The Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum presents “’She Speaks’: Black Women Artists and the Power of Historical Memory,” an exhibition examining 250 years of U.S. history through a Black Feminist lens.

Featured artists include: Elizabeth Catlett, Dr. Joan M.E. Gaither, Charlyn Griffith-Oro, Khaleelah I. L. Harris, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Jeannine Kayembe-Oro, Zsudayka Nzinga, Ada Pinkston, Beverly Price, Faith Ringgold, Noreen Smith, Darlene R. Taylor, Jessica Valoris, Savannah Wood, and Alisha B. Wormsley.

Through a diverse range of media—including collage, painting, print, photography, textile, installation, and time-based media—“She Speaks” acknowledges Black women as active participants in the making of this country rather than passive bystanders, highlighting artists who operate as historians, archivists, and scholars to tell their stories.

Presented alongside rarely seen archival materials and family heirlooms, the exhibition highlights the pivotal role Black women have played in shaping and preserving this nation since the Revolutionary era, while envisioning liberated futures through cosmic speculation.

“She Speaks” opens to the public with an Opening Reception and Black History Month celebration on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The exhibition remains on view through January 16, 2027. Interpretive programming throughout the year engages visitors with themes of history, memory, resistance, and Black women’s enduring contributions to the nation’s cultural and civic life.