This story is a part of The Melanin Versiona platform on which Attract will discover each side of a melanin-rich life – from essentially the most progressive remedies for hyperpigmentation to social and emotional realities – whereas spreading Black Delight.
The black diaspora is a strong entity. Whether or not it is highways and bridges or complete oceans between us, black persons are linked throughout miles and time by parts of tradition – our values, customs, artwork, language, meals, magnificence.
Via the lens of magnificence, Afro-diasporic ladies share numerous threads of connection and experiences. In efforts to honor and discover the diaspora, To tempt spoke to 6 black ladies from all over the world about their concepts about magnificence and their magnificence traditions.
There was each constructive overlap—collective ingenuity, shea butter—and destructive similarities—disgrace, colorism, grease phobia, decency politics—that appeared inescapable wherever you lay a finger on the globe.
Magnificence is cash. As black ladies, our forex is consistently liable to being transformed and bartered, usually co-opting and belittling our tradition’s requirements of magnificence in the identical breath. And regardless of all this, as Black ladies, we proceed to show a dedication to ourselves that’s nothing wanting centuries of endurance, celebrating our pores and skin, hair, our bodies, sexuality, and personalities by our expressions of magnificence.
It’s these magnificence practices and traditions that honor our ancestors, empower ourselves, and supply variations of freedom to those that come after us.
Age: 25
Cultural Heritage: Haitian
Situated in: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Since emigrating to america on the age of 10, Anaëlle has lived in lots of locations – New York, Madrid, Buenos Aires and now Cambridge – however Port-au-Prince will all the time be her house. Anaëlle describes Haitian magnificence as each an exterior and an inside worth, with an emphasis on the pure. In Haitian Creole, the ladies of her household revere her with compliments on her actual magnificence or examine her clean brown complexion to a species of tree with a deep brown trunk. “After I consider how magnificence is considered in Haiti, I consider nature,” says Anaëlle To tempt. “As a result of the comparisons and the compliments all the time need to do with nature.”
