston Globe Reviews the Museum

"The history of that back-and-forth rhythm is traced eloquently in the meticulous displays of the Cape Verdean Museum in East Providence”

Reporter James F. Smith of the Boston Globe came to see us recently and wrote three important articles about Cape Verdeans in New England. The latest one, “A calf sent from Boston allows generations to live in N.E.” focuses on the museum. Read it by clicking here.

“Anyone wanting to learn more about Fox Point or any other aspect of the Cape Verdean community in New England should make sure to visit the Cape Verdean Museum Exhibit... the small but lovingly built collection takes visitors through the history of whaling, emigration and building new lives and communities in the United States.” -- "Cape Verdeans going home again," The Boston Globe, April 27, 2009.

"Cape Verde, rising, with emigres' help," The Boston Globe, April 26, 2009.

Brown University Exhibit on Fox Point

A group from Brown has put together an exhibit entitled, Remember the Old Times: Cape Verdean Community in Fox Point, 1920 to 1945 held at the university’s Carriage House Gallery through October 16, 2009. The show was organized by Professor Steven Lubar in the Public Humanities Department and a group of his students, some of whom came to the museum to talk with us about Fox Point and to make reproductions for their show. As always with researchers, we welcome their interest and are happy to help people learn more about the Cape Verdean community. For more, see the John Nicholas Brown Center.

Photography Donations

French photographer and anthropologist Viviane Lièvre has donated several beautiful color photos of Cape Verde that she took while researching music on the islands for her book, Cap-Vert, un voyage musical dans l'archipel. We are grateful for her kind donation and these photos are currently on view at the museum.

We have also received two impressive works donated by the Gonsalves Family and artist Richmond Jones from the 2008 show, A Life in Stone: the Cape Verdean Stonemasonry Tradition in Eastern Connecticut. The works, not yet on display, compliment four other photographs that the museum owns from the same show.

We would also like to thank Ray Almeida for the important photographs and documents from his archives that he has sent to the museum this year. Ray Almeida is, among other things, an historian, author, political activist and holder of the Ordem Amilcar Cabral. He was the founding director of Tchuba-The American Committee for Cape Verde.

DVDs for Sale

Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican, A Cape Verdean American Story, a documentary film made by Dr. Claire Andrade Watkins is for sale at the museum for $20 US. A portion of the proceeds from these dvds will benefit the Cape Verdean Museum Exhibit. If you are interested, please call the museum at (401) 228-7292 or call (401) 222-4137.