WELCOME TO THE 7TH ANNUAL
With the lushest of language, a young girl getting her hair styled tells an overall history of African hair. Beads. Feathers. Cowries. Threads of gold. Ivory. Charcoal. Pearls. Bantu knots. Cornrows. Goddess Braids. Maps. Seeds. Afros. Clay. Dreadlocks. Woven with the greatest care. Across different African cultures. Everything rich with meaning.
• Centuries of meaning! Hair! It’s woven with history.
• It is living art—can be adorned with intricate rings, mother of pearl, feathers.
• It is identity.
• It shapes community.
• It can speak to age, wealth, or power.
• It provided escape maps for the enslaved to follow when the written word was forbidden. Woven with seeds, pearls, and gold, it provided a way to survive after escape.
• And to many, it contains the soul.
For centuries, people of African descent have faced prejudice and judgment over their hair. Backlash for their styles. Dictated to as to what styles are “acceptable”. But author Sope Martins boldly, exquisitely subverts this all in her celebration of African hair and its complicated, powerful heritage.
Sope Martins is a Nigerian author of numerous children’s books, including The African Princess, Teju’s Shadow, and The Greatest Animal in the Jungle. She is also a radio broadcaster. Hairstory is her picture book debut in the United States.
Briana Mukodiri Uchendu, recent recipient of the John Steptoe New Talent Award, is an illustrator, visual development artist, and first-generation Nigerian American. She is the illustrator of multiple picture books, including The Talk by Alicia D. Williams, which received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. Her work is inspired by her interests in folklore, film, and animation and her passion to highlight voices that usually go unheard.
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