The 2019 ceremony takes on much added significance from this being the landmark 400th anniversary year of the fateful 1619 arrival of the first “20 and odd” captive Africans in British-occupied Native North America, in the fledgling colony of Virginia: an occasion for reflection, study, and assessment of what 20 generations of the African presence since that time in what would become the United States has meant to the world.

Now in its 28th year, the Miami event honors the memory of all of those millions who endured the unspeakable horrors of the Middle Passage, as the so-called “slave trade” was known, including those who died even before they could be sold to the ships, between the point of their capture and their imprisonment in coastal dungeons and warehouses; the untold numbers who perished at sea; and those who survived to give life to future generations.

Though nameless and faceless to human memory, the unquiet spirits of those countless lives-that-mattered are not forgotten, nor are those of the Native Ancestors of this land, whose timeless wise stewardship of it has enabled it to nurture us today, and whose genocidal “removal” by colonial invaders was inseparable from the saga of slavery.

Park gates will open at 5:30 a.m. and the ceremony will begin, as always, with a Native American Opening Blessing, followed by a traditional African pouring of libation, prayers from diverse cultures, performances, special remembrances, and open-mic “Village Talk” for the sharing of positive thoughts, insights and information, before concluding with the placement of offerings to be carried out to sea, after which there is informal family gathering, fellowship, and sharing of refreshments.

Participants are invited (but not required) to bring offerings of fruits, flowers, grains, nuts, eggs, yams, and other appropriate food and cultural items that do not harm the natural environment.