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The Play Guide for ‘da Kink in my Hair was created by: Zachary Moull
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‘da Kink in my Hair runs from September 6th to October 1st. For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447
Table of Contents THE BASICS The Company ....................................................................01 The Story ..........................................................................02 Time and Place ................................................................. 02 Who’s Who? ...................................................................... 02 EXPLORATIONS The History of ‘da Kink in my Hair........................................03 Transformation and Truth-Telling An Interview with Trey Anthony ............................... 04 Taking a Breath An Interview with S. Renee Clark............................... 09 Perspectives on Hairstyling ................................................. 11
CONVERSATIONS Conversation Starters ........................................................ 13 Hair Discrimination ............................................................ 13 Movie Night ...................................................................... 14 Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library ................ 15 Sources ............................................................................ 17
THE BASICS
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The Company Theatre Calgary and Canada’s National Arts Centre co-production of
‘DA KINK IN MY HAIR by Trey Anthony THE CAST Novelette Patsy Sharmaine Nia Stacey-Anne Suzy Miss Enid Sherelle
MUSICIANS
Piano Drums & Percussion
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Director and Choreographer Music Director Set & Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design Composers
BEHIND THE SCENES Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Head of Lighting Head Stage Carpenter Wardrobe & Wig Master Head of Sound RF Technician
Trey Anthony Tamara Brown Krystle Chance Allison Edwards-Crewe Virgilia Griffith Rae-Anna Maitland Brenda Phillips Lennette Randall Willy Joosen Jeff Fafard Marion J. Caffey S. Renee Clark Cory Sincennes Gerald King Chris Jacko S. Renee Clark e’Marcus Harper Carol Maillard Michael McElroy Patti Neice Erin Finn Catharine Crumb Scott Morris Ron Siegmund Bronwyn Bowlby Dan Plumtree
THE BASICS
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The Story Novelette is a hairdresser with a special talent for unmasking the hidden secrets of her clients. ‘da Kink in my Hair weaves together their powerful and intense stories with laughter, tears, and inspiration, giving voice to the challenges and triumphs in the lives of contemporary Black women.
Time and Place ‘da Kink in my Hair takes place in a Carribean hair salon in Toronto, in the present day.
Who’s Who? Contains spoilers! Novelette: The hairdresser who owns the salon. When she touches her customers’ hair, she unmasks their stories. Patsy: A churchgoing woman who has lost her son to violence. Suzy: A mother who has fled her family’s racism towards her biracial son. Sherelle: An economist who is struggling to cope with pressure at work and at home. Miss Enid: A widow who finds new romance. Nia: A woman who struggles with how her appearance has defined her in the eyes of others. Sharmaine: A television star who is coming out to her friends and family. Stacey-Anne: A young recent immigrant to Canada who is experiencing sexual abuse at home. Claudette (Novelette’s assistant) and other women at the salon.
