Hair, Home & Belonging

Hair, Home & Belonging is an intimate panel conversation that centers Black hair as a site of identity, culture, and community. Moderated by journalist and publicist Stacy Graham-Hunt, the evening brings together hair practitioners, a historian, a celebrated author, and an Academy Award-winning Yale professor for a conversation that is both personal and political.

What does our hair say about who we are? How do we see ourselves through our hair — and how does the world see us? How has Black hair been policed, celebrated, reclaimed, and reimagined? These are the questions at the heart of Hair, Home & Belonging.

The event takes on additional resonance alongside RUSUNUNGUKO (liberty/independence/freedom), the current installation in the Yale Schwarzman Center Dome by Zimbabwean-born artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti. Featuring site-specific vinyl braids woven throughout the space, the installation creates a powerful curatorial dialogue with our panel. As Yale Schwarzman Center’s Rachel Fine noted, “It’s more than coincidence. It’s a curatorial statement.”