1
00:00:01,614 --> 00:00:03,516
Representation matters.

2
00:00:04,683 --> 00:00:07,917
Authentic representations of women matter.

3
00:00:09,404 --> 00:00:13,222
I think that too often,
our public representations of women

4
00:00:13,246 --> 00:00:15,627
are enveloped in the language
of the extraordinary.

5
00:00:17,441 --> 00:00:20,301
The first American woman
to become a self-made millionaire:

6
00:00:20,325 --> 00:00:21,570
Madam C. J. Walker ...

7
00:00:22,794 --> 00:00:25,476
The dresses of the first ladies
of the United States ...

8
00:00:27,086 --> 00:00:30,030
Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to seek

9
00:00:30,054 --> 00:00:32,520
the US Democratic party's
presidential nomination --

10
00:00:32,544 --> 00:00:34,463
(Applause)

11
00:00:35,701 --> 00:00:36,852
As a museum curator,

12
00:00:36,876 --> 00:00:39,292
I understand why these stories
are so seductive.

13
00:00:40,179 --> 00:00:43,411
Exceptional women
are inspiring and aspirational.

14
00:00:45,166 --> 00:00:46,704
But those stories are limiting.

15
00:00:47,365 --> 00:00:50,578
By definition, being extraordinary
is nonrepresentative.

16
00:00:51,110 --> 00:00:52,260
It's atypical.

17
00:00:53,133 --> 00:00:56,773
Those stories do not create a broad base
for incorporating women's history

18
00:00:56,797 --> 00:00:58,857
and they don't reflect
our daily realities.

19
00:01:00,276 --> 00:01:03,720
If we can collectively apply
that radical notion

20
00:01:03,744 --> 00:01:05,607
that women are people,

21
00:01:05,631 --> 00:01:07,981
it becomes easier to show
women as people are:

22
00:01:09,025 --> 00:01:13,217
familiar, diverse, present.

23
00:01:13,241 --> 00:01:15,852
In everyone's everyday throughout history,

24
00:01:16,923 --> 00:01:19,962
women exist positively --

25
00:01:19,986 --> 00:01:22,905
not as a matter of interpretation,
but as a matter of fact.

26
00:01:23,721 --> 00:01:27,620
And beyond a more accurate
representation of human life,

27
00:01:27,644 --> 00:01:30,426
including women considers
the quotidian experiences

28
00:01:30,450 --> 00:01:34,545
of the almost 3.8 billion people
identified as female on this planet.

29
00:01:36,827 --> 00:01:40,763
In this now notorious museum scene
from the "Black Panther" movie,

30
00:01:40,787 --> 00:01:44,067
a white curator erroneously
explains an artifact

31
00:01:44,091 --> 00:01:46,225
to Michael B. Jordan's
character seen here,

32
00:01:46,249 --> 00:01:47,911
an artifact from his own culture.

33
00:01:49,042 --> 00:01:52,797
This fictional scene caused
real debates in our museum communities

34
00:01:52,821 --> 00:01:57,344
about who is shaping the narratives
and the bias that those narratives hold.

35
00:01:59,461 --> 00:02:00,742
Museums are actually rated

36
00:02:00,766 --> 00:02:04,854
one of the most trustworthy sources
of information in the United States,

37
00:02:04,878 --> 00:02:08,269
and with hundreds of millions of visitors
from all over the world,

38
00:02:08,293 --> 00:02:10,845
we should tell accurate histories,

39
00:02:10,869 --> 00:02:12,020
but we don't.

40
00:02:13,479 --> 00:02:16,251
There is a movement,
from within museums themselves,

41
00:02:16,275 --> 00:02:17,855
to help combat this bias.

42
00:02:18,472 --> 00:02:22,176
The simple acknowledgment
that museums are not neutral.

43
00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:24,816
Museums are didactic.

44
00:02:25,146 --> 00:02:27,535
Through the display of art and artifacts,

45
00:02:27,559 --> 00:02:30,843
we can incite creativity
and foster inclusion,

46
00:02:30,867 --> 00:02:33,705
but we are guilty
of historical misrepresentation.

