‘Dapper Durags (2022)’ 

In the pandemic, members of the Black community faced a constant stream of horrendous acts of violence and injustice simply for existing as they are. Witnessing these events secondhand stirred up a myriad of emotions from rage to despair, and I struggled with finding a way to express the full spectrum of my feelings. The notions of professionalism, appearing non-threatening, and being authentic all swirled around in my head as to how they could coexist in tandem in a frustratingly biased and bigoted world. In this body of work, I intend to illustrate the transition of young Black men into the professional space and corporate world as an initiation into adulthood. The abandonment of uniqueness and authentic identity is exchanged for wealth, status symbols, and “success”. The ritual of shaving one’s head elucidates this metamorphosis away from Black childhood and into Black male adulthood and the impact of how the hair that grows out of our heads, the clothing we use to express our culture, and the significance of brotherhood are skewed and distorted into '“negative” imagery despite attempts at assimilation.