"The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae” is an “experimental performance” where the ubiquitous domestic servant’s tool, a broom, is replaced with a conjuration stick and a pencil in the hands of a young, enslaved woman seeking dominion over the trajectory of her life. Set on the Lenox Tobacco Plantation in 1842, Willie Mae rebukes the notion that she should follow the path of least resistance and pray to the wrong God for the wrong reasons. In the old “Negro” words of Frederick Douglas; life changed for Willie Mae when she decided to “pray with [her] feet.” In twenty-three and thirty-seven seconds, The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae weaves together the antebellum saga of feminine subjugation against the will power of the human spirit. The Filmmaker Ife Franklin has served up a ceremonial tribute dedicated to her Great-great grandmother Willie Mae that honors every woman who has gone before and who has come after in need of a reminder that freedom is a place. - Phoenix Savage (Phoenix Savage is a Fulbright scholar OAU, assistant professor of art at Tugaloo university, visiting professor of art Brown University.)
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“We often think of life as residing in individual bodies. We think about each other as if I were a Thing and you were a Thing….” Judith Snow The Power of Vulnerability. “This moving narrative, now a beautiful performance piece, invites the viewer to the continuum of time. A true metaphysician Ife Franklin invites us to see ourselves as the other. The piece is a mirror that reveals the power of perseverance at the heart of the human condition. It is a tale of freedom from bondage for Willie Mae and for this viewer a path to freedom from the bondage to self. It teaches us who we can be for ourselves and for one another. It is a thread that connects us. In the true role of artist, seeker, healer, Franklin receives the story uninterrupted and invites us not to be audience but rather to be participants in the work of our times.” - Michael Dowling (Michael Dowling is the artistic Director of Spoke Gallery, [Medicine Wheel Productions] Boston, MA.)

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“The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae is History, Re-memory and the powerful resurrection of an ancestral femme! Ife Franklin’s debut as a filmmaker is brave, raw and hauntingly provocative.” - Portia Cobb (Portia Cobb is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee pack school of the arts. Department of film, video, animation and new genres.)

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“With ‘The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae’ Ife Franklin continues the work of conjuring the past and bringing it into the contemporary moment. Having seen this work evolve over the years, from journal entries to text works and performances, it has been heartening to see it come gloriously to life in filmic form. This work of deep remembrance is something you should see and reflect on, because if we don’t acknowledge our past, we can never quite make sense of our present. Ife’s work goes a long ways towards helping us to do that.” - Dawoud Bey (Dawoud Bey is a MacArther fellow/artist/educator at Columbia college, Chicago.)