Chicagoan Anjanette Young is debuting a new art exhibit entitled “I Am Her” at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. The exhibit, which Young curated, is a collection of artwork representing not only her experience as the victim of a wrongful police raid in 2019 but also that of other Black women and girls who’ve also been traumatized by police.
The exhibit’s debut is tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Details for the exhibit event can be found here. The exhibit is expected to be on display for the next month or so, according to museum CEO Perri Irmer.
Thursday’s debut will include food and drinks, a live performance with African drummers, an accompanying spoken-word piece by Young, and a panel discussion featuring the curator and artists involved in the exhibit.
“This work is a part of my healing journey,” Young said Thursday ahead of the debut. “This is me fighting back, bringing awareness to what happened to me and to the corrupt systems that we have within the police department, not only in the city of Chicago, but across the state and across the country.”
“I Am Her” can be seen on the lower level of the museum and features mixed-media works by Chicago artists Osei Agyeman-Badu, Dianne McGhee Lewis and AP Roberson.
Young said the idea of curating an exhibit became a reality over a year ago. She collaborated with Chicago police Officer Corry Williams, who also owns the 345 Art Gallery in East Garfield Park. Artists in residence at the gallery were selected to participate and bring Young’s vision to life.
Young asked the artists to watch the body camera footage of the wrongful raid of her home and to create art based on what they were feeling after watching the video. On Feb. 21, 2019, Young, then 49, was at home in her apartment, getting undressed and preparing for bed, when Chicago police burst into her home with guns drawn. They were acting on a tip from an informant, but the cops were at the wrong house.
Despite Young’s repeated pleas that the officers had the incorrect address, police handcuffed her while she was naked and continued to search her home. The police officers initially ignored her requests for clothing.
After a smaller scale exhibit at the 345 Art Gallery in June 2024 and moving to The Kehrein Center for the Arts in December, the exhibit is now being housed at the DuSable Museum — a dream come true for Young, who had always hoped to see the exhibit featured at the DuSable.
“We’re also a social justice institution and today, especially with everything going on, with Black history and education itself under attack, with the permission slip that racist behavior has been given under this [President Donald Trump’s] administration, we couldn’t have done this at a more important time,” Irmer said.
The art exhibit is also an extension of Young’s foundation, I Am Her, which she started in honor of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman killed by police officers during a 2020 botched drug raid in Louisville, Kentucky. The foundation is committed to empowering women who’ve experienced trauma, injustice and adversity by providing support, mental health resources and education.
“I carry these women with me whenever I speak,” Young said, naming Taylor, Sandra Bland and Sonya Massey. “Whenever I have any type of appearance where I’m talking about my story, I know that I am now the voice for them, because they no longer can speak for their experience. I want to make sure that I uplift them and other women who have lost their lives.”
The exhibit also includes a short documentary, narrated by Young and played on a loop, that explores the history of slavery and the exploitation and trauma experienced by Black people, with a specific focus on how that trauma has uniquely affected Black women.
Since 2021, Young and a coalition of alders and community organizations have pushed the city to pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance to prevent wrongful police raids like the one she experienced. However, the measure has stalled under both former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and current Mayor Brandon Johnson.
A key point of contention is the requirement that police wait at least 30 seconds for someone to answer the door before executing a search warrant, which Young says the Chicago Police Department hasn’t agreed to.
“We’re saying, if 30 seconds is too long, what’s the number? But right now, they have not been able to give us an actual number,” she said.
There’s been movement on no-knock warrants at the state level. House Bill 1611 was approved by the Illinois House of Representatives Judiciary Criminal Committee in an 8-5 vote on March 19. The proposed bill bans no-knock warrants for low-level offenses and calls for search warrants to only be executed between 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. The bill needs approval by both the House and Senate before it can be enacted. Then, the bill is passed onto Gov. J.B. Pritzker for consideration.
Beyond tonight’s grand opening event, Young plans to continue moving the exhibit from gallery to gallery across the nation, but she’s in no rush to move to the next place.
“I want people to take away the understanding of my story and that this is bigger than Anjanette Young,” she said. “I want people to feel an urgency to reach out to their legislators and say, ‘hey, I want you to pass this legislation that Anjanette Young has in the [Chicago] City Council and on the state level.’ I want people to get involved. I want them to see themselves, their families, and other Black women who have had this experience, and I want them to walk away with a sense of urgency for change.”
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