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The Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture is collaborating with the National Portrait Gallery on an intriguing inaugural exhibition of photographic portraits of African Americans. Selected by guest curator and photography historian Deborah Willis, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits explores the medium’s influential role in shaping public identity and individual notions of race and status over the past 150 years.
The exhibition's title was inspired by the rallying cry of celebrated abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) who challenged the "slaves of the United States of America" to rise up and emancipate themselves. "Let your motto be resistance!," he exclaimed. "Resistance! Resistance! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance!"
 The portrait subjects come from many sectors of the African American community, from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Edmonia Lewis, to W.E.B. Du Bois, Lorraine Hansberry, and Wynton Marsalis. Among the featured photographers who employ a variety of strategies to create their powerful images are Mathew Brady, Berenice Abbott, James VanDerZee, Doris Ulmann, Edward Weston, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, and Carl Van Vechten.
Following the exhibition’s presentation at the International Center for Photography and the National Portrait Gallery, SITES will circulate a traveling version of 70 matted and framed modern prints.
>> Visit the exhibition's website
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| Contents |
69 matted and framed black-and-white photographs, text panels, labels |
| Supplemental |
Companion book, educational and promotional resources |
| Participation Fee |
$5,000 per 12-week booking period, plus outgoing shipping |
| Size |
350 running feet |
| Crates |
6, est. |
| Weight |
To be determined |
| Category |
History & Culture |
| Security |
Limited, with light restrictions |
| Shipping |
Outgoing |
| SITES Contacts |
Shavonne Harding, 202.633.3138 (Scheduling)
Deborah Macanic, 202.633.3101 (Content) |
| Tour Through |
2012 |
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| Dates |
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Host Institution |
Status |
| 6/26/08 |
9/14/08 |
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA |
Booked |
| 10/25/08 |
3/1/09 |
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI |
Booked |
| 3/21/09 |
6/14/09 |
Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA |
Booked |
| 7/4/09 |
9/27/09 |
Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton, NJ |
Booked |
| 10/17/09 |
1/10/10 |
Museum of African American History, Boston, MA |
Booked |
| 1/30/10 |
4/25/10 |
Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, GA |
Booked |
| 5/15/10 |
8/8/10 |
African American Performing Arts Center, Albuquerque, NM |
Booked |
| 8/28/10 |
11/21/10 |
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL |
Booked |
| 12/11/10 |
3/6/11 |
DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL |
Booked |
| 3/26/11 |
6/19/11 |
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH |
Booked |
| 7/9/11 |
10/2/11 |
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, VA |
Booked |
| 10/22/11 |
1/15/12 |
Museum of Art, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC |
Booked |
| 2/4/12 |
4/29/12 |
Historical Society of Saginaw County and the Castle Museum, Saginaw, MI |
Booked |
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Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits (Hardcover).
Exhibition catalogue
by Deborah Willis
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| None listed at this time. Please check back later. |
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