MEET  THE MINDS BEHIND  THE 4THEEKINFOLK EXHIBTION: “NAPS, HEADWRAPS AND AFROS”

Anitah: What's been keeping y'all productive lately, like what y'all been on? Also, this hair is everything; I saw it last night and I was like, 'Oh my god, it’s so good!’, the colors look so good on you, I love.


June: I woke up this morning and I said, 'I don't know what I'm wearing today, but it's got something to do with Hope’s shirt. But, what’s been keeping me productive? Lately, honestly, it's myself. I’ve been loving getting into the fashion aspect of myself, the beauty aspect of myself, being really out of my comfort zone. I've been getting into just being more free-flowing, especially with my creative work, and I get to talk about it on social media; I'm posting and going. I'm going to meet up for a coffee, let's do it. I've been busy with a lot of networking, and of course, promoting the exhibition. And also keeping really busy actually 24-7, because it's my full-time job.


Anitah: Period! Amen, that’s good. How was your trip? I saw you went back home [to Mississippi] for a little bit. How was that?


June: My trip was so peaceful, it was really well needed. Because it had been, like, two years since I've been back home. Every time I go back home, honestly, it's, like, so slow there. And it's so peaceful. And it's so quiet. The only thing you can hear is the birds chirping in the morning and the trees, and the sun rays beaming on your skin. But, like, the birds kind of fly over your head so it casts that shadow. But it was so peaceful, like, hanging out with my dad. And he was just so nice. I went to the doctor's appointment with him. He was like, 'I'm going to bring you a jacket because it's going to be cold in the morning!”


The feeling around him was just, like, very slow and disconnected because he didn't have no cable and he was just watching the news the whole time. It was so good to recharge and to get back to business, when I got back to Phoenix.


Anitah: Mm-hmm, sometimes that's really all you need.


Hope: Right? I'm going to go out of town, too, on Wednesday.


Anitah: Oh, that's nice. Where are you going?


Hope: I’m going for my little sister’s birthday in Ohio. And then I have a solo trip that I booked, I’m excited to go. But I'm, like, oh, my gosh, I'm not going to have enough time to, do what I need to do. But someone told me, it's not that. It doesn't matter if you're spending time for yourself in the midst of working on stuff. Because you need to slow down in order to feel you for all of that stuff. Because you don't even know how much inspiration you're about to come back with after doing that. I didn't even think about that. Like, you saying this now, how you were in your hometown, just to take a break and relax and move. But it sets you on fire to keep working on it.


June: And it did.


Hope: You know what I'm saying? t's like, I be forgetting that. I'm like, oh snap, no, this is about to be good, I better look forward to this!

June: This is a part of your time.


Hope: Exactly. Yeah. That creative process, boy, it’s something interesting.You got to live, you got to live to get inspired.

Anitah: I'm curious, like, how's your routines been like adapting to kind of just  doing you full-time now?


Hope: I like that question. That's a good one. Because I feel like that's really what it's been. 


Anitah: Because you really got to like, assert a really different control and discipline over your time.


Hope: Yeah, you do. Because I haven’t even been doing hair as much as what I've normally been doing, like, as my job. And it's kind of becoming what I'm doing creatively is my job. But there's so much. There's a lot more structure when you're behind the chair. You have to get it done at the start time.


Because you and this person, like, you can't just be like, “Hey, girl, come back later”, right? So, I feel like with the discipline, I feel like I know how to buckle down and get done what I want to get done. But it's like, I'll be doing it at crunch time. And it's like, you know, girl, give yourself the proper time and space to be able to do stuff, you know? Procrastination goes into that, too, you know? You just can't procrastinate, you have to know your creative process and  flow with that. And I think I'm in the process of learning that. So this is my first time, like I said, working with me, working on my own.


It's just a journey of figuring out, okay, what works for me creatively. I realized I can't sit here and work straight for, like, six hours. I need to be able to work and then take a little break. Look around for a couple minutes, and then get back to it.


Anitah: More directly with the hair exhibition, tell me what that journey's been like. I know it's been a long journey for this whole year, but then with y'all working more closely together, what are y'all learning in this process?


