Black is Beautiful: MoAD

Recently, I visited the Black is Beautiful exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora.  The exhibition consisted of photographs taken by Kwame Brathwaite. The photographs feature black women and men with natural hair and clothes that reclaim their African roots as a response to white conceptions of the 1960s.

Kwame Brathwaite, Sikolo Brathwaite wearing a beaded headpiece by designer Carolee Prince, 1967

Brathwaite is a Brooklyn-born artist who turned to art and political activism at a young age. He has taken inspiration from Jamaican-born activist Marcus Garvey, who promoted a Pan-Africanist point of view for black economic liberation and freedom.

Entrance to the Museum of the African Diaspora

Entrance to the Black is Beautiful exhibition on the third floor

He also founded organizations that supported his vision such as Grandassa Models, a modeling group for black women, in 1962. It was organizations like this that allowed Brathwaite to hold fashion shows showcasing clothing designed by the models themselves. The photo Sikolo Brathwaite wearing a beaded headpiece... features jewelry that was designed by Carolee Prince who designed most of the headpieces displayed in Brathwaite's work. Afro-inspired designs allowed black models and designers to connect with their culture and create their own identity.

Photograph of designer Carolee Prince wearing her own jewelry designs

Lily Barnett, Inspired by a dress worn by Sophia Loren on The Johnny Carson Show, this outfit (front) was made by Barnett for her daughter Bernice to be worn in the "Naturally" fashion show

Kwame Brathwaite, Grandassa Models at Marcus Garvey Day Parade, Harlem, ca. 1965

The organizations also gave him the opportunity to take behind the scenes photographs of the black arts community. Brathwaite's photographs challenged the mainstream beauty standards that upheld white women. His photographs of Grandassa models countered the small figure made famous by British supermodels Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy. They were also a response the overwhelming presence of lighter-complexioned, straight-haired black models in black-owned publications such as Ebony. For example, Brathwaite portrayed models wearing their natural hair. 

Kwame Brathewaite, Model wearing a natural hairstyle, AJASS, Harlem, ca. 1970

Kwame Brathwaite, Photoshoot at a public school for one of the AJASS-associated modeling groups that emulated the Grandassa Models and began to embrace natural hairstyles, Harlem, ca. 1966

Members of the black community also participated in protests as a way to challenge fashion standards that honored white people. In the summer of 1963, protests were organized in Harlem against a white-owned wig shop named Wigs Parisian that sold black women straight-haired wigs. The shop eventually decided to close after owners grew weary of the battle. The protests showed the African American's desires to reclaim their own identities and connect with their African ancestry. I thought it was very impressive how their combined efforts shut down a shop that did not allow them to express themselves.

Kwame Brathwaite, Grandassa Model Nomsa Brath (center) promoting natural hairstyles as part of the Wigs Parisian protest, Harlem, 1963

I thought this exhibition showcased issues going on with black identity very well. The use of fashion and photography as tools for highlighting the undervalued Afro-inspired fashions and natural hairstyles was very innovative in challenging the mainstream. Brathwaite's work shows that no one has to conform to the norms of beauty in order to be accepted. Everyone should be able to express themselves anyway they want. In the case of Brathwaite and many other African Americans, fighting to be able to look and dress in ways that they wanted allowed them to express themselves and challenge the white powers that had subjected them in the past.

Visitors viewing Brathwaite's photographs from Black is Beautiful