Loophole of Retreat (PB) (2025)

The collected contributions from Simone Leigh's 2022 Venice Biennale symposium on Black women's intellectual and creative labor

As a part of the United States Pavilion for the 2022 Venice Biennale (for which she won the Gold Lion), Simone Leigh (born 1967) organized a three-day symposium, "Loophole of Retreat," to take place during the exhibition. The title is drawn from a passage in the 1861 autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, who, for seven years after escaping enslavement, lived in a crawlspace she dubbed the "loophole of retreat." This publication brings together the collected contributions from Leigh's symposium by more than 60 international theorists, activists, historians, artists and writers. Structured around guiding themes--Maroonage, Manual, Magical Realism, Medicine and Sovereignty--each essay, dialogue, performance and artwork tells a story about Black women's intellectual and creative labor throughout history.
Contributors include: Vanessa Agard-Jones, Firelei Báez, Rashida Bumbray, Tina M. Campt, Meredith Cox, Ja'Tovia Gary, dream hampton, Saidiya Hartman, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Lorraine O'Grady, Legacy Russell, Christina Sharpe, Alberta Whittle, Mabel O. Wilson.