About this Event
Artist Noelle Lorraine Williams will lead two tours of her exhibition, Black Revolutionary Women: 250 Years of a Colony Within a Colony, at 2 PM and 4 PM on October 11, 2026. The exhibition highlights Black women’s resistance, survival, and freedom-making across the Americas, reframing dominant narratives of the American Revolution as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Black Revolutionary Women asks important questions about historical memory, including who is recognized as a revolutionary or freedom fighter in American history and whose stories are remembered and honored. The exhibition recognizes the documented 914 Black women who gained their freedom during the Revolutionary War and were evacuated with British forces to Nova Scotia, situating their experiences within the wider histories of colonialism, war, and emancipation.
This tour is presented as part of PES Studios' annual Fall Open Studios at 800 Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson Boulevard, Newark, NJ! Explore four floors of artist studios and community workshop spaces while enjoying a warm brunch and breakfast cocktails.
Presented annually alongside the Newark Arts Festival, Open Studios offers a unique opportunity to discover the work of 50+ resident artists across individual workshops, communal areas, and maker spaces. PES supports a multidisciplinary community of culture makers whose practices are rooted in social impact, activism, and collaboration.
About the Artist
Noelle Lorraine Williams (Black Power! 19th Century) is an artist, curator, researcher, and public humanities specialist based in Newark, New Jersey. Her work examines how African Americans use culture to imagine and enact liberation in the United States. Williams has exhibited and lectured at institutions including The Newark Museum of Art, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Skylight Gallery in Brooklyn, Rutgers University-Newark, and the Cue Art Foundation. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times and ArtNews. In 2024, she curated Radical Women: Fighting Power and the Vote in New Jersey!, which received the Giles R. Wright Award for contributions to African American history in New Jersey.
Learn more about Williams’ multidisciplinary public humanities project Black Power! 19th Century at blackpower19thcentury.com
Event venue & nearby stays
800 Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson Blvd, 800 Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson Boulevard, Newark, United States
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