This essay by Laurie Woodard explores the work of artist and activist Fredi Washington during the New Negro Renaissance.
It frames Washington as an unconventional “Triple Threat,” not as an artist who dances and sings and acts, but as a performing artist, a writer, and a civil and human rights activist. It focuses upon Washington’s most direct engagement with the failures of American democracy—her writings for the progressive Black newspaper The People’s Voice from 1942 to 1947. A fierce advocate for Black people in the United States and around the world, Washington offers a model of resilience and resistance in the face of white supremacy, misogyny, and the contemporary collapse of democratic institutions across the globe.
At Times Like These: Fredi Washington, the New Negro Renaissance, and American Democracy was published online by Cambridge University Press and can be read in full for free.
