of self...
of family...
of black...girlhood, hair, culture, history, and music.
Leola Hampton's Facebook post, complete with a picture collage of her granddaughter Jordin's first school day pictures alongside an empowering, descriptive caption, was overflowing with positive affirmations centered on afro puff love and pride that made me look in the mirror at my own afro puff and relish in its beauty and power.
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| Leola Hampton's Facebook Post. Shared with permission. |
Today, I want to follow Mrs. Leola's lead and honor Jordin's wondrous smile, beauty, and promise by celebrating our afro puffs.
As you learn more about the historical, cultural, and social dynamics around the afro, ask yourself, your friends, your sisters and brothers, your daughters and sons, and your communities:
What does your afro puff(s) mean to you?
Using the hashtag #puffrevolution, share an image of yourself or someone you know rocking their afro puff(s).
In your caption, complete the phrase:
My afro puff is ________! or My afro puffs are __________!
So, here's some background...The afro's history is longstanding and has consistently pushed back against Eurocentric norms of beauty and fashion. From musicians like Nina Simon, Diana Ross, Maxwell, and Questlove to activists like Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and Cornell West, the afro's presence in black history, culture, and fashion has been widely visible.
Michael July's coffee table and lifestyle book Afros: A Celebration of Natural Hair offers a compilation of this visibility. He says,
In addition to beautiful photographs, the book contains quotes & commentaries from each individual on why they choose to wear their hair natural and/or what does natural hair mean to them, their occupation & where they hail from as well as researched information regarding the history of the Afro.
There are many books that celebrate black hair for young children. Also, more critical considerations of black hair, and more specifically the afro, have been explored within science, history, sociology, women's and gender studies, and countless other disciplines.
In her book Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and The Global Politics of Soul, scholar Tanisha C. Ford coins the term "soul style."
Soul style comprises African American and African-inspired hairstyles and modes of dress such as Afros, cornrows, denim overalls, platform shoes, beaded jewelry, and dashikis and other garments with African print that became massively popular in the 1970s when "Black is Beautiful" was a rallying cry across the African diaspora.
She evaluates the role of African-inspired fashion choices across four continents and 18 countries. Within the US context, Ford focuses on the 1960s and 1970s as socio-historical moments that reflect the feminist conviction that personal fashion is political.
Although the afro didn't leave the fashion scene for many black people after the 1970s, there has certainly been a resurgence of its presence through black women's (re)embrace of the natural hair movement. As was the case in decades past, the afro's visibility (and other black hairstyles) have been met with a great deal of resistance. Whether at school, in the workplace, or while traveling, the policing and scrutiny surrounding the afro...black hair...and blackness more generally is getting old! And I'm tired of it.
Together, we can contribute to the afro's ever-evolving history and culture significance.
Using the hashtag #puffrevolution, share an image of yourself or someone you know rocking their afro puff(s). In your caption, complete the phrase:
My afro puff is ____________!
or
My afro puffs are ___________!
Looking forward to seeing the love for the #puffrevolution.
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