EXPLORATIONS
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The History of ‘da Kink in my Hair One of the most beloved Canadian plays in recent memory, Trey Anthony’s ’da Kink in my Hair celebrates the vibrant community of women at a Caribbean hair salon in Toronto. At the centre of the play is the clairvoyant salon owner Novelette, who reads her clients’ stories in their hair and creates space for their compelling tales of challenges and triumphs. “’da Kink is more than just a play,” says creator Trey Anthony, who also stars as Novelette. “It’s a theatrical experience. It’s a place where women come to heal, laugh, cry, and create community.” Anthony found the inspiration for the play while struggling with the limited range of roles available to women of colour in Toronto’s theatre and film industries. After years of roles that depicted negative stereotypes, she explains in her 2010 TEDxToronto talk, “I decided I was no longer going to respond to the calls of casting agents. I was going to respond to the call of truth that came from deep within. And that call was to see my life reflected authentically on the stage.” As it turned out, theatre audiences responded to this call too, thrilled by Anthony’s vivid storytelling that deals forthrightly with race, class, sexuality, and the experiences of immigrants to Canada. When ‘da Kink in my Hair began its journey as a sensation at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001, people lined up around the block to try to get tickets to sold-out shows. Following a Dora Award-nominated production at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, the play was picked up by Mirvish Productions in 2005 and became the first Canadian play ever presented in Toronto’s prestigious Princess of Wales Theatre. It played there to sold-out houses again and had to be extended five times to meet demand, including many devoted audience members who came back more than once. Since then, ‘da Kink in my Hair has gone on to productions in the U.S. and London, and also inspired a television series. To learn more, visit the show’s official website: www.dakinkinmyhair.com
EXPLORATIONS
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Transformation and Truth-Telling An Interview with Trey Anthony Trey Anthony is a truly multitalented artist, not only writing ‘da Kink in my Hair but also taking the stage as Novelette, the hairdresser at the heart of a play that has brought laughter, tears, and healing to its passionate audiences ever since its 2001 premiere at the Toronto Fringe Festival. We spoke with her during the first week of rehearsals at Theatre Calgary. Trey Anthony
What was your first spark of inspiration that led to writing ‘da Kink in my Hair? I was an actor in Toronto, and I was really tired of going out for auditions that I felt didn’t represent me. There were a lot of stereotypical roles: Baby Momma #1, Welfare Mom #2. I got really frustrated with those roles, and I remember going home and talking to my grandmother about it. She said, “Well if that’s the crap that they’re writing, then why can’t you write better crap?” I had never written a play before, and that was the catalyst. It was out of the desperation of trying to get really great roles for myself as a Black woman and an actor. Then the heartbeat of the play came when I was coming out to my family as queer. I turned to writing because it was very therapeutic for me, and the play is really rooted in that. I was questioning a lot of things about my family and my identity, and also about the industry and where I fit into it. There were a lot of changes happening for me, and that’s where ‘da Kink really got its start.
EXPLORATIONS
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You’ve had a long journey with this play, going back to the Toronto Fringe in 2001. Are there particular triumphs that stand out for you? Definitely. I think it was a huge triumph for me at the Toronto Fringe Festival, when we broke box office records there, because I know that people were questioning whether audiences would come out to see a play that featured eight Black women. The play really spoke to people, and it crossed race, it crossed genders, it crossed class. The Mirvish production is also a big standout, when we got to be at the Princess of Wales, and be the first Canadian play ever to be produced there. It was only supposed to run for three weeks, and we ended up running for five and a half months with sold-out audiences. And then when we did the San Diego Rep production in California, that was our first time going out to the U.S. and the play won four NAACP Awards there. So that was also a big milestone. ‘da Kink in my Hair takes place within a community of women at a hair salon. How does that strong sense of friendship and solidarity form in a salon? I grew up in a hair salon. My aunt was a hairdresser. So I know what happens in a hair salon very intimately. I think most women can relate to this: you have a very intimate relationship with your hairdresser. So the hair salon becomes a place where women gather and talk about what’s going on in their lives. Especially for Black women, since we spend a lot of time there. I know that when I tell my friends who are not Black that I’m in my hair salon between three to four hours – that’s a quick day! – they’re shocked by that. They’re like, “What are you doing there?” But you go for the whole experience. It’s not just about getting your hair done. It really is a place where we gather as a community. You play Novelette, the hairdresser who presides over the salon. How does she build that community? Novelette has this amazing gift where she touches a woman’s hair and causes what I call the “unmasking.” All of us have a public persona and a private persona. Novelette is able to unmask these women and reveal what is going on in their private lives. It’s a truth-telling. She says a line
