Folger’s New Exhibition: Black Women and Shakespeare
The Folger Shakespeare Library’s new exhibition “To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare” (Oct. 16, 2026-May 2, 2027) opened to the public.
This is the first exhibition to capture the depth of Black women’s engagement with Shakespeare, from early modern London to the present day. The exhibition features nearly 100 objects, including costumes, illustrations, photographs, books, diaries, playbills, and posters, relating to the work of such notable figures as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Phillis Wheatley, and Ida B. Wells.
Their stories are presented alongside the artistry of actors like Adjoa Andoh (noted Shakespearean actor & director, who also plays Lady Danbury on Netflix’s Bridgerton), Mae Turner, and Esther Rolle and contemporary artists and designers such as Kennedi Carter, Suzanne Coley, and Melissa Simon-Hartman, whose credits include Afrofuturist costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (and for Beyoncé).
Curated by Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute, To Hear Her Speak reveals the incredible creative ingenuity of Black women as they embraced, responded to, and made Shakespeare’s language, characters, and stories their own for more than four centuries.
Accompanying the exhibition is a full-color catalog from ACMRS Press featuring essays by Akhimie, curatorial consultant Verónica Betancourt, Kim F. Hall, Ayanna Thompson, and many others.
We hope that you may share this new exhibition widely with your audiences, and we invite interested parties to contact us if we may help arrange timed entry passes and tours for the exhibition, arrange interviews with Dr. Akhimie, or share the advance reader copy of the catalog. Thank you for your interest and support, and please reach out with any questions.
Colleen Kennedy, PhD
Senior Communications Manager
Folger Shakespeare Library
ckennedy@folger.eduÂ