(And How You’re Gonna Keep it Going)
Let’s be clear: the idea of “artist research” is funny to me. Not “haha” funny, but funny peculiar.
As a researcher myself—a historian, sociologist, and theater educator rolled into one—I obviously love research. But there’s a difference between an actor being handed notes by a dramaturg and an artist rolling up their sleeves and digging into the archives themselves.
When you do the work, you bring a different vibration to the performance. You don’t just know the history; you embody it. Look at Zora Neale Hurston. Look at Katherine Dunham in the 1930s, transforming her anthropological research in the Caribbean into the foundation of American dance tradition. That wasn’t just performance; that was synergy. That was power.
And honey, right now, in 2026, under this administration, power is exactly what they are trying to snatch away.
The War on Knowledge
It is a crying shame that funding for research has been slashed across the board. This administration’s lack of concern for actual knowledge stalled American progress. They want us to believe that if we just keep pouring money into for-profit businesses and worshipping at the altar of a laissez-faire market, everything will magically correct itself.
Well, we’ve seen the receipts. That is a lie.
The progress they tout without research is superficial. It’s fake. And the reason they are cutting funding for the arts and humanities is that they are terrified of what we find when we start digging.
American history is complicated and messy because of less-than-perfect people in powerful positions. We are no worse or better than anywhere else on Earth…except there is a contingent of people locked into an antiquated social darwinism long proven inefficient for even their goals. They call themselves conservatives.
The “Care Economy” has Left the Chat
I need to pivot for a second and speak directly to my fellow Black American women:
You are more than enough. You always have been.
I have had the absolute privilege of being a full-time artist researcher for the past year and a half, developing the Labor Pains Project and preparing for the 250th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence. But let’s be real about how I got that time. I wasn’t working full-time for anyone else.
I’m 42. I know so many African-American women my age who are unemployed or underemployed right now in 2026. You are terrified about making ends meet, providing for your children, just making it through the day.
First, I want to acknowledge that you do not deserve this position. It is through no fault of your own. I say that with confidence, not because I believe all Black women deserve a “free pass,” but because I know every Black woman I have ever met does.
For too long, Black women have carried a cycle of trauma, feeling like we aren’t “enough” in a world that constantly tells us we don’t belong. It is a story that pains me every time I hear it, and I’ve heard it in every variation of Black girl narrative I know. We aren’t all in pain. We aren’t even mostly that. We are forced to carry an awful amount of it, though.
The second thing I want to say is: You are enough. You have always been enough. And I am so sorry that the circumstances of this particular nation make it seem as though that is not the case.
America has forgotten how much it thrived on the backs and labor of Black women. They thought this country was running on its own strength. It wasn’t. It was running on our unpaid, unacknowledged “care economy.”
And now that we are collectively dropping the rope—removing ourselves from the foundation to focus on our own survival—the whole thing is cracking. It’s collapsing. And they are looking for a lifeline.
Well ladies, they don’t get to hang onto us anymore. But we get to hang onto each other.
Reclaiming the Narrative, One Post at a Time
This is why my research is so important to me, and why it’s making certain people so uncomfortable.
When I started digging into Black women’s clubs for my Black History Month project, I was floored. How, a hundred years after the fact, do folks still not know about these organizations that are still active in our local communities?
We have to flood the zone with accurate information. We need more public historians, museums, and curators flooding social media with the truth instead of letting misinformation rule. We need to prove that Democratic capitalism in this country only ever worked because Black women made it work.
That recognition is long overdue, especially 250 years after they signed that Declaration.
The Proof is in the Kennedy Center
You want proof that artists have power when we organize? Look at what just happened in D.C.
Did you catch that reversal at the Kennedy Center? The Trump administration thought they could just waltz in, take over the board, slap his name on the building, and redefine what it means to be an artist in America.
What happened? The big artists resigned from the board. Then they started canceling their shows. It got so bad that the new head of programming quit within days because nobody would perform there. Now the Kennedy Center is “closed for remodeling” for two years.
Yeah, right. It’s closed because the artist community stood up to an authoritarian takeover of our cultural institutions. We have the power to correct what is happening.
Your Urgent Call to Action
It is not over yet. We need to use that same energy right now.
We need funding for artists to do their own research into American history from harmful perspectives. That isn’t just a nice-to-have goal; it’s essential to combating the lies we are being fed daily.
So, I am issuing an urgent call. We need you to make three phone calls today. It costs you nothing but ten minutes of your time.
We are asking our representatives to defund ICE and reappropriate those massive funds back into our communities—schools, healthcare, SNAP benefits—and specifically to artist research.
We’re done carrying the country for free. It’s time they paid for the real history.
Here is how you do it, and exactly what to say. Let’s ring their lines off the hook.
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