EXPLORATIONS
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early in the play: “If you want to know about a woman, touch her hair, because that’s where we carry all our hopes, our dreams, our hurt, our disappointments.” That’s what she’s able to do. What makes it so powerful, so necessary, to speak those truths? For me, I think it was necessary with ‘da Kink to see Black women’s stories portrayed authentically onstage because, for a lot of women, regardless of race, we walk around with this private pain. There’s that inner voice saying “we are never good enough.” And I think this play gives women a sense of healing. After the show, I’ve had women say things like “It made me proud to be a woman,” or “It made me feel less alone,” or “It made me see that other women are going through these struggles.” Speaking of public and private personas, what role does hairstyle play in the way we create or present our identities? When we’re going through any kind of transition, be it a break-up or a new job, a lot of us go to our hair salon to change our look and feel better about ourselves. I know for me, when I’m feeling down, the first thing I do is go to the hair salon and say “give me some colour,” because that’s a representation of how I want to feel brighter in my life. Or sometimes I’ll want to cut my hair to represent that I’m letting go of something in my life. I think our hair is a very symbolic representation of ourselves. So it’s really important that when Novelette finishes her work on someone’s hair, she’s created an inner and outer transformation. The play delves into some very important issues: racism, homophobia, violence, sexual abuse. What drew you to those stories? When I was writing the play, I felt that every single one of the characters had pieces of me and my life in there. Homophobia is something that, as a queer woman, I’ve experienced within my family. With sexual violence against young girls, that’s something that we don’t talk about publicly, and that had occurred within my own childhood. With the character whose son has died, I have a Black father and a Black brother, and I know it’s a reality that every single time they walk out the door, there’s something that goes through my mind: “Are they coming back?” These
EXPLORATIONS
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were things that I really needed to talk about. And I knew that there was a community of people who were longing to hear it. You’re finishing up your first week of rehearsal in Calgary right now. What’s one new thing that you’ve learned so far? You know, the play is still running right now in Atlanta, and this is the first time that I’ve been able to see two productions back to back. Actors bring different energies and directors bring different interpretations. So I think if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that this play will evolve into what it needs to be at any given time, and every single production will be unique. That’s what I really love about it. What are you looking forward to most with this new production in Calgary? This is the first time I’ve been in Calgary, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Calgary audiences will take away from the production. And I feel blessed that fifteen years later, there’s still an interest in my work and people are still responding to it. I just want to be in this moment and be appreciative. Other people get really nervous about opening night, but I love it. I like the live buzz and the energy of the audience. And this is going to be my last time acting in the piece, so I think it will be a good swan song for me. Why are you thinking that this will be your last time playing Novelette? I’ve been acting in the play for fifteen years. When I first started doing the play I was 26 years old, right? It takes a lot. I’m also really busy, which is a great thing to be able to say as an artist. I have a lot more stories to tell. I really love writing. I really love producing. I’ve got a movie that I want finish writing. So I’ve realized I can’t do everything. There are enough talented actors out there, especially Black actresses who are dying for great roles, that I can pass the torch. I think I learned that when I saw the Novelette in the Atlanta production. I was like, “Oh, someone else can do it!”
EXPLORATIONS
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Was that the first time that someone else played the role? Yeah, and she was great! So I thought, “Okay, I can let that go now.” Now I can move on and tell more stories. I think that’s what’s really important to me. Funny enough, when I first met [director] Marion [J. Caffey] many years ago, I auditioned for him. And he ran me out of the audition room. He said, “You’re a great actor, but every single actress that came in here was auditioning with
your
piece!
