Kamala Harris Advertisement Draws Inspiration from Carrie Mae Weems

Nov 03, 2024

As part of her national campaign advertisements, Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris was lent imagery from artist Carrie Mae Weems‘s landmark “Kitchen Table” series from 1990. The video, titled Kamala’s Table, began airing on October 30 on streaming and digital platforms in key battleground states.

Weems most recently made headlines last month for receiving a National Medal of Arts.

Her famed “Kitchen Table” series shows Black women posing around a kitchen table, with the artist herself appearing in these photographs. The Harris ad, which is aimed at working-class Black, Latino, Asian and women voters, shows photographs of the Democratic Presidential candidate during her childhood and on the campaign trail in an effort to support the Democratic candidate at the polls on November 5.

“The kitchen table. It’s where we gather with family. It’s where we eat together, pay our bills. It’s where Kamala Harris learned the importance of serving the people,” the voiceover explains.

The ad then continues to outline some of Harris’s key election promises, among them family tax credits and a proposal to provide first-time homebuyers with up to $25,000 toward a downpayment.

“Pull up a chair,” the ad concludes. “At Kamala Harris’s table, there’s a seat for you.”

The ad was written by Mark Skidmore, the chief executive of the creative agency Assemble, with Gina Belafonte, the director and chief executive of the social justice foundation Sankofa. It was produced and directed by filmmakers Tanya Selvaratnam and Hannah Rosenzweig, who previously worked together on the feature-length documentary Surge (2020), which tracked the number of first-time women candidates who won seats during the 2018 midterm elections in the U.S.

The political action committee Communities United, which mobilizes women, people of color, and younger voters, commissioned the advertisement.