American Roots: Hairdressers and Beauty Shop Culture in America, presented by Candacy Taylor

An award-winning author and photographer and an Archie Green Fellow, Candacy Taylor traveled over 20,000 miles throughout the US interviewing hair stylists who serve African American, Appalachian, Cajun, Dominican, Gullah Geechee, Jamaican, Japanese, Jewish (Orthodox), Lumbee Indian, Pakistani and LGBT communities. Although the practice of styling hair may appear to be based in vanity, hairdressing traditions and styling practices reflect our belief systems about race, class and cultural production. From the hills of San Francisco to the hills of the Appalachian Mountains; from the tip of Provincetown, Massachusetts to the tip of the Gullah Geechee Islands in South Carolina; and from the Lumbee Indians, who were here before there was an America, to Pakistanis who just arrived in Queens, this multimedia presentation gives unprecedented access into the intimate space of the salon. Come and learn what Taylor discovered about hair, culture and identity in America.

Candacy Taylor’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle (Cover), AARP, Ms. Magazine, Photographer’s Forum (cover), Library Journal, and on PRI’s To the Best of Our Knowledge. Her book and exhibit “Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress” made Southwest Airlines’ top ten list of things to see in the US and a television pilot was developed by ABC. Taylor owns the company Taylor Made Culture.