AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 9

APHROCHIC
a curated lifestyle magazine
ISSUE NO. 9 \ SUMMER 2022
LIFE ON THE BOLÉ ROAD \ HER FOOD IS A REVOLUTION \ THE RHYTHM OF LA
APHROCHIC.COM

AphroChic Magazine is back and ready to take you on another trip around the
world to sample some of the beauty, talent, intellect and creativity that the African
Diaspora has to offer. We’ve been busy while we’ve been gone: putting the finishing
touches on our new book, recording new podcasts, designing new collections, new
products, and more. There’s so much that we can’t wait to share in the coming
weeks. And to top it all off, we celebrated a birthday.
In 2022, AphroChic turned 15. For more than a decade we have been living our dream, breaking new ground
along the way. We designed the first African American showhouse on the West Coast at Helms Bakery. Launched
the first Black paint line with Colorhouse. Wrote the first book on African American design in the 2010s and are now
working on our second — the first book to look at the legacy of the Black family home. We had the honor of producing
the first home decor series blending design and social media for HGTV. And we’ve designed and showcased collections
with a Black lens on design in Paris, New York City, and other cities around the globe, leading up to luxury
home decor lines at Perigold and 1st Dibs. All while having fun designing boutiques, interiors, and concept spaces
for African American business owners and creatives along the way.
We don’t often take time to sit back and look at what we’ve done, mostly we only think about what we’re doing
and what we need to do next. But for a Black-owned brand to have lasted 15 years is an accomplishment that warrants
bit of reflection — especially when we consider how hard it for Black businesses to survive in America.
Only 13% of small businesses in the US make it 15 years and very few of those are Black owned. Some 80% of Black
businesses fail in just 18 months due to lack of capital, resources, and other issues often stemming from systemic
racism. We know how rare it is for us to be here, how unlikely it was that we would have made it, and the responsibility
we have to shine a light on others who are doing the same.
In issue 9, that light is shining on some amazing creatives starting with musician, singer, and star of this issue’s
cover, Greg Banks. We sit down to talk with him about his start in New Orleans following Katrina, his career, and
his upcoming album. Then we’re off to London to tour the chic Chelsea duplex that inspiring textile designer Hana
Getachew made all her own while spending a year in England. The new generation of multi-hyphenate storytellers
are making their voices heard in this issue, starting with Tiffany-Anne Parkes, better known as the “Pienanny,”
whose mouthwatering treats are works of visual art. Meanwhile South African architecture-student-turned-fashiondesigner
Sindiso Khumalo dedicates her latest collection to the memory of one of Africa’s most important libraries.
It’s been 15 years since AphroChic went live for the first time and we want you to know that we are just getting
started. The work we do continues, in this magazine, our book, our podcast, our products, and so much more. We’re
honored to have you on this journey with us and thankful for every step we take together.
Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Founders, AphroChic
Instagram: @aphrochic
editors’ letter

in memoriam
A Tribute to Patrick Cline
In the spring, AphroChic lost a friend and brother, a creative partner, and one of the earliest
members of the AphroChic family. Patrick Cline was one of the first people to believe in AphroChic.
When we first met him, it was to make a ridiculous request: we asked him to photograph our first product
line in a two-day, guerrilla-style shoot traversing two states with one model and practically no budget.
He had every reason to say no, but he said yes.
For the next 13 years, we collaborated on everything from magazine articles to pop-up dinners and
our HGTV series, Sneak Peek. He shot our first book, Remix: Decorating with Culture, Objects and Soul, and
our second, AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home.
Over those years of collaborating, Patrick did the important work of capturing Black interiors. In
fact, it’s likely that no other interiors photographer has captured as many African American spaces. His
work helped give important exposure to Black interiors. And he was instrumental in taking portfolio
images for many African American designers, helping them get their work seen online and in editorials.
More importantly, he was our friend. When we lived in Philly and he was traveling for work, he let us
spend a summer at his midtown apartment. When we relocated to Brooklyn, he helped us move in. As we
traveled the country together, he introduced us to teas from around the world and we initiated him into
the mysteries of the Philly cheesesteak. We shared a love of Hip-Hop, argued over James Bond movies,
ate more than we should have, and had a lot of fun.
When we knew that we would write a second book, Patrick was our only choice for a photographer.
We knew it would be our biggest project together. We didn’t know it would be our last.
We’ll always miss you, Patrick. We'll always be grateful for the time we had, the things we learned
from you, and everything we created together. Until we see you again — thank you.
Above: Patrick, Jeanine, and Bryan at the AphroFarmhouse in 2021, shooting the home for APHROCHIC.
Left: Bryan, Jeanine, and Patrick taking a lunch break on their trip to Los Angeles in 2012 to shoot for Remix.
6 aphrochic issue nine 7

