The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Sarah Lewis

What is the role of art and culture for racial justice?

Founder of Vision & Justice | Harvard Associate Professor | Bestselling Author of The Rise and The Unseen Truth

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Lavin Exclusive Speaker

To build a better story for our democracy, we must be able to see the people who have been left out, says Sarah Lewis, founder of Vision & Justice and bestselling author of The Unseen Truth and The Rise. As one of the most insightful and eloquent speakers on race in America, Sarah proves that visual representations (from photographs to performances) can spark action and set us on the path to a more just future. Harvard professor Imani Perry calls Sarah’s work “a watershed in the study of art, social, and cultural history.” Sarah has served on President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee, been selected for Oprah’s “Power List,” and spoken at the UN General Assembly. In spellbinding talks, she offers a unique perspective into how we can shift our cultural narratives to ensure everyone is seen and represented, and how we can harness failure to achieve radical innovation. “Where we once blocked our rightful view of one another, we now have the means to build windows,” she says.

“The Unseen Truth isn’t just a groundbreaking work of visionary scholarship. It’s an earthquake.”—Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard Professor

Sarah Lewis is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the founder of Vision & Justice. She has authored and edited over 60 publications including The Unseen Truth, winner of the American Book Award; the bestseller, The Rise, translated into seven languages; the award-winning volumes, Carrie Mae Weems and “Vision & Justice”; as well as Coreen Simpson and Race Stories.

Lewis previously held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern, London, served as a Critic at Yale University School of Art, and curated the SITE Sante Fe Biennial. She left her museum positions to teach at Harvard. Her work focuses on the role of narrative—art and culture—for overcoming societal failures, which has brought her work into the discourse on racial justice, particularly in the United States and around the world. To advance this work, she has organized landmark Vision & Justice convenings, founded a Vision & Justice Book Series to transform the canon of lens-based artists, and has curated many exhibitions, including If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago in September 2026. A frequent speaker at universities and conferences, her mainstage TED talk, Embrace the Near Win, has received 3.1 million views.

Lewis was named to the 2026 TIME List, The Closers, in recognition of her work toward greater equality in the United States. She is the recipient many awards including the Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship at Harvard University (2025), the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2022), the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize from the American Philosophical Association (2022), the Freedom Scholar Award from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (2019), and the Infinity Award for Critical Writing and Research from the International Center of Photography (2017). Lewis received honorary degrees from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2026), the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts (2026), and Pratt Institute (2024) and was asked to deliver commencement addresses for MassArt (2026), Pratt Institute (2024), Capella University (2021), and Yale University School of Art (2019). She serves on the boards of Thames & Hudson Inc. and Civil War History journal and served on the Yale Corporation Committee on Honorary Degrees. Lewis received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, an M. Phil from Oxford University, an M.A. from Courtauld Institute of Art, and her Ph.D. from Yale University. She lives in Cambridge, MA.

Testimonials

Sarah was absolutely, 100% amazingly awesome! I cannot overstate how she engaged with the audience and delivered such a great talk and time with them. She even stayed a bit longer to accommodate her long-line of people wanting to sign her book and have a few moments with her. It was the absolute perfect way for us to kick off our event. We were so grateful to have her there!

Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association

Testimonials

You have no idea how many people came up to me Saturday afternoon who were transformed by your presentation. Thank you so very much for joining us and for having the courage to participate! You were vital to making sense of that whole topic.

Kennedy Center

Testimonials

You were the perfect balance—great stories, so joyful, lots of insights that helped our audience. I hope you could sense that everyone is leaving thinking about things differently, and are, most importantly, happy.

LSAC

Testimonials

As I opened the Global PR Summit feedback survey today, I realized that you deserve kudos directly from everyone who attended for bringing in Sarah Lewis. I had heard that she speaks even more eloquently than her book reads, but didn’t believe it until seeing her in action.

Holmes Global PR Summit

Testimonials

Sarah’s keynote was the perfect affirmation of support for the arts and so much more. The generosity and grace of her work set a tone that was present throughout the convening, and we heard so much gratitude from everyone who saw her presentation—including the hotel staff and AV technicians! It meant a lot to the artists in the room to have someone like Sarah there, and her perspective on culture really nurtured the camaraderie built among the artist cohort.

The USA Team

Testimonials

I don’t think it is possible to overstate the impact your presence had on our students and faculty. People were inspired, moved, and affirmed by you. Your work is incredible and your presence and warmth are equally compelling. Thank you for making the trip, for sharing with such genuine enthusiasm, and for continuing to engage the students who follow up with you.

The Brearley School

Testimonials

Sarah’s presence and her words were deeply inspiring and so relevant to the educators at our event. She made a tremendous impact. We were so pleased. And thank you for all of your assistance in the process. You were so integral to the evening’s success.

North Carolina Museum of Art

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Speech Topics

Inclusion

Vision & JusticeImages and Our Fight for Equity

Who is represented in our art, photographs, and performances? Who is left out?

For too long, people of color have been marginalized in our democracy, says Sarah Lewis—both in the political and cultural realms. But we can change that. In this urgent and hopeful talk, she demonstrates how we can use images and other visual representations to expand the cultural narrative for the better. She draws on her storied career as a curator, author, and founder of Vision & Justice to offer a powerful argument for the necessary work of “re-seeing,” so that we can see one another clearly and fight for a better future together.

Gathering in various threads—art history, technical innovation, race, photography, the story of America, and a deeply personal narrative—Sarah celebrates individual artists, sparks the collective imagination, and helps us see what is right in front of us, as well as what could be. “I don’t think that we see the world,” she says. “I think we actually read the world through a series of perceived narratives. It takes the work of the image—the work of our vision—to state the truth.”

America250

The Power of NarrativeThe Hidden Lever for Justice in America

We are at a crucible moment in our country—one that asks us all to consider how we signal narratives about who counts and who belongs in the United States. Yet the United States has long been in a narrative war between propaganda and culture. How have we been conditioned to see, from images to monuments and markers and more? What is the role of narratives shaped by art and culture for justice? No one is better equipped to answer these questions than Sarah Lewis, author of the American Book Award winner The Unseen Truth.

Based on Sarah’s work and award-winning Vision & Justice initiative, this talk explores why the narratives fashioned by images throughout our culture have been and continue to be a hidden lever for justice—one as important as law itself—since the founding of American Democracy.

Innovation

The RiseCreativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery

Where do new ideas spring from? What really drives iconic, transformational change on both a personal and an organizational level? From Nobel Prize-winning discoveries to works of art, many of our creative triumphs are not achievements but conversions, argues Sarah Lewis, author of The Rise. And when we fail, that’s when we know we’re on the road to success.

Sarah draws on figures such as abolitionist Frederick Douglass and grit pioneer Angela Duckworth, revealing the importance of play, grit, surrender, often ignored ideas, and the necessary experiments and follow-up attempts that lead to true breakthroughs. Uplifting and counterintuitive, this keynote will equip you to harness failure, tap into your creative potential, and seek radical innovation in your personal and professional life. The path to success, Sarah notes, is often more surprising than we expect.