Instructional Grants

Artivism and the Experiences of Black Women Under Court Supervision During COVID-19: A Re-Exhibit of Felicia Henry’s “I’m Literally Taking It Out the Mud” (ILITIOM)

Lu Ann De Cunzo, Valerie Marlowe,

This public-facing project is being developed in conjunction with a Museum Studies core course on innovative exhibition design offered in the Fall 2024. The exhibition ILITIOM and related programming will take place in Spring 2025. The course considers and executes a re-staging exhibition of “I’m Literally Taking It Out the Mud” for University of Delaware audiences. It has and continues to serve as “a celebration of Black women’s spirit of resistance as they rebuilt their lives in the aftermath of involvement in the criminal legal system.” Equally important, the project showcases research of the poet, artist, and University of Delaware doctoral candidate Felicia Henry, who conducted interviews with Black women under court supervision during the COVID-19 pandemic. This re-exhibit will be supported by work with COVID-19-related materials in the E.L. Quarantelli Resource Collection, including more than 60,000 government documents, objects, and media reports from the time period of the COVID lockdowns and beyond.