Join us for a special screening of Paint Me a Road Out of Here, a feature documentary that explores the movement to end mass incarceration of Black women via the fight to liberate Faith Ringgold’s 1971 painting For the Women’s House from Rikers Island and the art of Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter.

The screening will be followed by a special in-person discussion featuring artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, director Catherine Gund, and professor Gina Dent. The discussion will be moderated by Janna Keegan, the presenting curator of Faith Ringgold: American People (2022).

About the film

In 1971, artist Faith Ringgold created a monumental painting For the Women’s House for the women incarcerated at Rikers Island jail. 50 years later, artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, who gave birth in prison 15 years ago, found herself banding together with an eclectic group of activists, politicians, artists, corrections officers, and Faith Ringgold herself to free the artwork with the ultimate goal of freeing the women. Paint Me a Road Out of Here is a wild tale of the painting’s whitewashed journey and the two artists who challenged the same powerful and oppressive institutions, a half century apart, with their artwork, their voices, and their shared, persistent goals.

About the speakers 

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, writer, pedagogue, and cultural worker based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a visionary thought leader creating socially conscious music, films, performances, and visual art, her practice embodies resilience, care, and community-centeredness while working at the intersections of reproductive justice, Black feminist thought, and transformative change. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, New York; the African American Museum of Philadelphia; Frieze LA and NY; and a solo exhibition in 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum. 

Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer, and activist. She founded her nonprofit film production company Aubin Pictures in 1996. Her films have screened at festivals on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, Sundance Channel, Free Speech TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. They include: Meanwhile, Angola Do You Hear Us?, Primera, Aggie, Chavela, and Born to Fly.

Gina Dent is Professor of Humanities and Faculty Research Director at the Institute of the Arts & Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, she also serves as Principal Investigator and Co-Director for Visualizing Abolition. Her recent collaborative publications grow out of her decades-long work as a social justice advocate — Abolition. Feminism. Now. (2022) and Seeing through Stone (2024).

Janna Keegan is associate curator for contemporary art and programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She recently co-organized Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care (2024) alongside the chief curator of modern and contemporary art, Claudia Schmuckli. Other exhibitions she has organized include About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift (2024), Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift (2023), Hung Liu: Golden Gate (金門) (2021), David Hockney: Four Seasons (2019), Steve Kahn: Hollywood Suites (2018), and Judy Dater: Only Human (2018).

Ticket info

Free program. Theater doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the program. Seating is limited and unassigned and on a first-come-first-served basis. Admission to the theater program does not include admission to the special exhibition or other galleries in the museum. 

Contact info

Public Programs
publicprograms@famsf.org
415.750.7694