47
00:02:34,418 --> 00:02:38,443
Our male-centered histories
have left our herstories hidden.

48
00:02:40,359 --> 00:02:45,153
And there are hard truths
about being a woman,

49
00:02:45,177 --> 00:02:47,461
especially a woman of color
in this industry,

50
00:02:47,485 --> 00:02:51,260
that prevents us from centering
inclusive examples of women's lives.

51
00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:54,446
Museum leadership:

52
00:02:54,470 --> 00:02:56,786
predominantly white and male,

53
00:02:56,810 --> 00:03:00,899
despite women comprising
some 60 percent of museum staffs.

54
00:03:01,472 --> 00:03:03,694
Pipelines to leadership
for women are bleak --

55
00:03:03,718 --> 00:03:05,712
bleakest for women of color.

56
00:03:06,721 --> 00:03:09,752
And the presence of women
does not in and of itself guarantee

57
00:03:09,776 --> 00:03:12,019
an increase in women's
public representation.

58
00:03:12,905 --> 00:03:14,873
Not all women are gender equity allies.

59
00:03:16,151 --> 00:03:18,503
In the words of feminist
theorist bell hooks,

60
00:03:18,527 --> 00:03:20,216
"Patriarchy has no gender."

61
00:03:20,968 --> 00:03:23,212
Women can support the system of patriarchy

62
00:03:23,236 --> 00:03:25,943
just as men can support
the fight for gender equity.

63
00:03:27,284 --> 00:03:30,360
And we often downplay
the importance of intersectionality.

64
00:03:31,694 --> 00:03:36,852
Marian Anderson was one of the most
celebrated voices of the 20th century,

65
00:03:36,876 --> 00:03:39,576
and the Smithsonian
collected her 1939 outfit.

66
00:03:40,186 --> 00:03:43,472
After the white Daughters of
the American Revolution denied her access

67
00:03:43,496 --> 00:03:45,971
to sing in Constitution Hall,
because she was black,

68
00:03:46,966 --> 00:03:50,267
she famously sang instead
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,

69
00:03:50,291 --> 00:03:53,013
to a crowd of over 75,000 people.

70
00:03:55,531 --> 00:03:58,421
And in libraries all over,
including museums,

71
00:03:58,445 --> 00:04:02,470
you can still find the groundbreaking
1982 anthology, entitled

72
00:04:02,494 --> 00:04:04,579
"All the Women Are White,

73
00:04:04,603 --> 00:04:06,592
All the Blacks Are Men,

74
00:04:06,616 --> 00:04:08,327
But Some of Us Are Brave."

75
00:04:10,210 --> 00:04:12,545
Demands for the increase
of women's representation

76
00:04:12,569 --> 00:04:16,398
does not automatically include
Afro-Latinas like me ...

77
00:04:16,422 --> 00:04:19,944
or immigrant women,
or Asian women, or Native women,

78
00:04:19,968 --> 00:04:22,189
or trans women, or undocumented women,

79
00:04:22,213 --> 00:04:24,612
or women over 65, or girls --

80
00:04:24,636 --> 00:04:26,975
the list can go on and on and on.

81
00:04:28,090 --> 00:04:29,367
So what do we do?

82
00:04:31,307 --> 00:04:34,340
Targeted initiatives
have helped incorporate perspectives

83
00:04:34,364 --> 00:04:36,189
that should have always been included.

84
00:04:36,547 --> 00:04:40,202
I arrived at the Smithsonian
through a Latino curatorial initiative

85
00:04:40,226 --> 00:04:42,135
whose hiring of Latinx curators,

86
00:04:42,159 --> 00:04:44,344
mostly women, by the way,

87
00:04:44,368 --> 00:04:48,378
has raised the profile for Latinx
narratives across our institution.

88
00:04:49,234 --> 00:04:50,440
And it served as a model

89
00:04:50,464 --> 00:04:54,727
for our much larger Smithsonian
American Women's History Initiative,

90
00:04:54,751 --> 00:04:58,139
which seeks to amplify diverse
representations of women

91
00:04:58,163 --> 00:05:00,473
in every possible way,

92
00:05:00,497 --> 00:05:01,739
so that women show up,

93
00:05:01,763 --> 00:05:04,903
not only in the imagery
of our contemporary realities,

94
00:05:04,927 --> 00:05:07,328
but in our historical representations,

95
00:05:07,352 --> 00:05:09,096
because we've always been here.

