Harvest: holding and trading is a limited edition artists’ book containing screenprint monotype studies printed on crepe de chine, organza, silk, and cotton. The work is the result of extensive research on the African slave trade within Providence, Rhode Island. Blassingame described her process of tracing the experience of the African men and women living in Providence writing:

“I had collected leaves for several months along Benefit Street, a one-mile-long street in Providence, Rhode Island. I explored how the leaves might serve to represent the countless African slaves rendered invisible and lost. I was struck by how the brilliant autumn display of changing leaves provided us with a shared experience, and I pondered how this splendid display might have temporarily suspended their homesickness, humiliation, and sorrow of being a slave in Rhode Island.” 

The studies involved screenprinting the collected leaves up to eleven times and treated with paint, wax, and pigment. Images and text are the reinterpreted and reimagined product of research conducted at the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University.