Art League Houston is proud to present, Bitter Waters Sweet, an exhibition of new work by Fort Worth artist, Letitia Huckaby, the 2022 Texas Artist of the Year. In her exhibition, Letitia Huckaby explores the legacy of Africatown, the historic community near Mobile, Alabama, that was founded by a group of West African people who were trafficked to the U.S. as slaves shortly before Emancipation, and long after the Atlantic slave trade was banned. The ship that brought them, the Clotilda, was scuttled in Mobile Bay shortly after delivering its cargo in 1860 to conceal its illegal activity. The wreckage was rediscovered in 2018 and is currently the subject of active archaeological research.

Huckaby’s photographs, printed on cotton fabric, bring together the legacy of Africatown, its founders, and their descendants, with the history of the ship Clotilda and its persistent physical proximity to the community. Through her imagery and materials, her work ties the past to the present as she examines history and its contemporary connection to the black experience.

A catalog published by ALH and designed by Shefon N. Taylor will be available in mid-October in conjunction with this exhibition. The catalog includes works from the project and a critical essay by Christopher Blay, a writer, and Chief Curator at the Houston Museum of African American Culture in Houston, Texas.

Major funding for the exhibition and catalog was generously provided by the Jacques Louis Vidal Charitable Fund, Edaren Foundation, Kathrine McGovern Foundation, and Talley Dunn Gallery.