“Over the years, you learn ways to keep your hat on your head:
Don’t let people touch the hat.
Don’t let people knock the hat.
Don’t let people hug too close.
Those are the hat-queens rules. Don’t break ‘em”
Peggy Knox, from the book “Crowns” by Michael Cunnigham & Craig Marberry.

Crowns, a book by Michael Cunnigham & Craig Marberry, is a book about black women and their hats, what they represent to them, the story behind each of them, and the pride of wearing a hat specially on Sundays when going to church.
Craig Marberry interviewed over 50 women for this book; some of them own just three hats and others as much as 350! Each of them shows one hat of her collection and will tell you the story behind that particular hat and you will be able to catch a glimpse of her life. Each anecdote is beautifully illustrated with a black and white photograph of the woman wearing her hat.
The book is intimate, as if you were sitting on a couch with each of the women and they were telling about their life over a cup of tea. Amazing book, I loved it!

“My grandma likes my hair to be in curls and when I have curls she’ll say, “ I want you to keep your hair just like that.” I’ll say, “All right, Grandma, all right”
Daria Cunnigham, from the book “Queens” by Michael Cunnigham & George Alexander.

The second book, Queens, is also by photographer Michael Cunningham and George Alexander and this time instead of taking about hats, black women talk about their hair and their favorite hairstyles. It’s a candid conversation with black women from different backgrounds and even nationalities who talk about what African hair means to them, and the relation between hair, family and heritage.
If you love black and white photography and appreciate African hair and heritage, these two books are a must.
You can see some of the photographs of these books and even some more on Michel Cunningham website.

 
AliciA

One week to start school… The summer has lost its appeal. The children are officially bored.
During the summer break Feven and Feromsa have learned to play with each other and not rely so much on me to entertain them.
Feromsa will start kinder and also will  have ESL classes at school. We’ll see how everything goes from there.
He loves to play his Paper Jamz guitar, but will need to put his rock star career on hold for a while. Feven is the leading singer-dancer of the band, but she’s considering going solo now that his brother will leave the band.  I guess she first needs to learn how to put the right shoe in the right foot
  

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This post is somewhat related to the previous one.
I’ve started to watch more and more movies online via Netflix instant view service. Sometimes it’s hard to find documentaries, foreign and independent films on DVD and many are never released in that format, but Netflix has some available online with the convenience that I can watch them on my TV, computer, or even the iPod.
Last night I watched All of Us by director Emily Abt. I think this movie was showcased by the Showtime channel a while ago.
Even when All of Us was mostly filmed in the US, it has a strong connection with Ethiopia and Africa in general.   
The movie follows Mehret Mandefro, a young Ethiopian American doctor, while she works on a research project about high rates of HIV infection among black women. She works in the South Bronx and many of her patients are African American women that are suffering the consequences of abuse, poverty, and lack of control over their lives.
But don’t jump to conclusions too fast.
The big discovery of Dr. Mandefro’s research and that of the movie is that high rates of HIV infections are affecting not only African American women, but heterosexual women in general, from every class, continent, and color.
At some point in the movie, she has a candid talk with some of her girl friends, well educated women of all races, and surprisely they all share the same stories of leaving important decisions that could affect their lives forever in the hands of men.
The more affected by this lack of power over their lives are black women. Over time this has terrible consequences over their health.
The problem is that no one seems to care and Dr. Mendefro’s goal is to make this women visible again, to empower them to take control of their lives and to solve this problem from the beginning, educating young black girls. 
Later in the movie, Mehret travels to Ethiopia to visit her family and to evaluate the HIV infection rate among Ethiopian women. As you can imagine if black women in the first world are highly affected by this epidemic, the situation in Ethiopia and Africa in general is much worse.

It was amazing to see that even when people in Ethiopia don’t have the economic resources we have in the West, they are slowly changing women’s lives and educating others about HIV infection, and in Dr. Mandrefro’s words, ”that kind of changes are also a lot more lasting than anything that can come from outside, that’s very powerful to me” .
I know some people criticized this movie saying that it only intends to promote a young pretty black woman doctor, who just wants fame and money, but I don’t agree with this opinion. It seems that there are people who don’t want a black woman, pretty and intelligent in a position of power.
The movie is not perfect, but serves to highlight a situation that has been hidden for a long time and that is specially killing black women (and those of other races too).
As a woman, I completely understand the subject of the film.

Links:

Obama appoints Mehret Mandefro as a White House Fellow
‘I want to change the power dynamics in relationships’ NY Daily News
Doctor Mehret
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

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Today I want to invite you take a look at the book of photographs A Light in a Shadow, part of the work of the Internews organization.
Internews is “an international media development organization based in California whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect, and the means to make their voices heard”.
Internews Ethiopia has created an exhibition of photographs that focus on HIV/AIDS. Local Ethiopian photojournalists completed a workshop and then traveled to the town of Metahara where they documented the lives of people at risk of contracting the disease. They also went to a community project in Addis Ababa that supports people living with HIV.
The photographs are stunning and show how Ethiopians can do great work and be the main factor in changing their communities.
The book is available in low(3MB) or high(95MB) resolution .
 

 
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