The Inner Passage: Presidential Conversation and Artist Reception

Event Details

The National Humanities Center will celebrate the opening of its new exhibit, The Inner Passage, with a public conversation between the artist Virginia McGee Richards and NHC President Blair LM Kelley, followed by a reception.

In their conversation, Richards and Kelley will discuss the striking landscapes and stories surrounding the Inner Passage, the network of canals constructed by enslaved people in the Lowcountry of South Carolina in the early 1700s. These canals, documented by Richards in The Inner Passage: An Untold Story of Black Resistance Along a Southern Waterway (2026) not only facilitated the region’s plantation economy, but also were used for over a century by enslaved people seeking freedom in Spanish Florida.

About the Artist

Virginia McGee Richards is a photographer, historian, and former environmental lawyer whose work explores landscape as a living archive. Born and raised in the Carolinas, she grew up immersed in Southern geographies and rural life—formative experiences that anchor her artistic practice. “Landscapes are like manuscripts,” she notes. “They record, they hold, and they can render histories—even in the absence of documents.” Her work has been published in Smithsonian magazine, the William & Mary Quarterly, the MIT Press Reader, Now Voyager and The Inner Passage; An Untold Story of Black Resistance Along a Southern Waterway (MIT Press, 2026).

Presented in partnership with the Research Triangle Foundation