Frederick on Lake Pontchartrain | after Lincoln Beach

This object was selected for the collection as part of an annual student-led collecting initiative undertaken by the Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA), an interdisciplinary group of Northwestern undergraduates.

Frederick on Lake Pontchartrain | after Lincoln Beach (2019, printed 2020) is a black-and-white photograph taken in 2019 in New Orleans on the coast of Lake Pontchartrain, when Woods-Morrow spent time at Lincoln Beach with two acquaintances, Frederick and Lynell. Lincoln Beach was the first Black beach segregated in the Jim Crow era. Frederick wore a dress for the first time when posing for this photograph. This work captures a contemplative moment in a location known for its racism with an individual in attire a viewer might assume to be viewed as unacceptable by society. However, the composition is framed in a meditative, unremarkable manner, which seeks to remove the emphasis from what a heteronormative society would consider “remarkable.” Instead, the effect of the work is a simple capture in time of a figure on a beach, whose shores should be populated with play and laughter yet are embedded with historical inequities and suffering.

Mayán Alvarado-Goldberg, Neuroscience and Global Health ’24 Solome Bezuneh, Communication Studies ’24 Gabrielle Bliss, Chemical Engineering and Data Science ’25 Carolina Carret, Legal Studies ’23 Zayn Elmasry, History and Science in Human Culture Program ’24 Kevin Foley, Gender & Sexuality Studies ’24 Elle Gordon, English Literature ’23 Zeki Ülgür Hirsch, Art History ’24 Ipsita K, Art History and Social Policy ’24 Katy Kim, Art History and Political Science ’23 Jaharia Knowles, Journalism ’25 Rowan McCloskey, Dance and Political Science ’26 Nozizwe Msipa, Communication Studies ’24 Margeaux Rocco, Economics ’23 Bengi Rwabuhemba, Cultural Anthropology and Global Health ’2023 Meena Sharma, Learning Sciences ’25 Toy Suliman, Asian American Studies and Radio, Television, Film ’23 Tamara Ulalisa, Journalism and Political Science ’24 Joyce Wang, Economics, and Radio, Television, Film ’24 Bobby Yalam, Comparative Literary Studies and Economics ’24 Hank Yang, Journalism and Religious Studies ’24

Block Museum Student Associates select work by Derrick Woods-Morrow as 2023 Student Acquisition