96
00:05:10,690 --> 00:05:15,465
Right now though, in 2018,
I can still walk into professional spaces

97
00:05:15,489 --> 00:05:17,310
and be the only --

98
00:05:17,334 --> 00:05:19,609
the only person under 40,
the only black person,

99
00:05:19,633 --> 00:05:21,443
the only black woman, the only Latina,

100
00:05:21,467 --> 00:05:22,706
sometimes, the only woman.

101
00:05:23,669 --> 00:05:27,308
My mother is African-American
and my father is Afro-Panamanian.

102
00:05:28,023 --> 00:05:30,542
I am so proudly and inextricably both.

103
00:05:31,346 --> 00:05:33,407
As an Afro-Latina, I'm one of millions.

104
00:05:34,704 --> 00:05:38,249
As an Afro-Latina curator,
I'm one of very few.

105
00:05:39,344 --> 00:05:41,980
And bringing my whole self
into the professional realm

106
00:05:42,004 --> 00:05:44,488
can feel like an act of bravery,

107
00:05:44,512 --> 00:05:47,609
and I'll admit to you that I was
not always up for that challenge,

108
00:05:47,633 --> 00:05:50,829
whether from fear of rejection
or self-preservation.

109
00:05:52,615 --> 00:05:54,259
In meetings, I would only speak up

110
00:05:54,283 --> 00:05:56,873
when I had a fully developed
comment to share.

111
00:05:57,197 --> 00:05:59,950
No audible brainstorming
or riffing off of colleagues.

112
00:06:00,906 --> 00:06:02,057
For a long time,

113
00:06:02,081 --> 00:06:05,853
I denied myself the joy of wearing
my beloved hoop earrings

114
00:06:05,877 --> 00:06:07,387
or nameplate necklace to work,

115
00:06:07,411 --> 00:06:11,072
thinking that they were too loud
or unscholarly or unprofessional.

116
00:06:11,675 --> 00:06:13,197
(Laughter)

117
00:06:13,221 --> 00:06:16,542
I wondered how people
would react to my natural hair,

118
00:06:16,566 --> 00:06:21,398
or if they viewed me as more acceptable
or less authentic when I straightened it.

119
00:06:22,008 --> 00:06:24,911
And anyone who has felt outside
of mainstream representations

120
00:06:24,935 --> 00:06:29,058
understands that there are basic elements
just of our everyday being

121
00:06:29,082 --> 00:06:31,063
that can make other people uncomfortable.

122
00:06:32,692 --> 00:06:34,382
But because I am passionate

123
00:06:34,406 --> 00:06:37,874
about the everyday representation
of women as we are,

124
00:06:37,898 --> 00:06:42,787
I stopped presenting an inauthentic
representation of myself or my work.

125
00:06:43,694 --> 00:06:45,078
And I have been tested.

126
00:06:45,822 --> 00:06:48,358
This is me pointing
at my hoop earring in my office --

127
00:06:48,382 --> 00:06:49,477
(Laughter)

128
00:06:49,501 --> 00:06:52,921
Just last month, I was invited to keynote
a Latino Heritage Month event.

129
00:06:53,675 --> 00:06:57,161
The week of the presentation,
the organization expressed concerns.

130
00:06:58,069 --> 00:07:00,472
They called my slides "activist,"

131
00:07:00,496 --> 00:07:02,075
and they meant that negatively.

132
00:07:02,559 --> 00:07:05,779
(Laughter)

133
00:07:05,803 --> 00:07:10,485
(Applause)

134
00:07:10,509 --> 00:07:12,123
Two days before the presentation,

135
00:07:12,147 --> 00:07:16,807
they requested that I not show
a two-minute video affirming natural hair,

136
00:07:16,831 --> 00:07:19,594
because "it may create a barrier
to the learning process

137
00:07:19,618 --> 00:07:21,418
for some of the participants."

