Dawoud Bey, a renowned artist from Harlem, New York who bases his work on Black American life and experience, now has an exhibition on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art until January 2026.
Dawoud Bey: Elegy is an immersive exhibition that puts slavery on display through the lens of historical landscapes and consists of three photographic series and two film installations. The title of each series refers to a significant person or reference in black history and culture.
The exhibition takes visitors through the timeline of the early black experience in America through significant trails and sites in Ohio, Virginia, and Louisiana. These seemingly unassuming trails are the same ones that enslaved Africans walked on to be sold into slavery. It’s ironic that these same trails were also used as routes to freedom.
The exhibition starts with the series titled Stony The Road– a reference to the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. The project portrays the path that was taken by over 350,000 enslaved Africans forced to march to holding pens in Richmond, Virginia and includes one of the film installations.
Most of the photos in this project are monochrome. As viewers walk through the first part of the trilogy, it’s possible to imagine themselves on this trail or even as an ancestor who might’ve been forced to walk it. While viewing the photos, the sounds of nature and a soundtrack of the film installation add an ambiance to the exhibition, which gives attendees a comprehensive experience as if they’re witnessing history as it’s happening.
The second series, In This Here Place, transforms the landscape from the trails of Richmond, Virginia, to the plantations of Louisiana. In this series, attendees can not only see the landscape of the plantations, but witness the making of the entire exhibition and how Dawoud Bey cultivated the project through a short documentary.
While viewing this part of the series, there is a designated section where attendees are also able to document their thoughts on the exhibition and fully digest what the exhibition is attempting to portray. In This Here Place also includes a film installation entitled Evergreen, which depicts the landscape of a plantation through a three-panel screen with vivid color and a powerful soundtrack by composer and vocalist Imani Uzuri.
This series shows the overall somber reality of slavery but also hints at the hidden power of the enslaved. It also conveys the idea that those who were enslaved never accepted their enslavement and debunks the notion of a “docile slave”. This series effectively transitions us into the final series in the trilogy.
The third final part of the exhibition is entitled Night Coming Tenderly, Black. The title refers to the Langston Hughes poem “Dream Variation” and correlates the ending stanza to how, under the cover of night, enslaved people were able to find freedom.
The photos highlight the paradoxical nature of slavery. In this series, attendees are able to see the similarities and differences between the trails to enslavement and the trails to freedom. Similar to the first series, these monochromatic photos portray the intensity of self-emancipation and the yearning to be free and safe. This series effectively closes out the exhibition and gives viewers lingering thoughts and questions to ask themselves afterward.
Dawoud Bey: Elegy is an immersive experience that effectively answers how landscapes can hold memory or tell a story. It forces us to look at our surroundings through a different lens to see how history exists for the past and the present.
In the words of Dawoud Bey, “History is always present”.
The exhibition will be on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art until Jan. 4, 2026. Museum admission is free for students and Louisiana residents every Wednesday, and those 19 and under get free daily admission. There is also museum programming, such as weekly gallery talks to give visitors more insight into the exhibition, which are free to the public. Visit noma.org for more information.
