Exhibition Guide
LaToya Ruby Frazier: More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022 (Detail). 2022. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland, BMA 2023.114
Exhibition Introduction
Art Object Info
LaToya Ruby Frazier: More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021–2022
Informed by documentary practices and rapid societal transformation begun in the early 1900s, LaToya Ruby Frazier (born Braddock, PA 1982) explores identities of place, race, and family through portraiture and social narrative. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, she turned her camera lens to the community health workers (CHWs) of Baltimore. These frontline public health professionals accompany their clients to doctor’s visits and offer guidance to people who need medical care in underserved neighborhoods in and around Baltimore. Their primary goal is to promote improved health outcomes by building patient self-sufficiency and creating an environment in which they receive care with dignity, attentiveness, and compassion.
More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021–2022 is a 21st-century workers’ monument in the form of an immersive sculptural, architectural, and photographic installation. In these double-sided structures that counter public memorials to often flawed and troubled historical figures, Frazier monumentalizes the heroism and service of CHWs and their advocates in public health. Eighteen IV poles each hold portraits of CHWs and their testimonies on one side and images and descriptions of their communities on the other.
After learning about CHWs through Dr. Lisa Cooper, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Equity, Frazier was introduced to Reverend Debra Hickman, a former clinical researcher and founder of Sisters Together and Reaching Inc. Immersed within a network of public health advocates in Baltimore, Frazier worked with Dr. Chidinma Ibe and Dr. Anika Hines in the development of a research study entitled “Amplifying the Lived Experience of Community Health Workers.” Dr. Ibe introduced Frazier to Tiffany Scott, Maryland’s first certified CHW, who along with Rev. Hickman, was a critical bridge between the artist and the CHWs represented in this monument. Frazier interviewed the CHWs while they were performing outreach and COVID-19 vaccination rollouts in their communities. For the photo-voice component of the study, Frazier taught CHWs how to capture the realities of their own communities through photography. Frazier’s portraits and CHW testimonies recount experiences of redlining, pollution, segregation, food insecurity, public disinvestment, and slow violence throughout Baltimore today.
Through paired portraits, testimonies, and CHW-generated images, Frazier pays tribute to how CHWs navigate the structural and environmental racism that leads to health disparities and inequities impacting social determinants of health. This monument honors them as triumphant and unseen figures of the healthcare system, challenging viewers to consider the camera as a tool to create grass roots level community change.
Dr. Lisa Cooper, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity
Dr. Chidinma Ibe, Nico Dominguez Carrero, and Alison Trainor of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity
Dr. Anika L. Hines of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Virginia Commonwealth University
Mrs. Tiffany Scott, Chair of the Maryland Community Health Worker Association
Reverend Debra Hickman, President and CEO of Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc (STAR)
And the Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland:
La Kerry B. Dawson
Tracy Barnes Malone
Karen Dunston
Kenya Ferguson
Griselda Funn
Erica Hamlett
Donnie Missouri
Veda Moore
Kendra N. Lindsey
Evelyn Nicholson (in memoriam)
Helen Owhonda
Gregory Rogers
Wilfredo Torriente
Latish Walker
This exhibition is a part of the Turn Again to the Earth initiative, which is generously supported by the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.
Exhibition Introduction
LaToya Ruby Frazier: More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021–2022
Informed by documentary practices and rapid societal transformation begun in the early 1900s, LaToya Ruby Frazier (born Braddock, PA 1982) explores identities of place, race, and family through portraiture and social narrative. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, she turned her camera lens to the community health workers (CHWs) of Baltimore. These frontline public health professionals accompany their clients to doctor’s visits and offer guidance to people who need medical care in underserved neighborhoods in and around Baltimore. Their primary goal is to promote improved health outcomes by building patient self-sufficiency and creating an environment in which they receive care with dignity, attentiveness, and compassion.
More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021–2022 is a 21st-century workers’ monument in the form of an immersive sculptural, architectural, and photographic installation. In these double-sided structures that counter public memorials to often flawed and troubled historical figures, Frazier monumentalizes the heroism and service of CHWs and their advocates in public health. Eighteen IV poles each hold portraits of CHWs and their testimonies on one side and images and descriptions of their communities on the other.
After learning about CHWs through Dr. Lisa Cooper, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Equity, Frazier was introduced to Reverend Debra Hickman, a former clinical researcher and founder of Sisters Together and Reaching Inc. Immersed within a network of public health advocates in Baltimore, Frazier worked with Dr. Chidinma Ibe and Dr. Anika Hines in the development of a research study entitled “Amplifying the Lived Experience of Community Health Workers.” Dr. Ibe introduced Frazier to Tiffany Scott, Maryland’s first certified CHW, who along with Rev. Hickman, was a critical bridge between the artist and the CHWs represented in this monument. Frazier interviewed the CHWs while they were performing outreach and COVID-19 vaccination rollouts in their communities. For the photo-voice component of the study, Frazier taught CHWs how to capture the realities of their own communities through photography. Frazier’s portraits and CHW testimonies recount experiences of redlining, pollution, segregation, food insecurity, public disinvestment, and slow violence throughout Baltimore today.
Through paired portraits, testimonies, and CHW-generated images, Frazier pays tribute to how CHWs navigate the structural and environmental racism that leads to health disparities and inequities impacting social determinants of health. This monument honors them as triumphant and unseen figures of the healthcare system, challenging viewers to consider the camera as a tool to create grass roots level community change.
Dr. Lisa Cooper, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity
Dr. Chidinma Ibe, Nico Dominguez Carrero, and Alison Trainor of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity
Dr. Anika L. Hines of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Virginia Commonwealth University
Mrs. Tiffany Scott, Chair of the Maryland Community Health Worker Association
Reverend Debra Hickman, President and CEO of Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc (STAR)
And the Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland:
La Kerry B. Dawson
Tracy Barnes Malone
Karen Dunston
Kenya Ferguson
Griselda Funn
Erica Hamlett
Donnie Missouri
Veda Moore
Kendra N. Lindsey
Evelyn Nicholson (in memoriam)
Helen Owhonda
Gregory Rogers
Wilfredo Torriente
Latish Walker
This exhibition is a part of the Turn Again to the Earth initiative, which is generously supported by the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.