PLAN B, a Gathering of Strangers (or) This Is Not Working by Goldendean

Abstract

| 93 from its birthplace. Navigating through the demonization and politicization of Black hair in America, Tharps also highlights Black hair’s resilience as well as the continued strength and creativity of the Black community. Dr. Ingrid Banks, author of Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness, examines the painting “Internal Battle” by artist and illustrator Keturah Ariel. In this analysis, Dr. Banks references a number of notable figures including W. E. B. Du Bois, Anita Hill, Dr. Willie Morrow, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Madame C.J. Walker, and Angela Davis. Ariel’s painting presents a young woman whose hair, parted down the middle, is stylized straight with blue highlights on the left and in a natural, mid-size afro on the right. The woman wears a pink tank top, gold chain necklace, and a look of indecision on her face. Banks describes how Ariel’s portrait of a young woman captures the all-too-familiar fear around Black hair stylization. Since enslavement, Black hair has been historically subjected to and policed by Eurocentric standards of beauty. This perpetual discrimination, in turn, has challenged the Black community’s freedom to wear any coiffure as they so choose. While Banks goes into greater detail in her essay, “Internal Battle” presents a snapshot of the complex dynamics connected to hair texture and grooming. Dr. Afiya Mbilishaka, a hairstylist, therapist, and assistant professor of psychology at the University of the District of Columbia, begins by providing an explanation for hair texture variation. She then transitions to the traditional care, rituals, and varied significance hair embodied in African societies. During and after colonization and enslavement, Black hair was often manipulated to achieve unnatural textures in order to meet new societal standards. These efforts resulted not only in damaged hair, scalp, and skin but also psychological injury. Mbilishaka advocates that what is needed now are texture-positive counter-narratives and conjoined efforts by psychologists and hair care providers. While Mbilishaka celebrates the larger Black is Beautiful and #TeamNatural movements, it is also encouraging to see the existence of groups like “My Black is Beautiful,” their support of TEXTURES, and the presence of P&G and L’Oréal as sponsors. The “New World” societal standards discussed in Dr. Mbilishaka’s essay are developed further by Zoé Samudzi. She argues that one of the reasons Western standards of beauty took on global power was because Western society feigned ignorance and explicitly rejected the idea that Africa possessed any signs of development. This mentality both justified the damage of imperialism and chattel slavery and labeled textured hair as ugly and unruly. Hair that was stylized and prized in Africa was now forcibly removed and criminalized abroad. While hair strands are dead entities, they have always been alive in cultural connotations and meaning-making. Samudzi takes pride that today, as different as her closely cropped hair may be from that of the Himba woman’s indigenous expression, “we both understand our respective presentation as the pinnacle of feminine beauty to different degrees” (p. 42). Black hair is resilient, diverse, and something to be admired. Dr. Joseph L. Underwood, co-curator of TEXTURES, finishes the collection of essays with a reflection on Black hair and photography. Dr. Underwood recounts the tendency by White photographers during colonial and postcolonial eras to capture Black individuals on film without their permission and in ways that served personal agendas. But Dr. Underwood follows this preface with the reminder that artists from Africa and its Diaspora have worked behind the lens too. His essay proceeds to introduce three Black photographers: British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor, Senegalese artist Ibrahima Thiam, and Cleveland-based American artist Amber N. Ford. In “The Massacre of the Innocents... No. XXIV” by Lina Iris Viktor, Viktor both grieves and reclaims agency over the Black bodies once photographed against their will by European ethnologists. Ibrahima Thiam brings newfound life and attention to the work of early West African photographers in his “Vintage Portrait” series. Amber N. Ford documents the intimate, imperfect layers (tracks) of synthetic hair in her photos “Pronto” and “Feeders” as a nod to the way these accessories weave into identity. While the practice and past of photography will always have its flaws, the work and inclusion of diverse Black photographers will continue reframing fraught narratives and envisioning brighter futures. While the subject of Black hair is hard to exhaust, the work of TEXTURES establishes a strong framework and gives Black hair the attention it deserves. For those without much familiarity on the topic, the succinct string of essays and categorized objects provide a substantial survey introduction. The essays from contributing content specialists strategically build on one another and the inclusion of new work created specifically for the show guarantees something new for everyone. Should a reader desire to dive deeper, most featured artists have additional work involving Black hair and there is a seven-page bibliography at the close of the book, not to mention source notes at the end of each essay.