You’re
a
writer. That’s your gift. Go out there and write. Why are you in here auditioning? Actors come and go, but what we need is
Marion J. Caffey, director of the Theatre Calgary and National Arts Centre production of 'da Kink in my Hair
writers who are telling great stories.” And that was something that really stuck with me. You’ve said before that ‘da Kink in my Hair is more than a play – it’s an experience. What’s the experience that the show creates? What I’ve seen is that women come and they say that it brings them on a rollercoaster of emotions. They’re laughing, they’re crying, they see themselves. There’s a healing that happens in ‘da Kink. You hear women say, “it changed my life,” or “it’s the first time I felt that I saw my story on stage.” And then they don’t come to the show just once. It’s a movement. They decide to bring their sister, to bring their mother, to call their neighbour. They have a level of ownership over the experience. People will say, “I remember the first I saw ‘da Kink.” Even in the cast right now – and this made me feel really old – one of the actors said “I remember
EXPLORATIONS
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seeing ‘da Kink in high school and what that did for me. And now I’m in it!” Here in Calgary, as soon as I announced it on my Facebook, people were tagging their friends and family who live here and saying, “You gotta see this play! You gotta experience ‘da Kink!” So I think the success of the play has been the energy of people wanting to share the experience. I’m sure you’ve done countless interviews over the years about ‘da Kink in my Hair. Is there a question you wish you got asked, that you haven’t been asked yet? That’s a good question! I think it would be, “how have I myself changed from when I wrote the play to now?” When I wrote the play fifteen years ago, I was going through my twenty-something angst and questioning a lot of things. At that point, I related most strongly to the women who visit the salon. Now I’m older and more mature, and I see myself in Novelette. I’ve become the woman that I wanted to be – that’s who Novelette always was. The way she just says, “I do whatever makes me happy.” So I feel like Novelette is where I’m at in my life now, and I’m grateful. It was a journey to get here, and I recognize that it’s not a final destination. You’re always trying to work through something. But at the same time, you need to be at peace with where you are. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Taking a Breath An Interview with S. Renee Clark S. Renee Clark is one of the composers who has guided ‘da Kink in my Hair on its journey to becoming a full-fledged musical celebration. She worked with Trey Anthony in Atlanta in 2013 and 2016, and is now at Theatre Calgary as the production’s Music Director. We spoke with her just before previews began. Can you tell me about your work on the show? There have been many composers over the years as the music has grown. The show currently uses the work of four of us, who are Carol Maillard, Michael McElroy, e’Marcus Harper, and myself. For this production here
EXPLORATIONS
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in Calgary, the instrumental arrangements are mine, and I get to teach all the music to the performers and musicians. What’s the role of music in ‘da Kink in my Hair? Some of the monologues are just heart-throbbing. I’m oldschool, so I’d say that the music acts almost like a pause for station identification, where you break for a moment and breathe through it. It serves many different purposes, but the
main
one
is
in
the
transitions, because the stories are so strong and powerful. The
S. Renee Clark
music takes you into grandma’s arms and wraps you up and says, “you’re okay, you can handle this.” I really think the music does that throughout the show. Just when it’s almost too much to bear, the music comes in and helps you to exhale. What are some of the show’s musical inspirations? Some of the earlier composers wanted a very grassroots sound, almost like spirituals. Carol Maillard is well known from the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the whole play was a cappella at one point. Now over the years, we’ve added a live pianist and a live percussionist. So you get a little bit of gospel, a little jazz, a little R&B. We crossed across a lot of Afro-beat world music, in general. What’s one thing that’s surprised you while working on the show? I never would have imagined the effect that this play has on an audience. The exhale that happens at the end of the show, it’s like you’ve allowed someone to go into a healing chamber and they come out and say, “oh, I feel so much better now.” And the music helps with that journey. This interview has been edited and condensed.
EXPLORATIONS
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Perspectives on Hairstyling Hairstyling is a universal and ancient pursuit, something that historians and anthropologists have tracked in cultures all the way back to the last ice age. Depending heavily on cultural context, different ways of cutting and styling one’s hair can reflect spiritual, social, and political beliefs. Hairstyles can show someone’s status or group membership, help attract a romantic partner, represent conformity or rejection of cultural norms, and more. “Since hair can be altered in many ways and still grow back,” writes historian Victoria Sherrow in her Encyclopedia of Hair, “it offers people the chance to express their personal tastes and preferences.” As a material for personal expression, our hair is both changeable and profoundly intimate. For Black women in North America, hair and hairstyle can be particularly laden with significance, because of the many ways in which personal appearance intersects with both gender norms and racialized beauty standards that have privileged longer, lighter, and straighter hair. “For centuries,” Sherrow writes, “African Americans faced discrimination based on their appearance. People with racist attitudes favoured traditional northern European features, including lighter skin and hair that looked more ‘white.’” These pressures are connected to the creation of products that straighten hair (such as hot combs and chemical relaxers) or techniques that lengthen hair (such as extensions and weaves). But especially since the advent of the civil rights and Black pride movements – and the well-known slogan “Black is Beautiful” – many women have embraced hairstyles that feature their hair’s natural texture. In the 1960s and ‘70s, styles like the Afro became popular in part as an affirmation of identity. By 1995, Essence magazine’s 25th anniversary retrospective proudly proclaimed that the last part of the 20th century had brought “the liberating freedom to wear hair kinky or straight, to wear cornrows or dreadlocks, weaves or wigs, to be braided or clean-shaven. Indeed, what we’ve come to understand and appreciate is that the real beauty of Black hair lies in its enormous versatility.”
