Current Events

2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery. Inaugurated on 25 March 2012, it is the only memorial dedicated to slavery in mainland France. Designed by artists Julian Bonder (...)

Still today, historians are unable to agree on the number of victims resulting from the transatlantic slave trade. With so many documents missing, it is impossible to arrive at an exact figure; and yet, th (...)

The City of Nantes is issuing call for proposals to anyone interested that would enrich programming for organizing the commemoration on May 10. The purpose is to support associated initiatives that communi (...)

Take advantage of the Heritage Day to come and (re)discover The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery : You will be welcomed by a facilitator on Sunday, September 17 from 14:00-17:00.

Gerty Dambury is the Guest of Honor of the City of Nantes Gerty Dambury is a playwright, short story author, poet and novelist, actress and director. She was born in Pointe-à-Pitre in 1957 and studied at (...)

Isabelle Boni-Claverie, Guest of Honor of the City of Nantes A scriptwriter and director for film and television, she is the granddaughter of Alphonse Boni, a citizen of the Ivory Coast who acquired French (...)

The program of Les Portes du Temps 2015 was co-created by two major players in Nantes’ cultural heritage (the Château des Ducs de Bretagne and the Department of Heritage and Archaeology), as well as by (...)

By Emmanuelle Chérel, Marie-Hélène Jouzeau and Françoise Vergès Freedom ! This word, which is repeated in several languages in the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery, reveals the profound and insati (...)

Nicola Lo Calzo The Square of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery from May 10 to September 30, 2015 The Maroon people settled in the region of Guiana in the 18thCentury. The “Maroons” – slav (...)

Angela Davis, Guest of Honor of the City of Nantes The City invited Angela Davis, the great Afro-American intellectual and activist and a major figure in the civil rights movement in the 1970s who remains (...)

Square of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery, May 10 to September 21, 2014. 1804-2014: The 210th anniversary of the birth of the Republic of Haiti. This key historical event crowned the slave insurre (...)

Homage to Haiti The Haitian Revolution, which began in 1791, was one of the greatest revolutions of the 18th Century, contributing to movements to abolish the slave trade and colonial slavery. It resulted (...)

An architecture of remembrance June 7 and 8, 2013 Auditorium of the École Nationale Supérieure of Architecture of Nantes These events united architects and artists who designed and carried out projects w (...)

Portraits of women struggling against colonial slavery Square of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery, May 10-September 15, 2013 For the May 10 events the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery welcomed (...)

Carole Alston, Guest of Honor After completing her studies in dance, drama and singing at the Howard University College of Fine Arts (Washington D.C.), Carole Alston found work in Switzerland and toured Eu (...)

Léonora Miano, Guest of Honor Léonora Miano was born in 1973, in Douala, Cameroun. In 1991, she moved to France to pursue her literary studies. She began writing when she was 8 and defines herself as a � (...)

Report by Vincent Douet.

Julian Bonder and Kristof Wodiczko received a special mention at the European Prize for Urban Public Space, in April 2012, for designing the Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery. In all, 2,347 proposals f (...)

March 22, 23 and 24, 2012 During the inauguration of the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes the first International Meetings of the Memorial took place at the Château des Ducs de Bretagne on M (...)