Last Updated on October 12, 2026
On October 16, 2026, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. will open To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare, the first exhibition to capture the depth of Black women’s engagement with Shakespeare, from early modern times 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, 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 and for Beyoncé’s visual album, Black is King.
Curated by Dr. Patricia Akhimie, Director of the Folger Institute, and grounded in more than two years of research, 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.
To Hear Her Speak will remain on view through May 2, 2027.
Additionally, as part of the Folger’s commitment to deepening knowledge about important works in its collection, the exhibition presents for the first time newly discovered provenance information about one of the most important objects in its holdings: First Folio 67, a copy from the first printing of Shakespeare’s works in 1623. The exhibition also marks the Folger’s largest and most ambitious temporary exhibition since opening its new galleries in 2024.
“We are applying a wide lens to Black women’s depictions in and engagement with Shakespeare, declaring both their presence and rightful place in artistic and literary histories,” said Akhimie. “The exhibition shows how Black women are represented—and misrepresented—through the eyes of early modern European artists and writers and reveals the extraordinary range of Black women who have embraced Shakespeare as a foundation for expressing their own voices, experiences, and artistic innovation. To Hear Her Speak features an expansive range of interpretations and creative forms that will compel Shakespeare lovers and those new to his world.”
Named with a line from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, To Hear Her Speak is loosely organized in four sections. One section maps the presence of Black women in the 16th and 17th centuries S, highlighting the diversity of early modern London, offering glimpses of their lives and experiences, and reflecting on their presentation within Shakespeare’s work. This section dovetails with another that explores the history of the First Folio as a status symbol at the height of the transatlantic slave trade.
Moving into more contemporary time, the exhibition details the stories of Black women who have performed Shakespeare and supported the experience of those performances through other creative roles such as costume design, including Simon-Hartman’s show-stopping golden wings from Hero’s costume for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2022 production of Much Ado About Nothing.
The exhibition concludes with the authors, artists, and playwrights who have drawn inspiration from Shakespeare or included him in their work. This includes Morrison’s handwritten notes on her play Desdemona; a playbill from Angelou’s production of Macbeth at Wake Forest University; works from Carter’s series Flexing/New Realm, which depict Black women of the 21st century dressed in clothing reminiscent of Elizabethancourtiers, and Baltimore-based artist Suzanne Coley’s books of Shakespeare’s sonnets created with her own bindings, beadwork, and embroidery, among numerous other rare and dynamic objects.
“This exhibition will lay to rest any question of whether Black women have had a long history of engagement with and affection for Shakespeare and it does so with impressive clarity,” said Folger Shakespeare Library Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper. “The strength of the research is evident from Patricia’s presentation of Shakespeare’s London to the present day, and she’s inviting audiences to follow this narrative through an array of beautiful and profound works that showcase the creativity and brilliance of Black women who were in a mighty dialogue with Shakespeare.”
First Folio: New Revelations
Through in-depth research and with the support of colleagues, Akhimie was able to confirm that First Folio 67 from the Folger’s collection of First Folios was owned by the Fitzherbert family. Sir William Fitzherbert, a wealthy baronet, acquired the First Folio in 1780 around the same time that he acquired Turner’s Hall, a sugar plantation in Barbados that depended on enslaved labor. At this time, as the British Empire was rapidly expanding, Shakespeare became a chief cultural export, making the First Folios a valuable status symbol. First Folio 67 remained in the Fitzherbert family until Henry and Emily Folger purchased it at auction in 1924.
Copies of a handwritten records of enslaved people forced to work at Turner’s Hall, will be on view with the Folio, reflecting this important history for the first time. A copybook created by Phillis Wheatley, the first Black American author to publish a book of poetry in 1773, will also be on view adjacent to First Folio 67.
“The women whose lives are represented in the show have never been linked together in this way. This approach both asserts their humanity and tells a new story about why Shakespeare and the humanities are essential to us all,” said Akhimie.
Exhibition Experience
The exhibition is designed by Little Wing Lee and her practice Studio & Projects, whose credits also include work at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. An audio guide narrated by Shakespearean actress and director Adjoa Andoh MBE, the Folger’s inaugural Director’s Resident who is best known for her role as Lady Danbury on Netflix’s Bridgerton, will be available on the Folger’s Bloomberg Connects Guide for visitors.
The audio guide will also feature additional insights from Akhimie and scholars Kim F. Hall and Joyce Green MacDonald.
Visitors to To Hear Her Speak will also have moments for hands-on experience, with an interactive table where activities like writing, embossing, and copying inspirational texts will be available throughout the run of the exhibition. One area will feature a living room designed to evoke Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 Greenwich Village apartment, with a screen made to look like a vintage television set. The video screen will loop clips of Hansberry and others talking about Shakespeare and their own creative practices. Another video display will offer clips of performances by notable Black actors from the 1930s through the present.
The show will also feature a reading area with books to browse that effectively serves as a miniature archive of centuries of writing related to Shakespeare and Black women’s scholarship, creative writing, music, performance, and visual arts.
To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare will be on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC from October 16, 2026, through May 2, 2027. A $15 donation supports the Folger’s programming.
About Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library showcases the utility of Shakespeare and the humanities in cultivating healthy civic life. Anchored by the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is also home to a world-renowned collection of books, manuscripts, and prints from the 1500s to the early 1700s.
Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from pathbreaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger fosters curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, and welcomes visitors from Washington, DC and from across the globe.
Learn more at folger.edu.
