To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare

For centuries, Black women have claimed Shakespeare, reshaping his words to assert their humanity, creativity, and power. To Hear Her Speak brings these voices into focus for the first time.

Curated by Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute, this landmark exhibition explores the histories of Black women in Shakespearean performance and highlights the ways in which Black women have engaged Shakespeare’s language, stories, and characters in their work.

To Hear Her Speak also builds on new research about the presence of Black women in early modern Europe, and shows how they were represented (and misrepresented) by artists and writers of the day, including Shakespeare, whose Sonnet 130 inspired the exhibition’s title.

Nearly 100 objects ranging from photographs, playbills, posters, books, diaries, illustrations, and costumes draw from the Folger collection as well as key loans. Together, they document the stories of Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry, Mae Turner, Esther Rolle, Phillis Wheatley, and many others.

To Hear Her Speak invites visitors to listen closely to the Black women who have used Shakespeare to shape careers, challenge exclusion, and insist upon their place in history. As actors, scholars, authors, artists, musicians, directors, and so much more—Black women have spoken Shakespeare’s words into new possibilities.