New Book by Bronx Author Cares About Black Hair
It was a symphony of Black hair in real life and on the page at the Andrew Freedman Home as Bronx author, Janelle Harper, celebrated the drop of her second picture book, “Salon Saturday.”
Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and vividly illustrated by Charlot Kristensen, Harper’s story follows the journey of a young Black girl and her first visit to the salon that also serves as a path to self-discovery through hair. The bright-eyed child is witness to her grandmother’s white dreadlocks, her mother’s brown afro, and her sister’s pink braids and buns. The people around her wear aqua updos and green faux-hawks. So many looks to choose from.
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The little girl was trepidatious and insecure, but was soon soothed by her family and stylist. “Their words calm my worries,” the little girl said. She looked into the mirror and was elated to see an amalgamation of styles. She had braids in the front, secured by two top buns, with a thick twist on either side of her face, and the back of her hair loose and speckled with yellow stars. She found her “own kind of beautiful.”
“I liked when [her hair] was revealed,” little 4-year-old Sanaa said excitedly at the book talk on Tuesday, Sept. 23. Sanaa is turning 5 on Oct. 2 and is visiting Harlem Natural Hair Salon to get her hair done for the first time. She said she was nervous to try something new, and her mother, Jessica, said, “Perfect timing.”
Harper writes with a poetic slant, adding a sense of melody to her words, while simultaneously striving to flood the young reader market with stories depicting different aspects of being Black.
“I didn’t have these kinds of books growing up; the only Black book I can really remember was ‘Tar Beach’ [by Faith Ringgold], which I loved and read as far as representation, but you know, there weren’t all these books that talked about the Black experience,” Harper told the Bronx Times.
“Salon Saturday” not only puts a spotlight on the culture of Harper’s environment and experience as a Black Bronxite, but it also touches on deeper issues rooted in systemic racism.
“I think [hair] expresses our culture. It expresses our history. It’s a form of self-expression,” she added. “Hair is a form of resistance; right where you have laws in place, like the CROWN Act.”
Originally passed in California in 2019, the CROWN Act – an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair – prohibits the discrimination or refusal of services based on hairstyle or hair texture. In 2023, Harvard Business Review published “How Hair Discrimination Affects Black Women at Work.” Last year, Cosmetics Business wrote, “93% of Black People in the UK Face Hair Discrimination, So How Can the Beauty Industry Help?” And this summer, the BBC published, “Hair Discrimination Still Happening in North East and Cumbria.” In the last six years, 27 other states adopted the law, but passing it on a federal level remains a battle.
Saraciea Fennell, fellow author and founder of The Bronx is Reading, organized the book talk at the historic Andrew Freedman Home along the Grand Concourse.
“I would like for young people to start having those conversations among themselves, you know, to kind of see the joy of, ‘this is my hair texture,’” she said. Fennell added that her 15-year-old son didn’t embrace his natural curls until he saw Miles Morales enter the scene; the Black/Puerto Rican Spiderman, penned into the Ultimate Marvel Universe in 2011. Further proving that representation matters.
Harper’s first book, “My Block Looks Like,” also published by Viking and illustrated by Frank Morrison, is her love letter to the Bronx. With tagged white box trucks and the ubiquitous “Showtime” on train stations, the book takes the reader on a tour of a nondescript urban neighborhood chock-full of familiar imagery.
Harper is currently working on two other books she hopes to release within the next few years.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication, Bronx Times.
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