Illuminating BLACKTIVISTS

InLight 2023: Reflection and Refraction
Richmond, Virginia’s Downtown Arts District
1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA
Curated by Dr. Tiffany E. Barber and Ra-Twoine Fields.

Hand-printed silkscreen prints on black Legion Stonehenge paper, black ink, extra fine black glitter, black wood frames, black vinyl window film

“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, or a party or a class,—it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”
—Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice From the South, 1892

Illuminating BLACKTIVISTS detours from an ongoing artwork consisting of silkscreened portraits that depict relatively unknown and unstudied Black women activists. The term “activist” is defined as an energetic and vigorous advocate of a cause, especially a political one. “BLACKTIVISTS” is a hybrid term created by combining the words BLACK and ACTIVISTS.

The majority of these women were born during the time of enslavement in the US, and a few were enslaved at birth. Yet despite and/or because of their social circumstances, these women championed human rights for African Americans when their own racialized and gendered existence remained in jeopardy.