Artist Statement

Through collaboration, Moore and Imani Perry taught a class of Moore's creation titled, "Visualizing the Battle Cry", at Princeton University through the Atelier Program which was started by Toni Morrison. This work is a visual extension of the sound work that you hear throughout the gallery that confronts the past.

“We have never stopped as a nation fighting the Civil War,” Perry said. “My colleague Eddie Glaude Jr. [the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and professor of African American studies] refers to it as a cold Civil War. It has moments of being hot. In recent history, it has been hot again. It has race at the center of it, but it’s also about these ideas about who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s about Black people, but also broadly about who is considered a legitimate part of the nation — who is here to be exploited versus who is here to fulfill the American dream.”

Moore created the cover art for the album, which is seen here as a banner. His hard line drawings echo the visual language of 19th-century posters and periodicals, with Harriet Tubman standing atop a pedestal as the central figure. He intentionally depicted Tubman not in her role as an abolitionist and conductor along the Underground Railroad, but rather, as a soldier and spy for the Union Army — the first woman to lead a military operation in the United States.

Portions of Moore’s illustration hearken back to slave life on Southern plantations and reference the Bronx projects where hip hop was born. He also incorporated Perry’s image and lyrics into his work (naturally, in hip hop style, with a shoutout to himself and Producer of the album Waajeed).