Folger Library exhibition explores Black women and Shakespeare

In 1985, Maya Angelou declared during a keynote speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that William Shakespeare was a black woman, expressing a lifelong kinship with the playwright and stating that he wrote his emotionally desolate Sonnet 29 for her. Decades later, that conceptual connection forms the foundation of a new exhibition exploring more than 400 years of Black women engaging with the Bard’s work.

The Folger Exhibition Explores Four Centuries of Engagement

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC opened its exhibition, To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare. Curated by Folger Institute director Dr Patricia Akhimie, the display brings together nearly 100 items including photographs, playbills, books, diaries, illustrations, and costumes over more than two years of research.

The exhibition features video displays of notable Black actresses performing Shakespeare alongside a set replica of playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s living room, based on a 1959 Vogue photo spread. Visitors can sit on the couch to watch video clips of Hansberry and other Black women discussing Shakespeare or browse a mini-archive of related writings. Other interactive elements include writing activities, an exhibit-themed playlist featuring tracks by Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Billie Holiday, and SZA, and an audioguide narrated by Bridgerton star, Shakespearean actor and exhibition chair Adjoa Andoh.

Challenging Historical Erasures and Documentation Gaps

Akhimie stated that part of the exhibition’s aim is to debunk the myth that the London where Shakespeare lived and wrote was not a diverse place, noting that records of Black women’s engagement with Shakespeare largely disappeared around the 18th and 19th centuries during the height of the transatlantic slave trade.

To fill those historical silences, the research team gathered objects from the Folger collection and beyond to tell a story about Shakespeare, sugar, and slavery. Items on display include a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio purchased by a slave-owning British family, records of enslaved people forced to work on that family’s sugar plantation, a pair of sugar tongs and a tea caddy emblazoned with Shakespeare’s bust, and a copybook created by Phillis Wheatley, the formerly enslaved first Black American poet.

Black Female Artists Use Shakespeare for Inspiration

The exhibition also highlights works from influential Black female luminaries, including Toni Morrison’s handwritten notes on her Shakespearean play Desdemona. Named after Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130—long speculated by historians and literary scholars to have been written about a Black woman—the exhibition demonstrates how artists and thinkers have utilized Shakespeare’s cultural currency.

“Shakespeare has cultural currency. Shakespeare is a voice that people listen to,” Akhimie said, describing Shakespeare as a reliable partner for Black female artists seeking inspiration and allyship in a world where their voices have been systematically marginalized.