December 1, 2011 – I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception for the important and fabulous exhibition “Her Word As Witness: Portraits of Women Writers of the African Diaspora” Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

The exhibit documents a dynamic group of women writers, artists, and publishing professionals. On view at Skylight Gallery at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration in Brooklyn, it is not to be missed.

Her Word As Witness: Portraits of Women Writers of the African Diaspora
Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
On View: December 1, 2011 – March 31, 2012

Her Word As Witness is an exhibition of photographic portraits of a diverse group of contemporary women writers, celebrating their ability to incite our imagination, to expand our vision, to investigate and to document. Novelists, poets, journalists, and songwriters, these women of letters are also daughters of the Diaspora; cocoa, crimson, amber, ginger-toned. Their stories are born in tongues of Kreyòl, English, patois, Spanish, Twi, Gullah/Geechee. They use the pen to witness for their lives and the lives of those around them.

The Writers:
Malaika Adero ■ Elizabeth Alexander ■ Tomika Anderson ■ asha bandele ■ Kristal Brent Zook ■ Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond ■ Raquel Cepeda ■ Kandia Crazy Horse ■ Edwidge Danticat ■ Tananarive Due ■ Coco Fusco ■ Carolina Gonzalez ■ Karen Good Marable ■ Farah Jasmine Griffin ■ Tayari Jones ■ Juleyka Lantigua-Williams ■ Demetria L. Lucas ■ Dominga Martin ■ Kierna Mayo ■ Bernice L. McFadden ■ Nekesa Moody ■ jessica Care moore ■ Joan Morgan ■ Jill Nelson ■ Liza Jessie Peterson ■ Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts ■ Sonia Sanchez ■ Danyel Smith ■ Akiba Solomon ■ Esperanza Spalding ■ Mecca Jamilah Sullivan ■ Susan L. Taylor ■ Hanifah Walidah ■ Terrie Williams ■ Ibi Aanu Zoboi ■ Nana Camille Yarbrough

Skylight Gallery
1368 Fulton Street
between Brooklyn and New York Avenues
Brooklyn, New York 11216

photo credit: WideVision Photography/Marcia E. Wilson