June: Oh, man. Oh, my God. Like, I don't even know how to really describe it. But working with Hope has been so amazing, inspiring, such a teaching moment. And it's just always inspiring being around someone who feels like a mirror when I'm in their presence.


Anitah: That’s so good.


June: This exhibition has been in the work since, well honestly, I came up the name last year in August, but then I did the “Give Flowers To The Ones That Blessed the Whole Place” exhibition first, because of course, you gotta give flowers to your ancestors . I feel like once I did that first exhibition, I was like okay, I can have this blessed foundation  to be able to do my shit on top of it. So then, I was like secondly, imma do “Naps, Head Wraps and Afros”. And for the longest time I was gathering the artists, and I came with ideas to do a hair show, but I didn't want to take on too much. So I had been thinking and thinking and thinking. Like, I need somebody to just like be a partner to me and like help me with this exhibition, and just be the second mind. Like when I have something to say, they bounce back off of it. And they give me another idea, or they have a better idea of how to do things and just be there with the journey.


So, I think Hope is the perfect person. I don't know how I came up with that, but I think I just texted her. But we met up the first time, it was like, okay boom! We doing it.  


Anitah: I think like the right energies always attract each other, you just know.

Hope: We were talking about that because you know, we've been knowing each other for a little bit. She had the exhibition in January, and I was at that , and we didn't really know each other too, too much personally but like, I remember meeting you at Q’s fashion show rehearsal, and I remember you talking about wanting to do your exhibit, how you wanted to start 4TheeKinfolk, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's fire!’ And for you to actually do that months after speaking to you, it was like, really dope. So I was super excited to be able to go to the exhibit.


It was a good time, and I just love that she hit me up to be able to work and  to be a part of this.


Anitah: Is this like your first run of like event curation? I'm just also interested to learn more about you as an artist too, and what like influenced you to want to do an event like this, here specifically too. Because I think location is an important thing that matters too, especially since you're not from here.


June: I think that me not being from here plays the main part in why I wanted to do 4TheeKinfolk. Me being from Mississippi, I grew up being around community. I grew up being around my people. I grew up at the horse shows and my uncle was riding horses, he was winning them races.


Anitah: Oh my gosh, that sounds beautiful.


June:  So I moved from home at 18 right after I graduated high school and I came to Phoenix. And first I came here to visit, and then I was like, 'I like this way better than a small town’ and I ended up staying with my one little suitcase. And I noticed something was like so, so, so, so different than being at home, and that was the feeling of warmth, and familiarity, and community, and I didn't like the fact that I was like, 'Where is my friends? Where is my family, where is my people?’ Like I need somebody to look like me and relate to me.


And I do not like this feeling, but I do like being in Arizona. I do like exploring but, I need this aspect because I don't want to lose that aspect of myself, because I'm so down south sanctified! When I did 4TheeKinfolk it was just like very, very very direct-this is for the kinfolk. And so my business is a year old now, and beforehand I had planned on doing like this big old flea market, kind of like in the realm of like Afro Punk or Black Market Flea... I can imagine my business growing in that way, but of course I wanted to like, you know, get in people's ears first. And just let them know that this is out here for the community. But yeah I am also an artist, so every exhibition I knew that I wanted to exhibit something of mine as well. And so that idea came from when I was @sheabuttashots, and @sheabuttashots was my alias when I was doing photography in Mississippi, and I knew I wanted to do a solo show but I didn't know where to start. When I got to Phoenix I think the two ideas just kind of merged, like me wanting to do a show for myself but also me meeting community. When I put those two together I was like well let's do black art socials, let's do black art exhibitions. And not only can I exhibit, I can let other artists exhibit too.

Anitah: That’s beautiful. So many things there resonated too. I think that creating community is such a beautiful task to take on, and it's inspiring the way that you're doing it actively right now.


