The Hair Tales is a collection of Hair Stories from Black Women collected by Michaela Angela Davis with the idea to look at Black Women's identity through the lens of hair and to affirm it.
2 series are visible online: The Parlor Series and the Kitchen Table Talks
Here is how she present it on the website consacred to the project - MAD FREE Website (click):
The Hair Tales is created to affirm Black Women, inform non-Black people about Black Women and inspire the world through Black women’s beautiful curly, kinky and coily journey.
After nearly 5 years of analyzing the senseless relentless Black death on CNN and other public
platforms, the terrorist attack of prayerful citizens in a historic Charleston church broke something in me. In an act of survival, I did what my ancestors have always done – got to work on creating something that illustrated the power of Black beauty and the demonstrated the generosity of our humanity. I called MAD FREE producer, Quan, and pleaded “We have to tell stories of Black girl joy and resilience, now.”
Inspired by the brilliant work of “texture guru,” Anthony Dickey, and the emotional and hysterical stories I heard in his hair rules salon, the concept of “Vagina Monologues of Black Hair” was a doc on my desktop for a few years. Within a few days the doc turned into a pitch, in a few more days the pitch was presented to a few celebrity sisters. Regina King was the first to say yes. Then came Tasha Smith, who also offered her studio space for free. Mara Brock Akil (who was sick) came through, followed by funny gals Kim Coles and Amanda Seales. Patrisse Cullors, full with her first child also did not hesitate to agree. Quan pulled similar favors on the production crew, we got a stellar DP, sound, make up and in less than 2 days shot 6 incredible stories about Black women’s identity through the lens of their hair. While my heart is still broken from Charleston and all the ignorance, violence and injustice that persist, my spirit is indestructible because I know Black women together are a superpower, our beauty is bulletproof and our hair can shapeshift through all this shit.
