Ancestral Bridges

What does it mean to be revolutionary?

Explore this question through art, style, and sound: follow the drumbeat through Ancestral Bridges, experiencing sculptures evoking traditional African metal smiths, watercolors capturing vibrant pine trees and waterways, and the determination of ancestors to make something out of nothing.

REVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES
July 2026 - MAY 2027

Ancestral Bridges
29A Cottage Street
Amherst, Massachusetts
ancestral-bridges.org

✨WHERE WE WALK | A Short Film

The Ancestral Bridges living archive & museum serves as a mirror to the dominant local narrative that frames the establishment of Amherst’s Black community as primarily a 1970s development, with a few others brought to town long ago by Amherst College and UMass Amherst as first students, faculty, and custodians. These narratives, rooted in settler archives, lack connection to the community and erase Amherst's Black and Afro-Indigenous roots that predate both our town’s and nation's foundations. Yet, our stories are alive and carry forward against all odds, reflecting the truth found in towns, cities, and states across the nation and beyond.

Ancestral Bridges is not named for our Bridges family line; it represents connection, bridges, to people and places often unseen, even those unjustly deemed extinct.

➡️ Join us on Sunday, June 14, for the 6th Annual Juneteenth legacy celebration. This year's event includes a spiced-up presentation by the Brace 54th reenactors and a special proclamation at West Cemetery from Reedy Chapel ÂME in Galveston, TX, where members of the 5th Cavalry, including our Amherst soldiers, stood to read General Order No. 3 during the time we now celebrate as Juneteenth.

Visit https://www.ancestral-bridges.org/events for more.

🎬 Directed by Ginelle Bamfo
🎞️ Cinematography and editing by Sheeya Jayabharathi
🔊 On-site sound by Callie Chen Schultz
✍🏾 Produced, written, and narrated by Christina Miles

WHERE WE WALK | A Short Film "WHERE WE WALK" | A Short Film by Ancestral BridgesA short film ...