Artist statement 

The topic of natural hair is very important to me. Black women’s hair has been outcasted in society for a long time; as it is a complex subject that is not easily understood. It has been seen as everything but beautiful because it doesn’t fit the “standard” definition of beauty. Growing up, we often hear the words messy, frizzy, and “nappy” when our hair is being described. Therefore, making us ashamed of having this unique hair type.

I choose to construct a poem with my audience being city tech freshmen because I wanted to be able to grab their attention from the very first line and maintain it throughout. Citytech is a very diverse school so I know a lot of the students would be able to relate to my topic. I used words that create an image in my readers’ minds. Furthermore, I wanted to be able to capture and explain the beauty of natural hair in words that we didn’t hear when we were young. My goal with this unit was to make sure my intended audience know that they weren’t alone when it comes to the long crucial journey of finally accepting and loving themselves and the eccentric hair that they were blessed with.

Unit 3 final