Sketchbook page for Maid-Rite— I’se in Town Honey

Saar’s sketches are a repository of sources and ideas for her completed works. Here, she wrote, “A.J. [Aunt Jemima] white invention.” She also attributed the words inscribed on the bottom of the washboard
to Henry Dumas (1934–1968), an African
American writer and activist who was
killed at age thirty-three by a New York
City transit police officer.

Betye Saar
Sketchbook page for Maid-Rite—
I’se in Town Honey,
17 July 1997 (facsimile)
Ballpoint pen on paper
Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California. © Betye Saar.
photo © Museum Associates/LACMA