Views and Voices: Lucia Momoh on a Portrait of Sojourner Truth
At a time of distance, our audio series Views and Voices: Personal Perspectives on the Collection is designed to bring you closer to the individual people behind BAMPFA and individual works from our art and film collections. We’ve invited staff and students with ties to BAMPFA to select a favorite piece and talk about what makes it compelling or important to them.
BAMPFA Curatorial Assistant Lucia Olubunmi Momoh looks at a compelling photographic portrait—specifically, a carte de visite—of abolitionist, suffragist, and American civil rights icon Sojourner Truth. She discusses the image in relation to Truth's life and work, as well as to contemporary social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. Momoh, who co-chairs BAMPFA’s Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion task force, envisions her professional museum work as an extension of her social and environmental activism.
Unknown Artist: Captioned carte de visite of Sojourner Truth, 1864; albumen print mounted on cardboard; 4 x 2 1/2 in. (approx.); BAMPFA, gift of Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby.