EXPLORATIONS
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This sentiment is echoed by writer George Alexander, who collaborated with photographer Michael Cunningham on the photo-essay book Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair. Over the course of his interviews with women to create the personal narratives that accompany their portraits in the book, Alexander writes that: I learned that, particularly for Black women, hair is so much more than just hair. Hair has the ability to unleash all of life’s deepest emotions. Hair is about identity, beauty, racial pride, race politics, self-acceptance, self-expression, self-realization, class, status, fun, glamour, romance, fantasy, art, passion, joy, pain, freedom, enslavement, power. Hair can be all those things and more. Here are a few passages drawn from the personal reflections in this book:
Shannon: “One lady used to press our hair and it was always unpleasant because it hurt; she would burn our ears with the straightening comb. This was when folks reinforced the notion that Black girls who didn’t have ‘good hair’ had ‘bad hair.’”
Virginia: “Going natural for the first time was wonderful. I felt like I was making my own statement. I had already done what everybody else wanted me to do.”
Carol: “I can wear any hair colour. I’ve got ten wigs at home, and weaves. They’re all different, different, different, different colours. I have red, I have blue, I have orange, I have lime, purple, and I’ve got a rusty colour. […] I usually wear a different colour every day.”
Farah: “I loved the beauticians in the Black neighbourhoods in Boston. They were a safe space for me away from Harvard, which is a very alienating environment. They took care of me.”
Harriette: “Over the course of my life, a hairstyle change has symbolized how I am living out my destiny – what choices I’ve made to reinvent or invent how I intend to live my life.”
CONVERSATIONS
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Conversation Starters
Where do you keep your stories?
Do you have a story you wish you could tell someone?
What do you think Novelette would learn from your hair?
Who is your best supporter? How does that person help you?
Where do you feel most comfortable? What makes that space safe?
Is your public persona different from who you are in private?
What’s your earliest memory of having your hair styled or cut?
What’s the most dramatic change you have ever made to your hair?
Have you ever been involved in a family argument about hair, clothes, or appearance? What was at stake for you?
If you could trade your hair for someone else’s hair, would you do it? If you would, whose hair would you pick?
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where others were judging or defining you based on your appearance?
Hair Discrimination Unfortunately, discrimination based on hair texture or hairstyle is not only a thing of the past. Here are just a few recent news articles about Black women and girls facing discriminatory attitudes towards their hair:
At schools in Canada and South Africa
At workplaces in Canada and England
Even U.S. Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, who won four gold medals in 2012 and 2016, has faced repeated scrutiny over her hairstyle.
Why do you think these attitudes persist?
How could we work to end them?
