When Caged Birds Sing features eight life-size sculptures representing current women’s rights activists who suffered and survived abuse because of their gender, and who continue to advocate for the rights of others at risk. The title of the exhibition is based on the Maya Angelou poem, Caged Bird, which includes the refrain, “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

Through assemblage art, Weiner has shined a spotlight on categories of lethal abuse including sex trafficking, kidnapping, transphobia, female genital mutilation (FGM), honor killings, domestic abuse, the conversion of kidnapped girls into sex slaves and killers by rebel armies, merciless Taliban law and transphobia.