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Representation matters.

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Authentic representations of women matter.

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I think that too often,
our public representations of women

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are enveloped in the language
of the extraordinary.

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The first American woman
to become a self-made millionaire:

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Madam C. J. Walker ...

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The dresses of the first ladies
of the United States ...

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Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to seek

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the US Democratic party's
presidential nomination --

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(Applause)

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As a museum curator,

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I understand why these stories
are so seductive.

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Exceptional women
are inspiring and aspirational.

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But those stories are limiting.

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By definition, being extraordinary
is nonrepresentative.

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It's atypical.

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Those stories do not create a broad base
for incorporating women's history,

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and they don't reflect
our daily realities.

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If we can collectively apply
that radical notion

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that women are people,

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it becomes easier to show
women as people are:

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familiar, diverse, present.

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In everyone's everyday throughout history,

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women exist positively --

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not as a matter of interpretation,
but as a matter of fact.

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And beyond a more accurate
representation of human life,

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including women considers
the quotidian experiences

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of the almost 3.8 billion people
identified as female on this planet.

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In this now notorious museum scene
from the "Black Panther" movie,

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a white curator erroneously
explains an artifact

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to Michael B. Jordan's
character seen here,

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an artifact from his own culture.

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This fictional scene caused
real debates in our museum communities

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about who is shaping the narratives
and the bias that those narratives hold.

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Museums are actually rated

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one of the most trustworthy sources
of information in the United States,

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and with hundreds of millions of visitors
from all over the world,

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we should tell accurate histories,

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but we don't.

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There is a movement
from within museums themselves

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to help combat this bias.

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The simple acknowledgment
that museums are not neutral.

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Museums are didactic.

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Through the display of art and artifacts,

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we can incite creativity
and foster inclusion,

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but we are guilty
of historical misrepresentation.

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Our male-centered histories
have left our herstories hidden.

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And there are hard truths
about being a woman,

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especially a woman of color
in this industry,

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that prevents us from centering
inclusive examples of women's lives.

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Museum leadership:

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predominantly white and male,

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despite women comprising
some 60 percent of museum staffs.

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Pipelines to leadership
for women are bleak --

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bleakest for women of color.

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And the presence of women
does not in and of itself guarantee

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an increase in women's
public representation.

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Not all women are gender equity allies.

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In the words of feminist
theorist bell hooks,

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"Patriarchy has no gender."

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Women can support the system of patriarchy

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just as men can support
the fight for gender equity.

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And we often downplay
the importance of intersectionality.

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Marian Anderson was one of the most
celebrated voices of the 20th century,

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and the Smithsonian
collected her 1939 outfit.

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After the white Daughters of
the American Revolution denied her access

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to sing in Constitution Hall,
because she was black,

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she famously sang instead
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,

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to a crowd of over 75,000 people.

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And in libraries all over,
including museums,

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you can still find the groundbreaking
1982 anthology, entitled

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"All the Women Are White,

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All the Blacks Are Men,

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But Some of Us Are Brave."

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Demands for the increase
of women's representation

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does not automatically include
Afro-Latinas like me ...

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or immigrant women,
or Asian women, or Native women,

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or trans women, or undocumented women,

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or women over 65, or girls --

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the list can go on and on and on.

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So what do we do?

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Targeted initiatives
have helped incorporate perspectives

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that should have always been included.

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I arrived at the Smithsonian
through a Latino curatorial initiative

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whose hiring of Latinx curators,

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mostly women, by the way,

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has raised the profile for Latinx
narratives across our institution.

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And it served as a model

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for our much larger Smithsonian
American Women's History Initiative,

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which seeks to amplify diverse
representations of women

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in every possible way,

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so that women show up,

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not only in the imagery
of our contemporary realities,

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but in our historical representations,

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because we've always been here.

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Right now though, in 2018,
I can still walk into professional spaces

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and be the only --

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the only person under 40,
the only black person,

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the only black woman, the only Latina,

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sometimes, the only woman.

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My mother is African-American
and my father is Afro-Panamanian.

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I am so proudly and inextricably both.

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As an Afro-Latina, I'm one of millions.

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As an Afro-Latina curator,
I'm one of very few.

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And bringing my whole self
into the professional realm

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can feel like an act of bravery,

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and I'll admit to you that I was
not always up for that challenge,

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whether from fear of rejection
or self-preservation.

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In meetings, I would only speak up

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when I had a fully developed
comment to share.

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No audible brainstorming
or riffing off of colleagues.

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For a long time,

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I denied myself the joy of wearing
my beloved hoop earrings

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or nameplate necklace to work,

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thinking that they were too loud
or unscholarly or unprofessional.

