Letitia Huckaby: Bitter Waters Sweet
Bitter Waters Sweet explores the legacy of Africatown, the historic community near Mobile, Alabama. The town 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.
WATER/LANDSCAPES
Letitia Huckaby
The Clotilda, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
33h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
The River Bottom, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
23h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Wade in the Water, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Wade in the Water, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Amazing Grace, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Living Water, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Steal Away, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Peter Lee’s Chimney, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Early in the Morning, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Black Mulberries, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
29h x 45w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Prichard Mayor John Smith Bust, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
Letitia Huckaby
I Go to Prepare a Place for You, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Cudjo Lewis Bust, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Freedom Calling, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Toward the Sun, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
ANCESTORS
Letitia Huckaby
Abache, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Toward the Sun, 2022
Pigment print on fabric
45h x 29w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Cudjo Lewis, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Kupollee (Pollee Allen), 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Lillian, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Oluale, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Zooma, the Last Tarkbar, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
20h x 12w inches
DESCENDANTS
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Joycelyn, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Mr. Dennison, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Woods, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Mr. Keeby, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Mr. Patterson, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
The Descendants, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Angela and the Baby, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Innocence, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Mr. Lee, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Claudia, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Rose, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
AFRICATOWN
Letitia Huckaby
Mimosa Tree, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Benin Togo, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Howze Family Home, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Gettin’ Up Morning, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Home, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Historical, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
How I Got Over, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
The Gathering Place, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
12h x 20w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Painted Tile, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery hoop
20h x 12w inches
Letitia Huckaby
Ms. Rose, 2022
Pigment print on fabric with embroidery
71h x 41w inches
Letitia Huckaby has a degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, a BFA from the Art Institute of Boston in photography, and her Master’s degree from the University of North Texas in Denton.
Her work is featured in the 2023 exhibition Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation, organized by Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Williams College. On view during the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Emancipation visualizes what freedom looks like for Black Americans today and the legacy of the Civil War in 2023 and beyond. Most recently, Letitia Huckaby was awarded 2022 Texas Artist of the Year with an exhibition of her recent work Bitter Waters Sweet at Art League Houston, along with a publication. This critical body of work explores the legacy of Africatown, the historic community near Mobile, Alabama, its West-African founders, and their descendants, along with the history of the ship that trafficked them to the States in 1860, the Clotilda. In 2020, Huckaby was a Fall 2020 Artist in Residence at ArtPace, where her she debuted And Thy Neighb(our), a series that portrays Black refugees and immigrants from across the diaspora in the vein of Old Master paintings.
Letitia Huckaby has exhibited at Phillips New York, the Tyler Museum of Art, The Studio School of Harlem, the Camden Palace Hotel in Cork City, Ireland, and the Texas Biennial at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum. Her work is included in several prestigious collections; the Library of Congress, the McNay Art Museum, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Huckaby was a featured artist in MAP2020: The Further We Roll, The More We Gain at the Amon Carter Museum and State of the Art 2020 at The Momentary and Crystal Bridges Museum, both opened in the spring of 2020.