I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women: Part I

July 8, 2022 – January 29, 2023
National Portrait Gallery
8th and G Streets, NW
Washington, DC

This exhibition features more than 25 photographs by Brian Lanker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who, in 1989, published the extraordinarily popular book I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America. The show represents women who have made significant contributions to the United States, whether through writing, activism, theater, athletics, journalism, or other disciplines. Sitters featured in the first part include Maya Angelou, Septima Poinsette Clark, Lena Horne, Barbara Jordan, Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Wilma Rudolph, and Alice Walker. Sitters featured in the second part include Althea Gibson, Odetta, Cicely Tyson, and Oprah Winfrey.

The second part will be on display from Feb. 10, 2022, through Aug. 27, 2023. 

I Dream a World is co-curated by Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw.