Ann Louise Chinn

I was born and grew up in Washington, DC, among family and friends with a strong awareness of history. Over the years I became a person who loves stories and the people who generate these narratives. Along the way I also realized that each of us is deeply entwined with a local and national heritage that can be traced through memory as well as knowledge. Textile art, social service, community organizing and historical research are the constants in my life.

Married to Charlie Cobb (journalist and author), I appreciate language, written and spoken. From my parents and many relatives, I learned the responsibility of honesty, humor and community.  Being a member of a diverse and ever-expanding family of three children, five grandchildren, and numerous cousins, I increasingly appreciate the role we all have in telling the story, in valuing who we are and who helped shaped us, and in acknowledging that process. This scaffolding enabled me to finally do two things in what I assume to be the final third portion of my life:

• Write a family history: Years in Telling (It’s in the Blood), and
• Establish in 2011 the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, a national non-profit organization dedicated to honoring African ancestors who experienced the Middle Passage – those who died and those who survived from whom we are descended. middlepassageproject.org

None of these endeavors are singular or mine exclusively. Each requires the efforts and contributions of many. For their participation and support I am grateful and indebted every day.