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Meet the artist honoring traditional black hairstyles with incredible braids (Fusion.net)

Shani Crowe is an interdisciplinary artist from Chicago’s south side. The product of an Art rich, Afrocentric upbringing, Shani creates work that is centered on keeping the proverbial flame of cultural coiffure, adornment, and beauty ritual, as they relate to the diasporic African. She seeks to connect with people through her artistic practice to convey a message of love, cultural identity and Black unity and to create a variety of visual and wearable art, prompting a meaningful exchange between the artist and viewer/client. (3Arts)

Crowe on “Why do you think it’s important to preserve black hairstyles?”:

Braiding is a sacred art in a lot of ways because it’s so rich in tradition—a lot of times we don’t really understand how much it means. I’ve always done hair and there were times when [braids] weren’t really as popular and I didn’t do them as much, but [now] all these white girls are coming out wearing cornrows. Someone asked me, “Do you do boxer braids?” and I was like, “You mean box braids? What the hell are boxer braids?” And she was like, “Those braids that Kim Kardashian wears.” Kim Kardashian just has straight-back braids and they aren’t even done that well, they looked pretty popped, and popped in Chicago is not a good thing. Because [braids] are coming out in pop culture and being exploited as a trend in the fashion scene, I think it’s important for me to honor them, before there’s a time when people don’t even remember them as a traditional black art. Plenty of cultures do their own braid styling, but African braiding has its own very long chapter in the history of braiding. I felt charged to make them tangible in a way where I could create an icon that honors my experience with braiding, my love for my clients and a celebration of black feminine beauty coiffeur in my own words, in my own images outside of magazines.