Hope: I love that you understand like the meaning of community too because I don't think that I really understood that until like recently. You’re speaking life into me, other people are speaking life into me, you're  creating with other people. You kind of can't go without that. Especially as a creative, I just realized that it's not about me, and I would not have been able to show up the way that I did without like every one of those relationships that inspired me and that helped me get to that point. But yeah, for you to see that, and run towards it and not be afraid of it. I'll always give you your flowers for that. 

Anitah: What have been like y'all's meetings like leading up to this. What’s in the works, what can the people expect, like from this exhibition?


Hope: I was going back and forth with my idea for a quick little minute and I realized when it comes to my creative process, I can't rush it.  I have to let it come to me. I remember we had our first meeting, and I think I tried to give you an idea like right then and there. It was cool, but I wasn’t completely sold on it, it was more so just like an idea.  I think the more we kind of kept meeting, and just getting to know June more, I was like okay, I think this might be able to work. I’m gonna get to the point, just lemme get through the backstory.


Anitah: I'm listening, I'm listening, I love a backstory!


Hope: But yea she had did her trip [back home to Mississippi], and while she was out there, she was posting so I was keeping track of what she was posting and what she was talking about. and she was hanging out with your niece, Phoenix?


June: Yeah Phoenix, my lil baby niece.


Hope: And I was like that was just so cute. I just love that she was going back and just recouping and just getting re-inspired from like your family.


Anitah: Yea such a powerful source.


Hope: It's crazy because I literally came up with the concept while she was out there, and I really didn’t want to bother her, so I'm like, 'You know, let me just wait till she comes back, let her enjoy her time. But I had seen her post a picture of her hair; she had these blue beads... I just feel like your hair is different, bro. I was like, ‘Yo, that's crazy’ because, the concept that I had come up with was like, I'm gonna do it literally like her hairstyle. Yeah, so what I'm gonna do is like, I really want to take it back to being a child, like that nostalgia. You know, so this is like highlighting black hair, especially in the 90s hair exhibitions. It's extravagant, you know, but it's like, where do we all get inspired from to even get into like that mindset of oh, black hair is this. It has to start somewhere and it started as a little child.


You remember the beads, you remember the bobbles, you remember the little barrettes that you used to have, and it just being like hella colors. And I don’t always work with colors, you know. I usually do black, so it's like kinda outside my comfort zone, but if you know June, you know she's gonna wear some colors! I feel like it was just so perfect.


Imma have these Jumbo braids, they gon be really big. Them imma have life-size beads as well. It’s gonna be hanging from the ceiling . When you walk in and look up, I just want it to remind you of your childhood. I want to put something on the beads that kind of take you back, whether that’s like TV shows you used to watch, songs you used to listen too.


Anitah: That’s amazing! I’m so excited.


Hope: I’ve just been excited with the process of creating it. Lately I’ve been hella busy, but now my plate is clear to really focus and hone in on it.


I'm just really excited to be able to tap back into, like, who I was as a kid. Because that’s what this whole thing has been making me do, really, and just remember who little Hope was. But getting back to that, and helping other people get back to that too is gonna be really dope.


Anitah: I feel like returning back to your family or like just like your childhood is just such a powerful source. I feel like I've been finding that out more and more as well with my work and my journey as an artist as well.


I was gonna ask y'all, and this kind of goes a little bit in hand with my project that I'll be presenting in the exhibition, but where do y'all feel like y'all are at right now on your own personal like hair journeys? Like, what styles do you feel like most resonate with you or make you feel most comfortable within yourself.

June: This is such a funny question because I think as black women, we be wanting to do  every - single - hairstyle - at once.  One time, I want to do a perm with a pixie cut and shave style and get a tattoo on my head. Next time,


I want to do a big old afro because, you know, that's just me at the root. Other times I want to do some pink braids very yeah with the blunt tips. I think this era I'm in right now is definitely explorative. I think this is the most exploring I have done with my hair since I was in high school. I grew up with having a perm; I started off natural till like 7 or 8 probably, then I started getting perms till like 16 years old. When I turned 17, I had did the buzzcut and I was playing with like orange colors, pink, silver, gray.

Anitah: Girl we might have the same journey. Because that’s around the time I cut mine too, and  started doing all that.


