Museum Exhibition

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From November 5, 2021

Seneca Village, a 19th-century Black community in today’s Central Park, was displaced in 1857. The exhibit imagines its thriving future through Afrofuturism, art, and storytelling.

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Exhibition artworks

Representative work

American

Covered Jar

1800–1900

Stoneware

9 × 5 × 4 in. (22.9 × 12.7 × 10.2 cm)

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Featured works

American

Batter jug

1882–85

Stoneware

9 × 10 1/2 in. (22.9 × 26.7 cm)

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Bamileke or Bamum

Prestige Stool: Leopard

19th–20th century

Wood, glass beads, cowrie shells, burlap, printed cotton cloth

H. 19 1/8 x Diam. 16 7/8 in. (48.6 x 42.9 cm)

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Kongo peoples

Crucifix

17th century

Brass

H. 11 7/8 x W. 6 1/8 in. (30.2 x 15.5cm)

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Elizabeth Catlett

In Sojourner Truth I Fought for the Rights of Women as well as Negroes, from “The Negro Woman” series

1947

Linocut

18 13/16 × 12 1/4 in. (47.8 × 31.1 cm)

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India Rubber Comb Company

Hair Comb

ca. 1851

Vulcanite (India rubber and sulfur)

4 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. (10.8 x 11.4 cm)

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Lorna Simpson

For Dodie

2018

Cut and pasted printed found papers on paper

11 1/16 × 8 1/2 in. (28.1 × 21.6 cm)

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30 documented works in this exhibition

View all 30 documented works