Inspired by graphic t-shirts featuring phrases such as “My Black is Beautiful,” “Strong Black Girl,” and “Black Girl Magic,” these series titled A Radiant Revolution and Lavender Notes relate these expressions of empowerment to the history of head wraps. There was a time in history when sumptuary laws banned Black women from showing their hair; The Tignon law, for example. However, the head wrap then and now represents courage, ancestry, protection, collective identity, and a uniform of rebellion that signifies resistance to the loss of self-definition.

Each photograph is accompanied by burlap dyed with sweet tea, which gives the pieces a copper color. The burlap weavings are also embellished with gold scrambled text, which consists of poems collaged from the words of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” bell hooks’ “talking back,” Amandla Stenberg, and handwritten reflections from members of the community.

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https://www.bostonartreview.com/read/stephanie-woods-lavender-notes-provincetown