To Be Seen (2019) 
NOELLE LORRAINE WILLIAMS

To Be Seen is a street intervention that utilizes oversized carte de visite images of printed on PolyTab on a gold background of African American women from photography studios in Downtown Newark near the site on Treat Street and on Springfield Avenue. As an artist, Noelle Lorraine Williams’s work for the past 14 years focuses on utilizing African American women’s stories and images to interpret what it means to be American today. To Be Seen expands on her practice of “inserting” images of African American women and men into the Newark historical visual landscape.

To Be Seen uses three images from Newark photographers of African American women circa the late 19th century. The images include: J.H. Smith and J. Renee Smith whose practices were on Broad Street near Broad and Market for almost two decades and Springfield Avenue’s Morris Yogi. To Be Seen is a historical marker revealing African American women who confronted a racist and sexist American visual culture by employing local Newark photographers to create beautiful and powerful images of themselves

About the Artist:
Noelle Lorraine Williams is a Newark based artist whose life's work exemplifies her continued interest in engaging individuals in conversations about community and spirituality using art, history and contemporary culture. She utilizes stories about African American women's culture to understand what it means to be American today.

Her work as a visual artist has been mentioned in the New York Times, Art News, and other publications. She has exhibited in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Louisiana. She is a recognized artist and was accepted in the ALJIRA Emerge program, received two best in show awards, profiled in The Star Ledger as a part of their profile on “The Newark School” and has lectured at the Jersey City Museum, Newark Museum, AIR Gallery, Monument Lab and Rutgers University amongst other places. She currently continues to make art, teach and write about history, African American women’s lives and liberated communities in the United States.

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