Events
Upcoming Events
FREE COMMUNITY EVENT!
Past Events
Backstage: An Unfurling of the JPC Beauty & Fashion
Thursday, November 7, 2024, 10 am - 11 am EST (virtual)
Throughout its 75-year history, the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) showcased the gamut of makeup, hair, skincare, fashion design, and style in Black culture. Elaborate photographic spreads captured the allure and grace of actresses such as Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, runway shows featured models Pat Cleveland, Richard Roundtree, and Naomi Sims, and the images captivated audiences with the latest American and European fashion trends. This conversation with Getty archivist Skyla S. Hearn, Founder of Black Beauty Archive, Camille Lawrence, and historian Dr. Rikki Byrd explores the JPC's coverage of beauty and fashion in magazines like Ebony and JET and the company's overall contribution to the beauty and fashion industries.
Fashion & Race Database Case Study: Black Beauty Archive
Saturday, February 24, 2024 1:00 – 2:00pm EST (virtual)
Join us as we present a case study that explores the importance of preserving Black fashion history through the lens of Black beauty culture.
“The Black Beauty Archive collection contains over 1200+ objects including Full Issue Magazines, books, hair tools/hot tools, wigs, cosmetics, photographs, posters, oral histories, interviews, a/v tapes & more! A significant amount of our collection has been recovered, acquired, and donated from elders, artists, and collectors alike. All objects displayed are primary sources preserved within BBA collections, digitized for educational purposes only.”
Founder and Principal Archivist of the Black Beauty Archive, Camille Lawrence, will lead us through a presentation on the evolution of Black Beauty Archive and the importance of this archival work, followed by a Q&A.
Art Basel Miami RICHES: The Crown We Never Take Off Exhibition Dec 02 - Dec 03, 2022
The Crown We Never Take Off is a celebration of Black achievement and a strikingly brilliant exploration of hair customs and rituals so deeply entrenched that neither time nor distance have erased them. This exhibition applauds the overlooked efforts of Black entrepreneurs and creatives with a gifted group of visionaries who, like the Richards family, push boundaries and excel despite the odds.
Connecting traditions to the continent while remaining innovative, these artists weave their own rich histories with the realities of the world to create an affirmative place where Blackness thrives, while synonymously documenting the culture in extraordinary ways. Their work makes a bold statement about the power of African identities, and repositions Eurocentric art history and definitions of beauty.
Prime Video’s RICHES is an alluring, engaging, and artful drama that centers around the Richards family–a Black dynasty in turmoil–as five siblings vie for control of their family’s beauty brand. RICHES allows audiences to see an authentic expression of blackness in traditionally white-owned spaces. The intention of our space is to recreate the feeling of watching Riches for the first time — celebrating the freedom of Black expression and identity. When Black people are the authors of their own identity, we get stories like RICHES; new artforms, new thoughtforms and eventually new trends that permeate through to popular culture.