Crowning Glory:
An Ode to Black Hair
July 11 - August 16, 2025
South Dallas Cultural Center
Crowning Glory: An Ode to Black Hair is a multimedia experience curated by Myca Williamson in partnership with photographer Hakeem Adewumi and videographer Nitashia Johnson.
Shot at Williamson's grandmother’s house, the exhibit is a nod to the cultural connections that marry our collective hair experiences. It’s a reclamation of love and acceptance, a reminder that even in the simplest moments of our existence, Black women are royal.
We are radiant. We are the living representation of resilience.
It is an affirmation of our brilliance. It is an invitation to come home. It is a love letter to every Black girl who needs to know just how much power there is in her presence.
Our hair tells stories that reach beyond generations and stretch across geographies. The intricacies of our style and spectrum of Black beauty props up entire industries. Yet, we continue to let White standards seep into our perception of pretty, proper and professional.
Through shared family heirlooms and intimate hair moments, this project invites Black women of every generation to not only reflect on their own hair journey but consider whether or not their liberation is empowering other women to embrace their reflection and release the burdens they were never meant to carry.
Inspired by Black storytellers and icons like Madame CJ Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, bell hooks and Solange Knowles, Williamson uses poetry, photography and film to explore the way our hair care becomes sacred rituals of survival. More importantly, it portrays the great power of Black women simply being.
This film offers an intimate lens into the sacred textures of Black girlhood, womanhood, and legacy. As part of Crowning Glory: An Ode to Black Hair, the piece serves as both memory and mirror, rooted in real spaces and real stories that feel like home.
Shot by award-winning videographer Nitashia Johnson, the film uses intentional lighting and thoughtful framing to reveal the layered stories of family, Blackness, and hair rituals.
Created to feel both personal and collective, the film invites Black women to see themselves in all their complexity. It honors the young girl discovering her coils, the mother passing down knowledge, and the elder reflecting on a lifetime of transformation. The tone is playful, intimate, and affirming.
Throughout, the film captures the interplay between joy and reflection, softness and strength. The women and girls featured are not positioned as muses but as storytellers in their own right. Together, these moments create a communal portrait of radiance and resistance, reminding us that the beauty of our crowns lies not only in how we wear them, but in the stories they carry.