Making History Visible – Nona Faustine, “Not Gone With The Wind”

Nona Faustine, born in 1977 in Brooklyn, is a photographer and artist whose work explores history, memory, race, and the black female body. She is best known for her “White Shoes” series, where she photographs herself at significant New York City sites linked to slavery, often appearing partly nude and wearing or using white shoes. Her nudity symbolizes strength and vulnerability, showing how enslaved people were stripped of dignity. By placing her body in these spaces, Faustine urges reflection on slavery’s lasting impact on New York and highlights Black stories often erased from history. One of her most notable works from this series is, “Not Gone With The Wind” (created in 2015), which features Faustine in front of the Lefferts House in Brooklyn, a historic site that once held many enslaved. She wears a long white skirt, is topless, and has children’s shoes tied around her waist, symbolizing lost children/family and forced motherhood. The title opposes the less cruel portrayal of slavery in the movie “Gone With The Wind”, emphasizing its presence in New York’s history and telling us to confront and remember the lives and labor of those who built the city.