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(Laughter)

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I wondered how people
would react to my natural hair,

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or if they viewed me as more acceptable
or less authentic when I straightened it.

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And anyone who has felt outside
of mainstream representations

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understands that there are basic elements
just of our everyday being

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that can make other people uncomfortable.

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But because I am passionate

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about the everyday representation
of women as we are,

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I stopped presenting an inauthentic
representation of myself or my work.

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And I have been tested.

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This is me pointing
at my hoop earring in my office --

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(Laughter)

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Just last month, I was invited to keynote
a Latino Heritage Month event.

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The week of the presentation,
the organization expressed concerns.

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They called my slides "activist,"

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and they meant that negatively.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Two days before the presentation,

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they requested that I not show
a two-minute video affirming natural hair,

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because "it may create a barrier
to the learning process

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for some of the participants."

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(Laughter)

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That poem, "Hair," was written
and performed by Elizabeth Acevedo,

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a Dominican-American
2018 National Book Award winner,

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and it appeared in an award-winning
Smithsonian exhibit that I curated.

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I canceled the talk,

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explaining to them that their censorship
of me and my work made me uncomfortable.

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(Applause and cheers)

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Respectability politics
and idealized femininity

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influence how we display women

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and which women we choose to display.

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And that display has skewed
toward successful and extraordinary

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and reputable and desirable,

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which maintains the systemic exclusion

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and marginalization of the everyday,
the regular, the underrepresented

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and usually, the nonwhite.

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As a museum curator, I am empowered
to change that narrative.

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I research, collect and interpret
objects and images of significance.

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Celia Cruz, the queen of Salsa --

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(Cheers)

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yes -- is significant.

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And an Afro-Latina.

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The Smithsonian has collected
her costumes, her shoes,

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her portrait, her postage stamp

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and this reimagining ...

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by artist Tony Peralta.

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When I collected and displayed this work,

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it was a victory
for symbolic contradictions.

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Pride in displaying a dark-skinned Latina,

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a black woman,

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whose hair is in large rollers
which straighten your hair,

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perhaps a nod to white beauty standards.

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A refined, glamorous woman
in oversized, chunky gold jewelry.

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When this work was on view,

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it was one of our most
Instagrammed pieces,

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and visitors told me they connected
with the everyday elements

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of her brown skin or her rollers
or her jewelry.

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Our collections include Celia Cruz

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and a rare portrait
of a young Harriet Tubman ...

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iconic clothing from
the incomparable Oprah Winfrey.

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But museums can literally change

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how hundreds of millions
of people see women

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and which women they see.

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So rather than always
the first or the famous,

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it's also our responsibility to show
a regular Saturday at the beauty salon,

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the art of door-knocker earrings ...

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(Laughter)

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fashionable sisterhood ...

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(Laughter)

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and cultural pride at all ages.

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Stories of everyday women

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whose stories have been knowingly omitted
from our national and global histories.

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And oftentimes in museums,
you see women represented by clothing

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or portraits or photography ...

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but impactful, life-changing stories
from everyday women

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can also look like
this Esmeraldan boat seat.

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Esmeraldas, Ecuador
was a maroon community.

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Its dense rainforest protected
indigenous and African populations

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from Spanish colonizers.

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There are roads now,

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but there are some parts inland
that are still only accessible by canoe.

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Débora Nazareno frequently traveled
those Ecuadorian waterways by canoe,

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so she had her own boat seat.

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Hers personalized
with a spiderweb and a spider,

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representing Anansi,
a character in West African folklore.

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Débora also sat on this seat at home,
telling stories to her grandson, Juan.

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And this intangible ritual of love

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in the form of
intergenerational storytelling

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is common in communities
across the African diaspora.

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And this everyday act sparked in Juan
the desire to collect and preserve

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over 50,000 documents related
to Afro-Indian culture.

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In 2005, Juan García Salazar,
Débora's grandson,

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and by now a world-renowned
Afro-Ecuadorian scholar,

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traveled to Washington, D.C.

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He met with Lonnie Bunch,
the director of the museum where I work,

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and toward the end of their conversation,

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Juan reached into his bag and said,
"I'd like to give you a present."

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On that day, Débora Nazareno's
humble wooden boat seat

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became the very first object donated

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to the Smithsonian National Museum
of African-American History and Culture.

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It is encased, displayed and has been seen
by almost five million visitors

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from all over the world.

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I will continue to collect
from extraordinary historymakers.

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Their stories are important.

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But what drives me to show up
today and every day

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is the simple passion to write
our names in history,

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display them publicly for millions to see

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and walk in the ever-present
light that is woman.

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Thank you.

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(Applause and cheers)