SUMMER 2022
DEPARTMENTS
Read This 12
Watch List 14
Coming Up 16
The Black Family Home 18
Mood 26
FEATURES
Fashion // Out of the Ashes 30
Interior Design // Life on the Bolé Road 40
Culture // Gee’s Bend Quilts 60
Food // Her Food Is a Revolution 64
Entertaining // Bringing the Indoors Out 70
City Stories // The Rhythm of LA 76
Reference // Finding Home in Diaspora 84
Sounds // Soul Man 90
PINPOINT
Artists & Artisans 98
Civics 104
Who Are You? 110

CONTRIBUTORS
Cover Photo: Greg Banks
Photographer: Clarence Klingebeil
Publishers/Editors: Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Creative Director: Cheminne Taylor-Smith
Editorial/Product Contact:
AphroChic
AphroChic.com
magazine@aphrochic.com
Sales Contact:
Ruby Brown
ruby@aphrochic.com
Contributors (left to right below):
Patrick Cline
Chinasa Cooper
issue nine 11

READ THIS
Throughout history, Black voices and the impact of Black culture have been denied, suppressed, and
discounted. Each of our book selections in this issue offers a take on that fact, while looking to a more
inclusive future. The most colorful and delicious of the three, Black Food, examines the African Diaspora
through food, including migration, spirituality, and the future, all told through recipes and moving essays.
The Black Experience in Design also tells its story through essays, allowing 70 Black designers and creatives
to reveal their history, experiences, and aspirations. The Black Experience in Design also serves as both
inspiration and a catalyst for the next generation of creative minds. A Visual Diary by Brooklyn-based
artist Anthony Amiewalan uses pattern, line, and texture (along with occasional playful titles) to tell a
story and to convey a message. Emotion is expressed through colors, each of which represents a feeling or
vibe, allowing Amiewalan to find his voice, and to share it.
A N E W
C L A S S I C
The Black Experience in Design
by Anne H. Berry
Publisher: Allworth. $20
H A S
A R R I V E D
P R E O R D E R N O W
Black Food: Stories , Art, and Recipes from
Across the African Diaspora
by Bryant Terry
Publisher: 4 Color Books. $24
A Visual Diary
by Anthony Amiewalan
Publisher: Blurb
Perennial. $90
12 aphrochic

WATCH LIST
A unique exhibit in New York recreates specific places from the life of iconic '80s artist Jean-Michel
Basquiat. One of the youngest artists to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York, Basquiat was part
of the neo-expressionism movement before his death in 1988 at the age of 27. The Jean-Michel Basquiat:
King Pleasure exhibit includes 200 rare paintings, drawings and artifacts, 177 of which have never been
seen before. King Pleasure, the title of a painting created by Basquiat in 1987, was curated by Basquiat's two
sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, who are responsible for their brother's estate and who
included family mementos in the rooms and exhibits. The unusual exhibition space in the Starrett-Lehigh
Building was designed by David Adjaye, the architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African
American History in Washington, D.C., and the Studio Museum in Harlem. The show brings the artist to
life with these intimate rooms, showcasing an astonishing career and incredible amount of work created
in such a short time. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to kingpleasure.basquiat.com.
The LGM Revolving Wall Bed & Home Office System
A recreation of Jean-Michel Basquiat's studio
that he rented from Andy Warhol, part of the
Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibit.
Revolving
Library + Bed
The LGM library with built-in desk
revolves 180° to reveal a queen bed.
Your décor stays in place for an
effortless day-to-night transformation.
14 aphrochic
New York City Los Angeles Calgary Washington, D.C. Seattle Vancouver San Francisco Toronto Mexico City
ResourceFurniture.com

