BLACK BOYS ARE...
PURPOSE: This project highlights and celebrates Blackness in its natural expression through our children and their hair. Boys Latin High School students will be interviewed and photographed, with images used for a city wide exhibit.
SCOPE OF WORK: It is important to celebrate BLACKNESS, and radical self love in the face of forced colonial assimilation. 2 years ago, video circulated of a 16 year old Andrew Johnson cutting his dreadlocks at a wrestling tournament, because his hair in its natural state was deemed "unfit" for competition. He was left with the decision of either facing an automatic disqualification or cutting his dreadlocks. This story is not a singularity. There are too many of these stories to count. The Crown Act was passed only just a year ago finally making hair discrimination in the United States illegal.
This project is important because in a world that too often politicizes and criminalizes Black people for just being, it is important to highlight that we ARE people just being.
With Philadelphia's increased gentrification and the systemic erasure of Blackness, to make new comers to the city more "comfortable", there is a need to remind that we are a large and proudly Black city. What better way to communicate that than to explore a topic as culturally nuanced as hair, through the lens of our children.
This city belong to these kids. They play in these streets and are growing up in these city blocks. The current narrative around their demographic is one that highlights the tragic negatives. While their anger to the unfairness of their conditions is justified, the image is negative and at times disheartening. Using Boys Latin Students, dressed in their uniform, laughing and talking about something as playful and culturally relevant as hair, disrupts that negativity.
The project is broken up into 2 visual essays, where students will be discussing their hair along with questions around Black Boyhood; and individual photo shoots featuring 30 students, with "self essays" to accompany their images. Each of the 30 images will be reworked into graphics and posted around the City of Philadelphia.
- 90 12×18 images in total posted around the city, with 2 visual essays and 30 mini student interviews accessible by QR codes printed on the images.
70 students max will be casted to be a part of the project.
- 25 students will take part in a visual essay. In which discussions range from defining Blackness in their own words, Black boyhood and their attachments to their hair and inherently their attachments to culture and identity.
- 15 Queer students in a video essay discussing Black Boyhood, their hair routines, identity and culture. This serves as an ode to Black Queer boys who are taking the reins in redefining masculinity.
- 30 Students will have their portraits taken to later be transitioned into graphics. They will also be tasked with writing a pledge to themselves, and the standards they hope to upkeep to themselves.