Meet National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Tara Roberts, the first Black female explorer ever to be featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine. On Sunday, April 13, Cal Poly Arts will present Tara Roberts: Written in the Waters, an event in the Performing Arts Center where she’ll discuss her memoir Written in the Water: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging, which chronicles her time exploring sunken slave ships.
When she “first saw a photograph at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture depicting the underwater archaeology group Diving With a Purpose, it called out to her,” organizers announced. “Roberts joined them—and started on a path of discovery more challenging and personal than she could ever have imagined. From the coasts of Senegal and South Africa to the waters of St. Croix and beyond, she confronted the Middle Passage’s harrowing history while uncovering her roots and exploring what it means to belong.”
Roberts will reflect “on the resilience of the human spirit, the importance of remembering the past, and the shared threads that connect us all.”
Tickets are $20 to $35 and available at pacslo.org. Δ
This article appears in Apr 10-20, 2025.