DivaD04
New Member
I thought this was a good read. I've never been to Brooklyn let alone New York, but if anyone has seen or heard of urban bush women...I think they would be very interesting, informative, and indeed entertaining!
Here I've copied and pasted some quotes that are bold and powerful. I hope you all find this intriguing as much as I did.
Enjoy ladies!
“Everything I know about American history I learned from looking at black people’s hair.
It’s the perfect metaphor for the African experiment: the price of the ticket, the toll of
slavery and the costs of remaining. It’s all in the hair.”
—Lisa Jones, journalist, from Hair Story:
Untangling the Roots of Black Hair
in America
“When my brother ‘locked his head, he was told by my mother that he was not a part
of the family. When he got a promotion at work he cut off his hair and visited our
mother. Evidently she said, 'Now this is my child.'“
—Quote from a Hair Party
“It’s good that we’re being
honest. It’s amazing that
we’re still even tripping
about texture. People are
saying ‘good hair and bad
hair,’ even young people.
And I’m not even talking
about light skin/dark skin.”
-a Hair Party
A HAIR PARTY
BY MARIA BAUMAN, UBW DANCER
As people ring the doorbell, streaming into the house one by one, sometimes in small groups, they seem unsure what to expect. There is a certain air of optimistic expectation and anticipation that permeates the kitchen and living room as people chat and eat with each other. Eventually the host calls everyone to attention and introduces the Urban Bush Women and the idea of the Hair Party: that the various friends, colleagues, and acquaintances of the host have been gathered to use hair as an entry point to engage in dialogue about racial, socioeconomic, and gender issues, among others. All of these people who came from various places to ring the same doorbell now have a tenuous bond, a common purpose for the evening. Although individuals may still be unsure how the night will unfold
or what it will reveal, they invariably look forward to the performance excerpts by UBW. And so the evening begins.
After various ice-breaking introductory questions and anecdotal sharing, the Bush Women stand in the center of the
living room in a tight formation. They are conjuring up the idea of riding in an elevator, an activity everyone in the room likely does more than once a day. The room erupts with laughter as the guests recognize the uneasy feeling of being stared at in the elevator. The performers present two scenarios. In the first, white women passengers in the
elevator stare at a black woman passenger's bald head, nearly falling over one another to gawk at what they seem to have never seen before. They are careful to look away, though, when the bald passenger turns around suspiciously. The second scenario seems to highlight one of the differences between black and white American culture. While the white passengers were afraid of appearing rude, the black passengers in the second vignette are extremely vocal and seem indignant that the bald woman would have the audacity to (not) wear her hair in such a way. The onlookers, who sit in chairs and on pillows throughout the living room, now have more food for thought. Why were the white passengers' and black passengers' reactions so different? Have I ever been the one being stared at? Have I been the
starer? Was I judging or making assumptions about the person based on his or her hairstyle, or was I just curious?
As the performers sit down to join in the lively dialogue again, another veil in the room seems to have been lifted. After having laughed together, the guests' bond is a bit less tenuous. Now, they have all gathered one evening for alike purpose, and they have also reacted in a similar way to performance bits. Men and women who have not known each other prior to the Hair Party are now sharing their own “hair hell moments” and elevator experiences. As the evening proceeds with more talking, punctuated by brief dance excerpts, the guests delve deeper and deeper into
the subjects presented by the UBW co-facilitators.
When it is time to leave, people seem to gather their coats and coordinate taxi rides home in larger, and more boisterous groups than the ones and twos that they arrived in. The bond between the guests, while still fragile, has been intensified. Some people won't see each other again. Some have plans for lunch dates. In any case, the Hair Party seemed a great way to spend an evening. The house feels heady with new ideas and connections.
http://www.artsusa.org/animatingdemocracy/pdf/labs/urban_bush_women_case_study.pdf
When you click on this...the home page says, "I am an urban bush woman."
http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/
Here I've copied and pasted some quotes that are bold and powerful. I hope you all find this intriguing as much as I did.
Enjoy ladies!
“Everything I know about American history I learned from looking at black people’s hair.
It’s the perfect metaphor for the African experiment: the price of the ticket, the toll of
slavery and the costs of remaining. It’s all in the hair.”
—Lisa Jones, journalist, from Hair Story:
Untangling the Roots of Black Hair
in America
“When my brother ‘locked his head, he was told by my mother that he was not a part
of the family. When he got a promotion at work he cut off his hair and visited our
mother. Evidently she said, 'Now this is my child.'“
—Quote from a Hair Party
“It’s good that we’re being
honest. It’s amazing that
we’re still even tripping
about texture. People are
saying ‘good hair and bad
hair,’ even young people.
And I’m not even talking
about light skin/dark skin.”
-a Hair Party
A HAIR PARTY
BY MARIA BAUMAN, UBW DANCER
As people ring the doorbell, streaming into the house one by one, sometimes in small groups, they seem unsure what to expect. There is a certain air of optimistic expectation and anticipation that permeates the kitchen and living room as people chat and eat with each other. Eventually the host calls everyone to attention and introduces the Urban Bush Women and the idea of the Hair Party: that the various friends, colleagues, and acquaintances of the host have been gathered to use hair as an entry point to engage in dialogue about racial, socioeconomic, and gender issues, among others. All of these people who came from various places to ring the same doorbell now have a tenuous bond, a common purpose for the evening. Although individuals may still be unsure how the night will unfold
or what it will reveal, they invariably look forward to the performance excerpts by UBW. And so the evening begins.
After various ice-breaking introductory questions and anecdotal sharing, the Bush Women stand in the center of the
living room in a tight formation. They are conjuring up the idea of riding in an elevator, an activity everyone in the room likely does more than once a day. The room erupts with laughter as the guests recognize the uneasy feeling of being stared at in the elevator. The performers present two scenarios. In the first, white women passengers in the
elevator stare at a black woman passenger's bald head, nearly falling over one another to gawk at what they seem to have never seen before. They are careful to look away, though, when the bald passenger turns around suspiciously. The second scenario seems to highlight one of the differences between black and white American culture. While the white passengers were afraid of appearing rude, the black passengers in the second vignette are extremely vocal and seem indignant that the bald woman would have the audacity to (not) wear her hair in such a way. The onlookers, who sit in chairs and on pillows throughout the living room, now have more food for thought. Why were the white passengers' and black passengers' reactions so different? Have I ever been the one being stared at? Have I been the
starer? Was I judging or making assumptions about the person based on his or her hairstyle, or was I just curious?
As the performers sit down to join in the lively dialogue again, another veil in the room seems to have been lifted. After having laughed together, the guests' bond is a bit less tenuous. Now, they have all gathered one evening for alike purpose, and they have also reacted in a similar way to performance bits. Men and women who have not known each other prior to the Hair Party are now sharing their own “hair hell moments” and elevator experiences. As the evening proceeds with more talking, punctuated by brief dance excerpts, the guests delve deeper and deeper into
the subjects presented by the UBW co-facilitators.
When it is time to leave, people seem to gather their coats and coordinate taxi rides home in larger, and more boisterous groups than the ones and twos that they arrived in. The bond between the guests, while still fragile, has been intensified. Some people won't see each other again. Some have plans for lunch dates. In any case, the Hair Party seemed a great way to spend an evening. The house feels heady with new ideas and connections.
http://www.artsusa.org/animatingdemocracy/pdf/labs/urban_bush_women_case_study.pdf
When you click on this...the home page says, "I am an urban bush woman."
http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/
