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We Were There. We Are Here. We Are In the Future.

Tanekeya Word American
Printer Du-Good Press American
Publisher Du-Good Press American
2020
Not on view
Word draws on womanism in her work, a theory that engages the histories and experiences of Black women; the term itself was coined by Alice Walker. This poster depicts a woman in profile, her headwrap and top inscribed with the names of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Black women reformers, including those who led the African American women’s club movement and fought for voting rights for Black women and men. The image was inspired by the cover of Homecoming (1969), a book of poems by writer, scholar, and activist Sonia Sanchez. The designer, Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, often included pin-back buttons in his work. In homage of this, Word included one such button on the figure’s top, left blank to invite our participation.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: We Were There. We Are Here. We Are In the Future.
  • Artist: Tanekeya Word (American, active Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born 1983)
  • Printer: Du-Good Press
  • Publisher: Du-Good Press
  • Date: 2020
  • Medium: Screenprint
  • Dimensions: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
  • Classification: Posters
  • Credit Line: John B. Turner Fund, 2020
  • Object Number: 2021.59
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Tanekeya Word
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Starshine & Clay, Tanekeya Word American, Linocut, gouache, acrylic ink, decorative paper collage
Starshine & Clay
Tanekeya Word
2019
"not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page one" / "not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page two" / "not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page three," from "Lore: What We Were Told / What We Saw / What We Tell Ourselves", Tanekeya Word American, Linocut and monoprint with chine collé and hand painting on embossed paper
"not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page one" / "not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page two" / "not your great, great grandmother’s fairytale: page three," from "Lore: What We Were Told / What We Saw / What We Tell Ourselves"
Tanekeya Word
Black Women of Print
2023
He Disappeared into Complete Silence, Louise Bourgeois American, Engraving and drypoint with letterpress in a linen portfolio cover
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Usuyuki, Jasper Johns American, Screenprint
Usuyuki
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1981
Night, Sarah Sze American, Lithograph in colors with screenprint
Night
Sarah Sze
LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University
2003

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