At

the

Obama

Presidential

Center,

Carrie

Mae

Weems

Is

Using

Jazz

to

Tell

a

Uniquely

American

Story

When photographer Carrie Mae Weems first got a call about creating a new commission for the Obama Presidential Center back in 2023, she found herself revisiting a conversation she’d had with her friend Butch Morris, the late cornetist and composer, in the days following Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory 15 years earlier.

The two were at lunch, discussing what Obama’s win would mean for America—and especially for Black Americans—and how they might capture such a moment in their art. Morris’s answer was immediate. “I hear the blare of trumpets,” he told Weems.