First Ladies

he African Performance Art Biennale
Released: 2013
Format: Performance
Country: USA

FIRST LADIES examines the lives of two black women associated with the USA’s White House – current First Lady Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Keckly, a former slave who became the dress designer for and confidante of Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln. While hula hooping and sewing, the performer alternates between these characters, narrating snippets of their lives, of the praise and scorn heaped upon them, and of their impact on USAmerican fashion.
First Ladies was commissioned by the African Performance Art Biennale, 2013.