A walking reckoning with Portsmouth’s overlooked women — their courage written into the city’s streets

Portsmouth, New Hampshire sits where salt air meets brick and ship masts punctuate the skyline. 'Ain't She a Woman: Let Me Tell You Her Story' is a 90-minute walking tour that threads through Portsmouth's downtown to reveal the lives of African-born and African American women who shaped the city. Led by Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Valerie Fagin, the experience reads like a living history lesson delivered on narrow streets and under the shadow of Georgian gables.

The tour begins in the heart of the seaport and moves through Market Square, past brick row houses and quiet alleyways where children once played and activists organized. Key features include the colonial-era streets, historic façades of clapboard and brick, and the working waterfront that made Portsmouth prosperous. The storytelling focuses on women who faced enslavement, fought for justice, stood against presidents, and built schools - stories that are woven into the urban fabric: headstones, house markers, and the routes of old carriageways.

Unique elements here are not grand vistas but material details: narrow brick sidewalks, original cobblestones, ironwork, and maritime smells that connect you to the town's trading past. Those details act as evidence - archival clues that guide narration about labor, resistance, and community-building across centuries. A brief cultural note: Portsmouth emerged as a major colonial seaport, and its layered public record preserves overlapping histories of commerce, migration, and civic life. This tour stands out because it centers women's voices in a place usually framed by shipwrights and merchants.

Instead of architectural trivia alone, Valerie Fagin draws connections between place and person, animating ordinary storefronts as stages for extraordinary lives. Small-group size (about 20) keeps the tour intimate and allows time for questions, context, and connective detail. Practicalities are straightforward: the tour lasts 90 minutes, runs rain or shine, and requires walking on uneven sidewalks. Check-in details note: Tour leaves from office at 2pm. Please arrive 10 minutes prior to departure time. If you don't arrive 5 mintues before departure time, your spot may be given to another participant.

Ticket policies are strict - sales are final - but the operator will refund or reschedule only if the tour is canceled by staff for safety or illness. For travelers who want a history that foregrounds resilience, this walk is a precise, human-scaled counterpoint to standard colonial narratives. Expect emotive storytelling, compact urban terrain, and a renewed sense of how public space keeps memory alive. Bring comfortable shoes and a curiosity for overlooked stories; those who linger afterward often head to nearby Prescott Park or local cafés to continue conversations.

This tour is an education and an invitation to view Portsmouth through lives usually left at the margins - compact, rigorous, and openly emotional in equal measure. Book early for limited spaces.