CONVERSATIONS
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Movie Night Waiting to Exhale Dir. Forest Whitaker, 1995. Adapted from the novel by Terry McMillan and starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon, this film follows the stories of four women who are searching for fulfilment in their relationships. The Los Angeles Times called it “part entertainment, part social phenomenon” – the trendsetting movie finally helped convince Hollywood that there was an audience for mainstream films about the lives of women of colour.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back Dir. Kevin Rodney Sullivan, 1998. Angela Bassett plays the title character, a high-powered stockbroker who is whisked away on Jamaican vacation by her best friend (Whoopi Goldberg) and finds romance with a younger man (Taye Diggs). Like Waiting to Exhale, this is also an adaptation of a Terry McMillan novel. The Barbershop franchise The three ensemble comedies Barbershop (2002), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) feature Ice Cube as a barber who keeps his shop on the south side of Chicago open against the odds. Spin-off Beauty Shop (2005) stars Queen Latifah as a hairstylist trying to set up a new business in Atlanta. Roger Ebert wrote that they “understand the purpose of a barbershop, which is to provide a refuge, affirmation, confirmation, entertainment, and occasionally haircuts.”
Good Hair Dir. Jeff Stilson, 2009. This documentary stars comedian Chris Rock on a journey to understand the Black American hair industry and the pressures that society places on Black women’s hair. He says he was inspired to make the film after his daughter – who was three years old – asked him why she didn’t have “good” hair.
CONVERSATIONS
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Pariah Dir. Dee Rees, 2011. Adepero Oduye plays a Brooklyn teenager who lives a double life, exploring and embracing her lesbian identity while trying to keep it secret from her parents. This arthouse film won the award for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival and was called “funny, moving, nuanced, and impeccably acted” by the Village Voice.
“People of colour have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented. –Film director Spike Lee
Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library By Rosemary Griebel
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Novel, 2013. A story of love and race, involving a Nigerian couple who seemed destined to be together until the choices they are forced to make tear them apart. Spanning three continents and entering the lives of a richly drawn cast of characters across numerous divides, Americanah is a riveting story of love and expectation set in today's globalized world.
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison Novel, 1970. This story of Pecola, who wishes desperately for blue eyes which she equates with beauty and all that is good in the world, provides a searing study of race and gender. Heralded for its rich language and bold vision, this is one of Toni Morrison’s most unforgettable novels.
CONVERSATIONS
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Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicle, by Bert Ashe Non-fiction, 2015. Professor and author Bert Ashe delivers a witty, fascinating, and unprecedented account of black male identity as seen through society’s perceptions of hair. A remarkable and entertaining hybrid of memoir, social history, and cultural commentary.
Advanced Style, by Ari Seth Cohen Non-fiction, 2012. Advanced Style is Ari Seth Cohen's blog-based ode to the confidence that can be achieved through the experience of a life lived glamorously. Inspired by his grandmother's unique personal style, this collection of timeless images and words of wisdom provide fashion inspiration for all ages.
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett Memoir, 2015. Authors Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met at the University of Iowa while working on their MFA degrees and became lifelong friends. Through years of artistic, financial, and emotional upheaval, they supported one another until Lucy’s untimely death at 39. One of the most compelling literary depictions of a deep friendship.
Paint it Black, by Janet Fitch Novel, 2006. Josie Tyrell exists within the punk club scene of 1980s Los Angeles and is struggling to deal with the suicide of her talented but emotionally tormented lover Michael. As Josie relates the story of Michael's despair, she becomes able to move forward, from self-destruction to self-determination.
Click on the book covers to check availability at Calgary Public Library!
CONVERSATIONS
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Sources Anderson, Melissa. “To Be Young, Gifted, Black, and Lesbian in Pariah.” The Village Voice, Dec 28, 2011. www.villagevoice.com/film/to-be-young-gifted-black-and-lesbianin-pariah-6433760 Cunningham, Michael, and George Alexander. Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair. New York: Doubleday, 2005. D’Oyley, Demetria Lucas. “10 Movies that Empower Black Women.” The Root, Feb 11, 2014. www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/_10_movies_that_empo wer_black_women Ebert, Roger. “Barbershop 2: Back in Business.” Feb 6, 2004. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/barbershop-2-back-in-business-2004 Sherrow, Victoria. Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Trey Anthony Studios. ‘da Kink in my Hair official website. www.dakinkinmyhair.com