June: But then I had dyed it blonde, and I had one side with faux locs and things like that. And then I became an adult and I didn't want to spend money on like getting my hair done.


Anitah: Real, that part.


June: Really,  I did locs for like a long time. I was like locs, coming out my locks, afro . Loc, coming out my locs, afro. I just recently came out of my recent locs journey, I was like okay, I’m not a locs girly! I think right now, I’m just growing out my afro like really really big, and I'm gonna continue doing braids, faux locs and just exploring different weave styles, like I used to do it as a teenager when I found out I could things like that.


Anitah: Where you feel like you're at Hope?I love the faux locs, you gonna eat up a faux lock every time.


Hope: I’m like trying to, like, 'Girl, okay, we always do the locks at the same time of year every year’. It never fails, but I don't know what it is, winter just be the loc season. But I tried something different because I feel like where I am right now is not willing to spend no  time on my hair.  like I want to, but don’t nobody want to!


Anitah: Clock it!


Hope: Like these locs are from last December that I just reused, and then I did the clippins in the back because it took me like three hours. I wasn't trying to sit there and braid it for eight hours. But I don't know, I think I also want to start showcasing more of what I can do through my hair. It's like, okay girl, if you're a hair artist, have some hair art. So though it may not be like the little squigglies and everything that I usually do with my wire locks, I think this is something that people are still attracted to. I’ve been reading Law Roach’s e-book, “How to Build a Fashion icon.” He talks a lot about confidence in there and talking about how you dress yourself. So one of the things he says is how you dress should just be a reflection of who you are inside, how you feel on the inside. It's like at first, I thought that I had to wear my hair a certain way because I’m like ,”Oh, everyone’s trying to look good.” It’s not about that, just do what you feeling on the inside.

Anitah: So kind of like wrapping it up, what are your guys'  hair muses or like sources of inspiration that you look to for your hair, whether that's famous people or whether that’s family.


June: So okay, so ever since planning this exhibition I have been getting really into the Black hair history. This exhibition ain't all about the glitz and the glamour, even though we're black women and we own the glitz and the glamour, right? But I want to teach people about the roots. I have a project that I'm doing, it's a long braids on the African American flag, and I'm gonna incorporate rice and I'm gonna incorporate peas…


Anitah: Talk to them about it. 


June: And if you know, you know, but if you don't know,


Anitah: We’re I'm going to tell you.


June: You know! Rice and watermelon seeds and beans were braided into our ancestors' hair on their travels to the states.  So I've been getting into that and I think that's kind of where my inspiration has been coming from as far as like me getting more into braids. When I look at people for inspiration I think of people like Sisley Tyson who was the first black woman to be televised with braids in her hair. And I think about the 70s, Angela Davis whose Afro was symbolism to like black power and things like this. And then I think of people who are new age, like Doechii.


Anitah: You took the words from my mouth girl.


June: Yeah, so  those people are kind of like a mix of, you know, June!


Anitah: But what about you, Miss Hope?

Hope: I think I've been more inspired by experiences and just things like I'm seeing, like  on the regular. I love nature and I've been into like stars lately, so I feel like I just I like to think of hair as okay, what things am I drawn to? What things am I interested in and how can I turn this into hair? So, I just kind of let my life inspire me really. There's some really dope people that I pay attention to on social media and stuff, but I feel like when it comes to inspiration, I allow feelings to inspire me.  


Anitah: Has hair always been like the first medium of you to gravitate towards?


Hope: No, I worked with objects when I was younger too, so that's why I feel like hair is something that I'm interested in right now, but this could just be something interested in now.


Anitah: That's a good way to think about it. That was pretty much all the questions that I had, I just really wanted to like understand the intentions of the exhibition like a little bit more. Any parting thoughts?



Hope: You know we're just starting out but it doesn't make what we do any less valid or any less big, like we're getting big right? We may not be in the limelight, whatever, it doesn't matter. We're building our community, like you pouring into me, I’m pouring into you, and it’s just gonna be a whole cycle. We’re trying.