Who Was Fortune?
Who was Fortune?
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell
Dr. Marilyn Nelson
Marie Galbraith
Dr. Warren Perry
Moderator Kojo Nnamdi
Event Attributes
In the late 1700s, an African American captive named Fortune was enslaved by Dr. Preserved Porter, a bonesetter in Waterbury, Connecticut. Fortune died under mysterious circumstances at about age 60 and Dr. Porter prepared his skeleton to use as a teaching tool.
In this Creative Dialogue, four panelists will bring multiple perspectives to a discussion of Fortune's life and legacy. Poet Marilyn Nelson wrote Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem commemorating Fortune's life though a commission from the African American History Project Committee led by Maria Galbraith from the Mattatuck Museum in Connecticut. Ysaye Barnwell was commissioned by the Waterbury Symphony to set the poem to music. Warren Perry, Connecticut's State Anthropologist, was one of the first people to examine Fortune's Bones.