138
00:07:21,759 --> 00:07:22,857
(Laughter)

139
00:07:22,881 --> 00:07:27,667
That poem, "Hair," was written
and performed by Elizabeth Acevedo,

140
00:07:27,691 --> 00:07:31,388
a Dominican-American
2018 National Book Award winner,

141
00:07:31,412 --> 00:07:34,755
and it appeared in an award-winning
Smithsonian exhibit that I curated.

142
00:07:35,601 --> 00:07:36,943
I canceled the talk,

143
00:07:36,967 --> 00:07:42,086
explaining to them that their censorship
of me and my work made me uncomfortable.

144
00:07:42,110 --> 00:07:49,110
(Applause and cheers)

145
00:07:51,660 --> 00:07:55,339
Respectability politics
and idealized femininity

146
00:07:55,363 --> 00:07:57,264
influence how we display women

147
00:07:57,288 --> 00:07:59,380
and which women we choose to display.

148
00:08:00,090 --> 00:08:03,916
And that display has skewed
toward successful and extraordinary

149
00:08:03,940 --> 00:08:06,640
and reputable and desirable,

150
00:08:06,664 --> 00:08:08,878
which maintains the systemic exclusion

151
00:08:08,902 --> 00:08:13,403
and marginalization of the everyday,
the regular, the underrepresented

152
00:08:13,427 --> 00:08:14,918
and usually, the nonwhite.

153
00:08:15,590 --> 00:08:18,739
As a museum curator, I am empowered
to change that narrative.

154
00:08:19,632 --> 00:08:23,155
I research, collect and interpret
objects and images of significance.

155
00:08:24,114 --> 00:08:26,000
Celia Cruz, the queen of Salsa --

156
00:08:26,024 --> 00:08:27,025
(Cheers)

157
00:08:27,049 --> 00:08:28,875
yes -- is significant.

158
00:08:28,899 --> 00:08:30,519
And an Afro-Latina.

159
00:08:30,857 --> 00:08:34,560
The Smithsonian has collected
her costumes, her shoes,

160
00:08:34,584 --> 00:08:37,321
her portrait, her postage stamp

161
00:08:37,345 --> 00:08:38,670
and this reimagining ...

162
00:08:39,926 --> 00:08:41,615
by artist Tony Peralta.

163
00:08:42,023 --> 00:08:44,244
When I collected and displayed this work,

164
00:08:44,268 --> 00:08:46,745
it was a victory
for symbolic contradictions.

165
00:08:47,590 --> 00:08:50,160
Pride in displaying a dark-skinned Latina,

166
00:08:50,184 --> 00:08:51,691
a black woman,

167
00:08:51,715 --> 00:08:54,431
whose hair is in large rollers
which straighten your hair,

168
00:08:54,455 --> 00:08:56,621
perhaps a nod to white beauty standards.

169
00:08:56,645 --> 00:09:00,541
A refined, glamorous woman
in oversized, chunky gold jewelry.

170
00:09:01,728 --> 00:09:03,022
When this work was on view,

171
00:09:03,046 --> 00:09:05,047
it was one of our most
Instagrammed pieces,

172
00:09:05,071 --> 00:09:08,075
and visitors told me they connected
with the everyday elements

173
00:09:08,099 --> 00:09:10,927
of her brown skin or her rollers
or her jewelry.

174
00:09:12,227 --> 00:09:14,258
Our collections include Celia Cruz

175
00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:17,772
and a rare portrait
of a young Harriet Tubman ...

176
00:09:19,981 --> 00:09:22,690
iconic clothing from
the incomparable Oprah Winfrey.

177
00:09:24,654 --> 00:09:26,372
But museums can literally change

178
00:09:26,396 --> 00:09:29,449
how hundreds of millions
of people see women,

179
00:09:29,473 --> 00:09:30,804
and which women they see.

180
00:09:31,454 --> 00:09:35,094
So rather than always
the first or the famous,

181
00:09:35,118 --> 00:09:39,407
it's also our responsibility to show
a regular Saturday at the beauty salon,

182
00:09:40,575 --> 00:09:42,559
the art of door-knocker earrings ...

