Enfilade

From the press release for the exhibition, recently covered by Jennifer Schuessler for The New York Times:

In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC, 13 December 2024 — 8 June 2025
Other venues will include museums in Belgium, Brazil, England, Senegal, and South Africa

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) recently unveiled its first international touring exhibition, In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World. Through powerful forms of artistic expressions, such as quilting, music and ironwork, the exhibition reveals healing traditions rooted in the resilience of enslaved people. Featuring more than 190 artifacts, 250 images, interactive stations, and newly commissioned artworks, In Slavery’s Wake offers a transformative space to honor these legacies of strength and creativity.

“This global exhibition is a profound journey through the African diaspora, reflecting on our shared history and envisioning a future shaped by resilience and freedom,” said Kevin Young, Andrew W. Mellon Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “It beautifully intertwines the past and present, inviting visitors to experience our heritage’s multilingual, multinational, and forward-looking spirit. This show reflects not just the impact of slavery but a celebration of the freedom-making efforts of the enslaved and abolitionists, embodying the humane and interconnected world we live in today.”

In Slavery’s Wake reckons with the impact of slavery and colonialism on present-day societies around the world and explores the often-overlooked efforts of the enslaved to force the end of slavery with legal emancipation and abolition as well as to provide a wellspring for descendants to draw upon to help create a better world for themselves and their communities through art, storytelling, music, protest, and communal healing. It delves into key questions about freedom and its expressions across six sections.

Organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Center for the Study of Global Slavery and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, the exhibition grew out of a decade-long collaboration between international curators, scholars, and community members who were committed to sharing stories of slavery and colonialism in public spaces. The collective worked across geographies, cultures, and languages, connecting the past and the present.

After its close in Washington, the exhibition will travel to museums in Belgium, Brazil, England, Senegal, and South Africa. Curatorial partners from each location contributed stories, objects and oral histories that reflect their local communities within this global history. It also incorporates a new collection of more than 150 oral histories filmed at each partner site, titled Unfinished Conversations. Voices from this international archive of everyday people’s memories and stories are featured throughout.

Paul Gardullo, Johanna Obenda, and Anthony Bogues, eds., with a foreword by Lonnie G. Bunch III, In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2024), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1588347794, $40.