Written by Mitty Hicks
October 7, 2024
Don’t Touch My Hair celebrates Black women and hair culture.
Eight years ago, Ayanna Morris was struggling with her identity as a black woman. She felt insecure and was trying to find her career path. During that time, she came up with the idea for “Don’t Touch My Hair.”
“When I was little, I never dreamed of getting married or having kids. I always thought I would have a great career if I was single and had a cat,” she tells Black Enterprise. “My life has been the opposite. I am a married woman with multiple children. I balance myself as a supportive wife and mother, but (my) career has not developed as I had hoped. It was.”
Morris is a designer, director, and producer known for his 2022 documentary “Why We Are American,” which explores the life and legacy of poet Amiri Baraka. She says being a wife and mother is her biggest title. Still, she was looking for an opportunity to become whole, especially after the Black-owned drive-in theater she created, the Newark Moonlight Cinema, closed during the pandemic.
Almost 10 years after coming up with the idea, Morris’ dream of “Don’t Touch My Hair” has come true. Her immersive mobile experience will debut during the Newark Arts Festival, Culture Parlor. This is more than just an experience exploring common requests from Black women.
Don’t Touch My Hair celebrates Black women and hair culture. Morris said it’s a space where she hopes guests can find their voices and come to terms with who they are.
“There’s a loud cry to uplift women, to decolonize people, to find their strength and celebrate their uniqueness,” Morris says. “This exhibit celebrates our beauty (…) our grit and tenacity.”
Inspired by a husband who built a house out of shipping containers, “Don’t Touch My Hair” features the arch of a 3D-printed hand symbolizing the unsolicited and intrusive act of touching a black woman’s hair. It is housed in a modified shipping container with a design. This experience made a powerful statement urging society to stop policing black hair.
The multi-day cultural activity “Don’t Touch My Hair” will run from October 11th to October 13th and will feature live performances, spoken word, a DJ, a panel discussion with Misa Hilton and Mickey Taylor, and closing grits. & glam brunch, etc.
“This experience includes an amazing hair salon and a gallery with portraits and films that celebrate the evolution of black hair and its historical references,” says Morris.
The “Don’t Touch My Hair” exhibition will be on display at Harriet Tubman Square in Newark, New Jersey until November 15th. After that, she will head to Miami Art Week at the Red Dot Art Fair in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood from December 4th to 8th.
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