“The Reckoning project is a profound and beautiful invitation for us to see and bear witness—not just to the pain under and through which Black people have languished, but the expansive ways that Black people and a range of artists have insisted on Black humanity and survival,” said Michelle D. Commander, the book’s editor and NMAAHC’s deputy director.

The book’s foreword is by Young. Contributors include Commander; Aaron Bryant, curator of photography at NMAAHC; Bisa Butler, textile artist; Tuliza Fleming, curator of visual arts at NMAAHC; Amy Sherald, painter and portraitist; and Deborah Willis, university professor and chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Published by Rizzoli Electa, Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience. retails for $55 and will be available online at nmaahc.si.edu/publications.

About the “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.” Exhibition

The exhibition space explores the ongoing struggles Black Americans have faced in their pursuit to enjoy the fundamental rights and freedoms promised in the Constitution. Visitors to the exhibition can view the nation’s complex history of race and class through the artwork and images depicting a broad African American response to racism, systems of oppression and the ongoing reckoning in America. Drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, the featured works respond to the dual crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism that shaped 2020, a period that has been called one of reckoning, as the world witnessed the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans, leading to some of the largest protests in U.S. history. For more details, visit nmaahc.si.edu/Reckoning.

About the National Museum of African American History and Culture 

Since opening Sept. 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has welcomed 11 million in-person visitors and millions more through its digital presence. Occupying a prominent location next to the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the nearly 400,000-square-foot museum is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. The museum has also launched and is continually expanding its reach with the Searchable Museum portal and other efforts to bring African American history into the world’s hands and homes. For more information about the museum, visit nmaahc.si.edu, follow @NMAAHC on X, Facebook and Instagram or call Smithsonian information at (202) 633-1000. 

# # #

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture