2026

Digital collage

Exhibition History:
2026, Freedom Dreams, Inaugural Ramadan Iftar, National Museum of African American History & Culture. 

Progress is a digital collage commissioned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s (NMAAHC)’s Center for the Study of African American Religous Life (CSAARL) for the 2026 Inaugural Ramadan Iftar* themed “Freedom Dreams,” led by Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, Ph.D.

This collage borrows from the Muhammad Speaks newspaper progress pages of a similar compositional format. In each issue, there is a page or spread that celebrates a new advancement for the Black Muslim commuity. The three sections representing past, present, future (as bottom, middle, and top, respectively) show the progression of Black liberation over time starting with the story of Yarrow Mamout overlaid atop a 1700s map of Georgetown, D.C. where Mamout carried out his life as a freedman, owning a home and bank stocks. The middle section features a W.E.B. Du Bois data visualization titled “Proportion of Freemen and Slaves Among American Negroes” between the years 1790–1870. Serendipitously, Du Bois’ data includes the years of Mamout’s freedom between the years of 1796-1823 forming a natural connection between these sections. The top section is a 1980’s image of Muslim school girls featuring Su’ad Abdul Khabeer as a child. This section shows the continuation of Black liberation as girls attend a school specifically for Muslim children, a freedom and protected space that was not afforded to Black, Muslim girls at the beginning dates of Du Bois’s data visualization. 

*This artwork was displayed during and used in marketing materials for the event.

References
Proportion of Freemen and Slaves Among American Negroes (1900), W.E.B. Du Bois Source

Progress Page, Muhammad Speaks (1960-1975)