In 2013, the widely acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems — a charismatic artist, activist and educator, known for installations, videos and photographs that invite the viewer to reflect on issues of race, gender and class — was among 10 artists commissioned to participate in “Du Bois in Our Time,” an exhibition I curated when I was director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The exhibition reflected on the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most profound and influential African American intellectuals of the 20th century. He was a civil rights activist, cultural critic, sociologist, founder of the NAACP, historian, environmentalist, poet, novelist and playwright. His prescient writing, public dissent, early anticipation of women’s rights, warnings against environmental degradation and nuclear proliferation, and other modern afflictions he wrote about a century ago addressed issues that are still with us today, and in some cases are more urgent than ever.

Pushing her practice into an entirely new realm, Carrie Mae Weems’ memorable contribution to the 2013 exhibition was naming a flower the “Du Bois Peony of Hope” dedicated to the lasting memory of Du Bois and in acknowledgment of the optimistic mood of that time. The theme of hope was clear back then.

That same year, the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst announced it had digitized an estimated 100,000 items from its Du Bois collection, offering online access for the first time to his original diaries, letters, photographs and other material related to his far-ranging career as a mentor and beacon to generations to come.

That year also marked the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation; the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington (a high-water mark of the civil rights movement); and the 50th anniversary of the passing of W.E.B. Du Bois, who was in exile in Ghana when he died.

Weems worked closely with Hollingsworth Farms and the American Peony Society in 2013 to name the Du Bois Peony of Hope, a beautiful white blossom with a bright yellow center, which is still available today for purchase. It continues to allow thousands of garden enthusiasts to engage in a lasting and sustaining memory of Du Bois by planting hope in the garden. This gesture, to let hope spring eternal, is as meaningful today as it ever was. 

Hollingsworth Peonies Botanical Breeding Co. lists this peony for sale in its new online 2025 catalog, available at bestpeonies.us. The catalog states it has many notable qualities. For example, “the bush retains its form well against rough weather” (yes, rough weather ahead in the USA) and “attracts pollinators and honey bees; deer resistant” (every bit helps to sustain our ecosystems).

In 2013, Weems had hoped the flower would be the centerpiece of a memorial garden for Du Bois at UMass Amherst. This gesture came from an artist who has made her career creating spaces for contemplation in places of absence, attempting to overcome a painful past with projects that are farsighted and idealistic.

As she said in a 2014 interview, “I’ve been thinking a long time about contemplative spaces for important African-American figures, and I realized that there are so few of them in the country. So when given the chance to create a project around Du Bois, I started thinking that this is the time to create a memorial garden. I had a new variety of peony named for him that is slated to go into a new garden at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It’s called the Du Bois Peony of Hope. It’s white with a beautiful citron-yellow center and can be installed outside the museum or in gardens across the country.”

Unfortunately, plans for this garden never materialized. And much has changed these past 10 years, both in the art world and with today’s realities. But one constant is the possibility to plant hope in the garden. Planting a Du Bois peony is planting a seed of hope and a reminder of all that Du Bois had stood for, inspiring us to do as he advised over 100 years ago:

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” — From “The Souls of Black Folk,” published in 1903.

Loretta Yarlow was director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art, UMass Amherst, from 2005 to 2023. She is currently an independent curator.