COMING UP
After a long pause, live events are back to celebrate and explore the African Diaspora.
Rolling Loud
July 22-24 | Miami
Touted as the largest Hip-Hop
festival in the world, Rolling Loud is
moving to Miami this summer with
over 100+ acts on three stages.
Headlining Rolling Loud Miami are
major acts including Kendrick Lamar,
Future, Saweetie, and more, who
are set to perform at the Hard Rock
Stadium over three days.
For more information or for a full
schedule, go to rollingloud.com/
miami2022.
20th Anniversary Martha’s Vineyard
African American Film Festival
August 5-13 | Martha's Vineyard, MA
The Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival
is an Oscar-qualifying event for the Short Film
Category. The nine-day event showcases the works
of independent and established African American
filmmakers, and includes panel discussions, original
feature films, documentaries, and short films. Learn
more at mvaaf.com.
National Black Theatre Festival
August 1-6 | Winston-Salem, NC
In its 17th year, the festival rolls out the purple carpet
in North Carolina’s city of arts and innovation with over
130 performances in a number of the city’s venues.
Events include workshops, films, seminars, a poetry
slam, and a gala. This year's co-chairs are Lisa Arrindell
(Madea’s Family Reunion and Livin’ Large) and Petri
Hawkins Byrd (Judge Judy). For more information, a full
schedule of events, or for tickets, go to ncblackrep.org.
16 aphrochic

THE BLACK FAMILY HOME
Transformative Spaces: AphroChic Worked with Resource
Furniture to Transform an Extra Bedroom into a Room That’s
Part Home Office, Guest Bedroom, and Wellness Space
Design is about looks, we know, but that’s not all. Past all of the color palettes and
furniture trends, at the end of the day a well-designed home is one that meets the
needs of the people who live in it. When we bought the AphroFarmhouse, one of
the first parts of our design project was mapping out how each space in the home
would be utilized. It’s a process we’ve been through many times with our clients,
but somehow it’s always different when the client is you. Either way, it requires an
assessment of how you live and how the home will fit your needs. We knew that
our spaces would need to work overtime. As business owners who have worked
from home for over a decade now, we want every part of our home to be a place
where we can sit and work. At the same time, we want every room to be extremely
comfortable, a place to sit back, relax and watch the sun go down. Essentially, we
wanted each space in our home to help us live our lives fully.
The Black Family Home is an
ongoing series focusing on the
history and future of what home
means for Black families.
Stay tuned for the upcoming book
from Penguin Random House.
Words by Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Photos by Patrick Cline and Bryan Mason
18 aphrochic

