After showing my collection of natural hair and loc style photos to Lawrence Rodriguez, the owner of Casa Frela invited me to have an exhibition. For a month nearly 40 pieces of my portraits where on display in the prestigious gallery, that is not just a beautiful brownstone in the Mount Morris Historical District in Harlem. It is also the venue where Beyonce famously recorded the video for her song "Bad boy."
The best thing about this exhibition was that natural hairstyles and locs were in the spotlight for a whole month. I had the time of my life planning special weekend events to celebrate the beauty of Black natural hair. So besides the opening reception, there were workshops, a showing of the documentary My Nappy Roots and to close it all of with a bang there was the Going-Natural hair show.
The reception was already a big success for me. Not just my close friends and family showed up but also few of my fellow Nappturalities and a majority of people I didn't even know.
Lurie Daniel Favors, Attorney, Activist, Speaker
I had tremendous fun sharing with the world where and why I took the portraits and of course talking about the hairstyles. When I asked the audience what image they liked best, almost all of them choose the gorgeous dense Afro of Lurie Daniel Favors who now hosts a show on Sirus FM. Other favorites were Nzinga's fashionable locs updo and the The Fashionable Woman with the Dreadlocks who turned out to be designer Malene Barnett, award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile designer.
Then the Going Natural Hair Show was just spectacular. With natural hairstylists from Khamit Kinks, Locks n Chops, Twist and Curves and Riqui Lox, the audience could just enjoy the best in business.
With this wonderful experience and a collection of natural hairstyles that has expanded to more than 1.000, I look forward to doing more exhibitions to share the beauty of natural hair and change the perspective of our stigmatized tresses. If you are interested in hosting an exhibition please either email me or leave a message.
