My name is Marissa King Arterberry. I'm a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and this blog is intended as a place to organize and share the story of my family's heritage. That story is too powerful and beautiful to be relegated to a few dusty boxes and albums in my closet. It is also my hope that other members of these families searching will find this information useful and it can fill in the gaps of their own research, and hopefully you can fill in some for me! If you would like to share info., have research tips or resources (I'm learning as I go, so it's all helpful!) please feel free to contact me at: MarissaArterberry@gmail.com
As an African American woman, this quest feels special and also very challenging. So much of our history was lost or improperly documented, or repressed. Reclaiming it is empowering. I can still recall my very first quest to know came as a little girl. I asked my mother where exactly we came from in Africa. She told me that because of slavery, it was hard to know. I have vivid memories of going to the world map that hung in our home, and studying the continent of Africa intently. I would recite the names of the countries to myself over and over again, and the one that felt the strongest to me--the one that resonated in my bones--would be the country I was from. Naturally, this changed week to week! All that is to say I feel like I've been on this journey since I was very little. It means so much to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment