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This is America: Performing for the White Gaze

I’m sensitive. I willingly admit that.

I’m still a bit scarred from my undergrad days at a PWI. That’s my truth and I feel the need to share that as it was during this time that my faith in the power of words and the arts in general to produce actualized societal change was truly tested. It was during this time that I found myself increasingly intertwining my art with my politics. Recently, I’ve been feeling the need to keep the two a bit more separated.

Let’s get into it.

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On Why Hair Type Matters

When I first started thinking about going natural, I had just finished high school and it was the summer before my first year at college. Actually, I had my last perm in the 7th grade. Back then I didn’t identify as a “Natural,” — that term wasn’t as big a thing as it is now. I remember going to the hair dressers and having them describe my hair as either “unrelaxed” or “virgin” hair. In my earlier days of being a natural, I still got my hair pressed religiously OR it was in braids/Twists.Read More