Freedom Schooner Amistad, will arrive in Charleston for Harbor Fest and Spoleto Festival USA on May 15th. Charleston, SC will be the first US port called by the ship since her departure from New England in June 2007. Since then, Amistad visited many ports during her Atlantic Freedom Tour, allowing many communities to interpret the Tour's motto : "Confronting The Past - Transforming  The Future".

Amistad's visit, together with the premiere of a newly-revised version of Anthony Davis' opera "Amistad" at Spoleto Festival USA, will give another chance for Lowcountry and Charleston to confront its history as a slave-trading city in a slave-owning state.

Here are more events related to Amistad, the ship, and "Amistad," the Spoleto opera:

• -- Amistad (the ship) will be anchored off Sullivan's Island during an afternoon remembrance ceremony there May 15. It will then be escorted to Charleston Maritime Center by three tall ships, including Spirit of South Carolina, and will be open for tours May 16-18, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15.

• -- Amistad (the ship) will be at dock for the Spoleto opera premiere and remain here until May 27.

• -- Thursday, May 22:  "Amistad" (the opera) composer, Anthony Davis, and director, Sam Helfrich, will talk with College of Charleston music professor, Trevor Weston; 5:30 p.m. Recital Hall, College of Charleston. Free.

• -- Sunday, May 25:  Martha Teichner will interview Davis and "Amistad" librettist, Thulani Davis. 5 p.m. Recital Hall, College of Charleston. Free.

• -- Monday, May 26:  Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis, along with author Josephine Humphreys and historian Bernard Powers, will talk about creating works of art based on historic events; Noon, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, 125 Bull St. Free.

• -- Saturday, May 31:  attorney Robert Rosen will lead a round-table discussion of the Amistad (the ship) court case; 3 p.m. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, 125 Bull St. Free.

• -- Gibbes Museum of Art will mount "Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art."

• -- Saturday, May 24

• -- Saturday, May 31
• -- Monday, June 2
• -- Saturday, June 7

• Tours of the Old Slave Mart Museum and walking tours will be led by historian Harlan Greene at 10 a.m. $10. Call 579-3100.

• -- Charleston County Public Library's Main Library will show a series of films related to Amistad (the ship) on the big screen. Free.

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