183
00:09:42,583 --> 00:09:44,014
(Laughter)

184
00:09:44,038 --> 00:09:45,695
fashionable sisterhood ...

185
00:09:45,719 --> 00:09:46,720
(Laughter)

186
00:09:46,744 --> 00:09:48,714
and cultural pride at all ages.

187
00:09:49,196 --> 00:09:50,905
Stories of everyday women

188
00:09:50,929 --> 00:09:54,836
whose stories have been knowingly omitted
from our national and global histories.

189
00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:58,663
And oftentimes in museums,
you see women represented by clothing

190
00:09:58,687 --> 00:10:00,786
or portraits or photography ...

191
00:10:02,940 --> 00:10:06,028
but impactful, life-changing stories
from everyday women

192
00:10:06,052 --> 00:10:08,427
can also look like
this Esmeraldan boat seat.

193
00:10:09,764 --> 00:10:12,187
Esmeraldas, Ecuador
was a maroon community.

194
00:10:12,523 --> 00:10:16,226
Its dense rainforest protected
indigenous and African populations

195
00:10:16,250 --> 00:10:17,783
from Spanish colonizers.

196
00:10:18,282 --> 00:10:19,432
There are roads now,

197
00:10:19,456 --> 00:10:22,957
but there are some parts inland
that are still only accessible by canoe.

198
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:27,131
Débora Nazareno frequently traveled
those Ecuadorian waterways by canoe,

199
00:10:27,155 --> 00:10:28,695
so she had her own boat seat.

200
00:10:29,279 --> 00:10:32,372
Hers personalized
with a spiderweb and a spider,

201
00:10:32,396 --> 00:10:35,437
representing Anansi,
a character in West African folklore.

202
00:10:36,874 --> 00:10:40,906
Débora also sat on this seat at home,
telling stories to her grandson, Juan.

203
00:10:41,972 --> 00:10:44,140
And this intangible ritual of love

204
00:10:44,164 --> 00:10:46,568
in the form of
intergenerational storytelling

205
00:10:46,592 --> 00:10:49,499
is common in communities
across the African diaspora.

206
00:10:50,378 --> 00:10:54,303
And this everyday act sparked in Juan
the desire to collect and preserve

207
00:10:54,327 --> 00:10:58,182
over 50,000 documents related
to Afro-Indian culture.

208
00:10:59,566 --> 00:11:03,495
In 2005, Juan García Salazar,
Débora's grandson,

209
00:11:03,519 --> 00:11:07,009
and by now a world-renowned
Afro-Ecuadorian scholar,

210
00:11:07,033 --> 00:11:08,719
traveled to Washington, D.C.

211
00:11:09,621 --> 00:11:12,907
He met with Lonnie Bunch,
the director of the museum where I work,

212
00:11:12,931 --> 00:11:15,038
and toward the end of their conversation,

213
00:11:15,062 --> 00:11:18,872
Juan reached into his bag and said,
"I'd like to give you a present."

214
00:11:20,558 --> 00:11:24,247
On that day, Débora Nazareno's
humble wooden boat seat

215
00:11:24,271 --> 00:11:26,465
became the very first object donated

216
00:11:26,489 --> 00:11:30,037
to the Smithsonian National Museum
of African-American History and Culture.

217
00:11:30,865 --> 00:11:36,084
It is encased, displayed and has been seen
by almost five million visitors

218
00:11:36,108 --> 00:11:37,518
from all over the world.

219
00:11:38,900 --> 00:11:41,832
I will continue to collect
from extraordinary historymakers.

220
00:11:42,224 --> 00:11:43,747
Their stories are important.

221
00:11:44,607 --> 00:11:48,539
But what drives me to show up
today and every day

222
00:11:48,563 --> 00:11:52,192
is the simple passion to write
our names in history,

223
00:11:52,216 --> 00:11:55,332
display them publicly for millions to see

224
00:11:55,356 --> 00:11:58,406
and walk in the ever-present
light that is woman.

225
00:11:58,961 --> 00:12:00,112
Thank you.

226
00:12:00,136 --> 00:12:06,325
(Applause and cheers)