Sunday Showcase: Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance

Sunday Showcase 

Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance
Directed by Dawn Porter 

Sunday, January 9, 3:30 pm  CINEMA+ 

Free, seating is limited and first-come-first-serve. 

Dawn Porter’s (John Lewis: Good Trouble) short documentary looks at how the art world responded to the murder of Breonna Taylor through Amy Sherald’s now-iconic portrait and the development of the Speed Art Museum’s Promise Witness Remembrance exhibition.   

Both Sherald and the Speed placed great importance in involving Taylor’s family, especially her mother Tamika Palmer, in guiding the projects, inspiring the title of the exhibition, colors of the dress in the portrait and on the walls of the galleries, and the timeline of Taylor’s life included in the gallery with her portrait. The portrait is now in the collection of the Speed and the National Museum of African American History in Culture in Washington, DC. 

The Speed exhibition was organized in record time—four months–with the coordinated efforts by national advisors, local community and research committees, the Speed staff, and the board of directors, creating a new model that has inspired the museum world. Promise Witness Remembrance was just named one of the “Best Art Exhibitions of 2021” by Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith of The New York Times. 2021, U.S., DCP, 33 minutes. Recommended for 14+. 

CINEMA+ Introduced by Raphaela Platow, Speed Art Museum Director, and Toya Northington, Speed Art Museum Community Engagement Strategist, and followed by a post-screening panel including Bianca Austin, Sharlis Montgomery, Nicole Hayden, Tiffany Farmer, Lopa Mehrotra, Keturah Herron  

Screening courtesy of Trilogy Films and special thanks to Niema Jordan. 

Support for this screening provided by The Ford Foundation.