Panel: Trauma, Tresses and Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative
Channel: San Francisco Public Library
Date: 2021-10-17

Contributors of, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth, relate their true, often shocking encounters while wearing natural hair. Featuring Dr. Adrienne Danyelle Oliver, Barbara Ruth Saunders, Kathryn Seabron and Lyzette Wanzer.

Particularly relevant during this time of emboldened white supremacy, racism and oppressive othering, their work explores how writing about one of the still-remaining systemic biases in academic and corporate America might lead to greater understanding and respect.

In her essay “Is Your Hair Still Political?” writer and civil rights activist Audre Lorde explains how she nearly missed a Caribbean vacation because an immigration officer objected to her dreadlocks. Black women’s natural hair remains political and persecuted even now.