“It occurred to me that perhaps that white feminists, no less than white women generally, cannot imagine black women have vaginas.”

Alice Walker
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, 1983 

Judy Chicgao’s “The Dinner Party,” comprised of 39 place settings, attempts to commemorate important women in history. Yet it, like much of first-wave feminism during that time, fails to intentionally include women of color, as Sojourner and Sacagawea are the only two non-white attendees to the party. Not to mention Sojourner’s plate is the only of the setting that isn’t quite a “creatively imagined vagina,” rather a merging of African masks. As a way of acknowledging Sojourner’s womanhood, in the context of “The Dinner Party,” this piece – constructed of Black female faces in different tones – gives Sojourner the party that she was vaguely a part of in 1979.

A Party for Sojourner
wool, tulle, natural dyes
20 x 15 x 1 inches
2019