Kara Walker: Back of Hand Exhibition Opening at the Poetry Foundation

CHICAGO, January 31, 2024—The Poetry Foundation announces the exhibition Kara Walker: Back of Hand, on display for the first time since its 2021 debut at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Lamar Dodd School of Art in Athens, Georgia. The exhibition will be open to the public from February 15–May 18, 2024.

Kara Walker is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence, including works such as “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby.” A departure from the silhouette figures that Walker often employs in her work, Kara Walker: Back of Hand appropriately foregrounds Walker’s long-term engagement with language and text. The exhibition features 2015 Book, a series of 11 typewritten pages with ink and watercolor illustrations, and two large-scale drawings, The Ballad of How We Got Here and Feast of Famine. The exhibition is curated by Katie Geha and organized by Katherine Litwin and Fred Sasaki of the Poetry Foundation.

"This exhibition presents a unique opportunity to read Kara Walker’s visual art as poetry and provocation,” said Fred Sasaki. “The work confronts us with our complexity and complicity in the nightmarish landscape of history and fantasy, leaving viewers with more questions than answers.”

Kara Walker: Back of Hand opens on Thursday, February 15 at 5 PM with a reception inviting guests to read and contemplate Walker’s work followed by a talk and Q&A by exhibition curator Katie Geha and a reading by poet and artist Krista Franklin. Admission to the opening event and the exhibition are free; guests are encouraged to register for the opening event. 

Visiting the Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation events are free and open to the public. For location, hours, and more information, please visit PoetryFoundation.org/Visit. To learn more about the Poetry Foundation’s events and exhibitions, please subscribe to the newsletter and visit PoetryFoundation.org/Events for the most up-to-date listings. 

Accessibility
Readings and events include live captioning and ASL interpretation unless otherwise noted. If you have additional accessibility needs, please contact [email protected]. 

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About the Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. The Foundation works to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. Follow the Poetry Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Media Contacts

Liz O’Connell-Thompson, Media Manager, [email protected], 312.799.8065

Moyo Abiona, Media Associate, [email protected]