In 1971, I got on the phone and called Kay [Brown] and she called Faith [Ringgold], it could have been vice versa, and we said, “There are other women out there. Why don’t we all get together and see what happens?” We decided to call every black woman artist that we knew in New York…. I found a couple and Kay found some and Faith found some. I called the meeting in my studio which was on the fifth floor in a walk-up on the Lower East Side. Not only was that the situation, but I remember issues like water dripping from the roof down into the hallway, the lights were out, but maybe ten women showed up.
                         
They walked up to the fifth floor and I thought, “Wow these women are really interested in doing something about the lack of black women in the arts…. Ellsworth Ausby went to bat for me and told Nigel L. Jackson, one of the owners of Acts of Art, ‘Dindga is not going to be a fly by night. She’s a committed artist and you should show her work.’ Nigel exhibited my work and it sold. Then, “Where We At” had the first meeting and discussed forming a group. We had another meeting or two and then thought we needed a place to exhibit. I said, ‘Why don’t we try Nigel? He let me in, maybe he’ll let all of us in.’ We talked to him and he was for it. We had the first show at the Acts of Art Gallery.”  ❉

Dindga McCannon, interview with Phillip Glahn, Bomb, August 2020