online: www.rihumanities.org email: info@rihumanities.org phone: 401-273-2250
This presentation focuses on several local ghost stories and how they overlap and connect with real history. Providence native Rory Raven grew up hearing stories told by his Irish family. When he fell sick with one of the childhood ailments, his family's cure was to keep the sick child in a dark room for a few days. During that time, one of his sisters crept into the room to read him Edgar Allan Poe by flashlight. He feels this was a formative experience. His approach is more popular, historic, and folkloric than academic or "paranormal."
Rory Raven created the Providence Ghost Walk in 2000, a walking tour through the haunted history of Providence, where he passes on many of the stories he has collected about the spookier side of the city.