Folger Debuts Exhibition on Black Women and Shakespeare — SkimNews
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- Dr. Patricia Akhimie, director of the Folger Institute, curated "To Hear Her Speak" at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC — the first exhibition to collectively explore 400+ years of Black women's engagement with Shakespeare.
- Built from more than two years of research, the exhibition contains nearly 100 items including a replica of playwright Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 New York City living room, Phillis Wheatley's copybook, and Toni Morrison's handwritten notes on her play Desdemona.
- The show draws its title from Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, long speculated by historians and literary scholars to have been written about a Black woman, and includes video displays of notable Black actresses performing Shakespeare throughout history.
- Maya Angelou declared in a 1985 keynote speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that "William Shakespeare was a black woman," citing Sonnet 29's depiction of "the harsh realities of the Black feminine condition" as evidence of a kinship she felt throughout her life.
- Research accompanying the exhibit debunks the myth that Shakespeare's London was not diverse, while documenting how records of Black women's engagement disappeared during the 18th and 19th centuries — a period coinciding with the height of the transatlantic slave trade.
- Objects in the exhibition tell what Akhimie calls a story of "Shakespeare, sugar, and slavery," including a First Folio owned by a slave-owning British family, records of the enslaved people who worked their sugar plantation, and sugar tongs emblazoned with Shakespeare's bust.
- Adjoa Andoh, the Shakespearean actor known for Bridgerton and serving as exhibition chair, narrates the audioguide; the show also features an interactive playlist spanning Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Billie Holiday, and SZA, and runs through May 2, 2027.
Why it matters: By collecting nearly 100 artefacts spanning four centuries of marginalization, the Folger gives institutional weight to a literary lineage that Akhimie calls strategic: Black women have used Shakespeare's "cultural currency" for 400 years to amplify voices that white European culture systematically suppressed. The exhibition is open through May 2, 2027, giving scholars and visitors access to materials — including records tied to slave-owning families — that reshape how Shakespeare's era and afterlife are taught.
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