The WaterFire lighting on Saturday, Oct. 4th 

is brought to you by

MetLife Auto & Home and Swarovski in partnership with the American Heart Association

with a contributing sponsor being The RISD Museum of Art

WaterFire Providence is presented on the three rivers in downtown Providence and will be lit shortly after sunset at 6:22 pm and remains lit until 12:30 pm.    

Weather Updates: 

(Updated: 10/1/08):  WaterFire tries to continue unless a major storm is forecast.  The weather for Saturday looks great: a beautiful sunny day with a clear cool evening.  Please check back often for regular updates on both weather and special events for this evening as the date becomes closer.

World Wide Day of Play:   

As part of a yearlong partnership with Swarovski to fight childhood obesity in Rhode Island, the American Heart Association and the luxury brand are co-sponsoring WaterFire Providence on Saturday, Sept. 27 - World Wide Day of Play - starting at 5 p.m.

Stop by the event’s tent on Steeple Street, which will be decorated with a red carpet and a Swarovski chandelier finished with ornaments and crystals.  Activities include kids’ yoga, demonstrations and play shops by World Freestyle Frisbee Champion Todd Brodeur and Hula Hoop Artist Charlene Moniz.  

The Ribbons of Light Program:

WaterFire volunteers will be giving out gifts of glowing blue Ribbons of Light in exchange for donations to support WaterFire.  WaterFire is an independent non-profit and your contribution is what Keeps the Fires Burning.  The volunteers are located along the river at stations marked by illuminated blue columns. Please make a donation to support WaterFire and keep the fires burning. Donations of $3, $5, $10 or more are much appreciated and allow us to keep offering this event for free.  All proceeds go to support WaterFire.  By wearing a glowing blue necklace you will become a part of the artwork and create a river of soft blue light flowing alongside the riverbanks.

Thank you for coming to WaterFire and thank you for your support!  Please realize that the commercial novelty vendors outside the park are not affiliated with WaterFire and your purchase there does not support WaterFire.  Further, many of those who attend WaterFire find the flashing, and strobing novelties they sell are disruptive and distracting and ruin the calm of the WaterFire evening. 

A Thousand Ships

A ritual of remembrance at WaterFire marking the bicentennial of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

An art installation by Barnaby Evans and The Museum on Site

In collaboration with the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theatre, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island for Community and Justice, and The Providence Black Repertory Company

Sponsored by Brown University’s Commission to Commemorate the History of Slavery in Rhode Island, WaterFire Providence and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities

At sunset this evening, four small boats travel up the river from the historic Providence harbor on the edge of the Atlantic.  Tens of thousands of people are gathered at WaterFire but many may not know the full history of the water by which they stand.

This is a night of remembrance—an occasion to celebrate the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, but also a night to acknowledge and mark Rhode Island’s century-long involvement with this trade.  Merchants from Rhode Island mounted more than a thousand slaveship voyages on these waters, carrying over 100,000 Africans into New World slavery.  One of these ships was called the Providence, and more slaveship voyages sailed from Rhode Island’s harbors than from any other state.

A Thousand Ships is a night for contemplation and recognition - a ritual observance acknowledging the state’s historic involvement with human bondage.  A night filled with music and silence, dance and stillness, fire and water.  Echoing a traditional African ritual, a thousand people will join together to offer a libation to the ancestors by pouring into the river and onto the ground a thousand vessels of water, each representing a slave voyage from Rhode Island.  Actors will walk through the crowds giving voice to historic figures from Rhode Island, sharing their stories of freedom and bondage and the struggle to abolish slavery and the slave trade.  Torches will be lit, the infamous triangle trade will be demarcated, chains will be burned and broken, and our entire community will gather together to remember, honor, watch, listen, and feel.

This event at WaterFire is dedicated to the memory and work of the late Professor Rhett S. Jones and begins the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities’ Freedom Festival, a month-long exploration of African-American heritage in Rhode Island.  A formal West African libation ceremony in honor of the late Rhett Jones will be poured by Professor Anani Dzidzienyo of the Brown University Department of Africana Studies.

A Thousand Ships will be a time for remembering, and a night to remember.  We cannot allow ourselves to forget.

Click here for the entire A Thousand Ships schedule.

The Unrighteous Traffick: Rhode Island’s Slave History

A Thousand Ships is part of a larger effort across the community to re-examine a troubling part Rhode Island History, we are pleased to be in partnership with the Providence Journal and link with their groundbreaking seven part series dedicated to documenting the extent of Rhode Island’s involvement with the slave trade for over 75 years.  This extraordinary series, written by Paul Davis, explores an important part of our history about which many of us are unaware. 

Click here to read "The Unrighteous Traffick: Rhode Island’s Slave History."

The WaterFire cranes!

Saturday, August 16th was our annual celebration where we introduced this year’s origami crane design.  Nearly 7000 hand-folded origami cranes were given away as gifts in partnership with our sponsor Fidelity Investments.  A few will be available tonight for those who missed them.  The origami crane is a symbol of peace and fidelity and are folded by the employees of Fidelity Investment in partnership with WaterFire as a gift to the community.

In commemoration of this annual event we are once again offering WaterFire’s special collectable porcelain origami cranes for sale.  The cranes are hand-made of traditional green celadon porcelain and each come in a fun special gift package with an explanatory booklet about WaterFire.  The cranes are available for $10 each at the WaterFire sales table in front of the RISD Auditorium (between Washington and College Street along the river).  They may also be ordered from WaterFire at (401) 273-1155, ext 141. The proceeds all go to support WaterFire.