Join us for a special evening tour of the Newberry's latest exhibit, Photographing Freetowns: African American Kentucky through the Lens of Helen Balfour Morrison, 1935-1946. This event is geared toward the next generation of Newberry supporters (including, but not limited to, young professionals). The evening will begin with a reception featuring light refreshments before a special guided tour of the exhibit with curator Catherine Grandgeorge.
Many of the original prints in Photographing Freetowns are being displayed publicly for the first time. They showcase the work of white American photographer Helen Balfour Morrison, who traveled to Kentucky during the 1930s and '40s to document daily life in the state's African American communities, known as "freetowns."
Though she is largely unknown today, Morrison created works that preserve fleeting moments of joy and struggle even as they hint at the complex racial dynamics within both American culture and the very act of her photography.