The StoryCrowning Glory: An Ode to Black Hair Pt. 2 is a continuation of a community activation and multimedia showcase that debuted at the South Dallas Cultural Center in July 2025.
Curated by Myca Williamson, the first exhibition focused on the multilayered relationship and sacred rituals Black women, including Williamson herself, have with their hair across generations.
The newest extension of the work aims to deepen this exploration through protest imagery, spoken word performance and a new documentary film Isn’t It Beautiful? that highlights the context that’s especially important to understanding our hair history and the energetic exchange of allowing someone to touch and style our hair.
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.
The 2025 Film
this project is possible because of the city of dallas’ artsactivate grant.
Crowning Glory: An Ode to Black Hair is funded in part by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture through the ArtsActivate program. My deepest thanks to the City of Dallas for backing Black stories, Black artists, and the cultural memory of our community, and for helping bring this project home to South Dallas. When institutions fund the arts at the neighborhood level, they do more than support a project. They protect a people's right to see themselves, tell their own story, and pass it on.