THE BLACK FAMILY HOME
At some point we realized that we
needed three rooms when we only had one:
we needed a bedroom for guests, an office
for meeting, podcasting and general work,
and a room for exercise. We also needed
help. So to turn one room into three, we
turned to Resource Furniture, a luxury
brand specializing in multi-functional
furnishings that we'd worked with years
ago in designing a space for a trade show.
Working with Challie Stillman, VP
of Sales & Design at Resource Furniture
we turned an empty guest room with ’80s
style light blue walls into a space that
offers us everything we need: a desk area
for work, space for our wellness routines,
room for guests, and storage for everything.
In a room that’s barely 150 square
feet, we were able to accomplish everything
on our list.
We sat down with Challie to discuss
the project and why modular furniture has
become ever more important in a world
where people are spending more time at
home than ever before.
APHROCHIC: Design is about solving
problems, and everywhere we look today —
from rampant disease to climate change — we’re
seeing problems in need of answers. Expanding
the role of design beyond the aesthetics of a
room, what role do you feel design can play in
helping to address these and other issues?
RESOURCE FURNITURE: Good design
has always gone beyond mere aesthetics;
for a design to be successful, it must
be purpose driven. It must seek to solve
common problems in an intuitive and
elegant way, while also taking into its
account long-term impact. This has always
been the single most important function of
design, but the events of the past two-anda-half
years have finally brought this fact
into stark relief for many people.
People are now acutely aware of just
how impactful design can be on our physical
and mental health. Being confined to a space
with little to no natural light, poor indoor
air quality, poor organization, confusing
configurations, and limited space to work
or play can all take an extreme toll on our
mental health and overall wellness. In fact,
this phenomenon even has a name: the psychology
of space.
Good residential interior design
seeks to address these problems and
create spaces that foster health, wellness,
productivity, and creativity. It addresses
issues like — does this space have ample
access to natural light and ventilation? Are
there designated zones for working and
relaxation? Are furnishings, paints, and
fabrics treated with harmful materials?
The Resource Furniture collection
seeks to offer creative solutions that
address these and other common issues
in the home. When spaces are designed
with the physical and psychological needs
of the occupants in mind, it completely
changes our thoughts and behaviors in
that context.
AC: Modular furniture, in the form
of Murphy beds and extendable tables,
have been around for some time. How did
modular furniture become the focus for
Resource and what unique elements do you
bring to the industry?
RF: During the Great Recession
brought on by the financial crisis of 2008,
many people were unable to upgrade to
larger homes and needed to make more
out of the space they already had. At the
time, wall beds and other transforming
furnishings were somewhat unknown to
American consumers, but Resource introduced
a new solution that allowed
people to not only live comfortably in
The space before
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THE BLACK FAMILY HOME
their existing spaces, but actually thrive
in them. Resource’s first foray into multifunctional
design was a two-bedroom
apartment in the Urban Glass House for a
single mother and her four children, with
comfortable sleeping and study arrangements
for all, plus a living room that transformed
into a guest bedroom.
Resource is the leader in transforming
and multifunctional furniture. We
design flexible spaces that maximize a
home’s functionality and solve common
needs: the ability to work from home, grow
a family, entertain, and host overnight
guests. We collaborate with Italian manufacturers
to craft our curated collection
of innovative, space-saving furniture with
a focus on wall beds, transforming tables,
modular seating, and storage solutions.
AC: Since 2020, with all of its health
and economic upheaval, we started seeing
an uptick in homes where multiple generations
are housed under one roof, sometimes
leaving very little extra space. How can
modular furniture address these issues?
RF: Multigenerational housing had
actually been on the rise since the 1950s, and
in 2020 it was given a huge burst of acceleration
by the pandemic. In 2017, Resource
participated in Making Room: Housing for a
Changing America, an exhibit at the National
Building Museum in Washington, D.C.,
which played a major role in shifting the
public perception of transforming furniture
and multi-functional spaces, with a key
focus on generational housing needs.
With the help of Pierluigi Colombo
of Clei, Resource Furniture designed
a 1,000-square-foot home within
the museum, fitted with a variety of
multi-functional wall beds and transforming
tables. During the exhibition, the
concept home was transformed multiple
times to show how the same floor plan
could support a variety of different households
— a group of single adult roommates,
a multi-generational family, or a couple
of empty nesters with an attached ADU
(Accessory Dwelling Unit) — using just
furniture, not changing the interior architecture.
With each room serving multiple
functions as the furniture expands and
contracts, the home feels twice if not three
times its actual size.
AC: Another outcome of the pandemic
has been the number of people forgoing
gym memberships in favor of working out at
home. The Resource pieces that we have in
our own wellness room allow it to double as
a guest bedroom and triple as a home office.
Are you seeing more of these instances
allowing multiple uses in a single room?
RF: We have certainly seen a rise in
people looking into wall beds to create
home offices and home gyms without sacrificing
any real estate in their homes.
With many people hosting guests only a
few times a year, it simply does not make
sense to have a vacant room the majority
of the time.Transforming your physical
space allows you to make the mental shift
required to be equally productive, active,
or restful in a way that wouldn’t be possible
with furniture to accommodate all those
functions at once. Transforming furniture
allows us to create established “zones” that
cultivate and encourage a healthy work environment.
AC: Why was it important for Resource
Furniture to be a part of the AphroFarmhouse
makeoever project?
RF: We first collaborated with Bryan
and Jeanine back in 2016 on a Micro
Loft they designed for BKLYN Designs
showcasing how one could live, sleep,
and entertain in a small footprint with
maximum style. Their talent for infusing
a home with warmth, culture, and sense
of wellbeing brought life to what could
have otherwise been just another trade
show. When the opportunity arose to
collaborate on the AphroFarmhouse,
we were thrilled to reconnect and participate.
Our furniture offers the
multi-functionality needed to carve out
a wellness room in what would otherwise
be just a guest room or office, making it
the perfect solution in the AphroFarmhouse.
AC: Life since 2020 has pushed us all
to rethink the nature of design, home and
comfort. We’ve seen the importance of
home and now we see it’s importance in how
difficult the housing market has become.
For us, it’s come to the point where we can
no longer see these things as class distinctions,
but as human rights. Have your ideas
on home changed over the last two years?
RF: Homeownership has never
been equitable, and this disparity has
become more apparent than ever. One
of our missions as a company is to push
for more diverse and accessible housing
stock to help bridge the homeownership
gap —whether that means providing
transforming furnishings for supportive
housing of formerly homeless NYC
seniors through our partnership with
Riseboro, furnishing units set aside for
homeless Veterans in Carmel Place (NY’s
first micro-unit building), or supporting
legislation to pave a clear and accessible
path for homeowners to build
ADUs in California. Over the last two
A rendering of
the wall bed and
shelving.
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THE BLACK FAMILY HOME
years, this mission has become more
essential to us than ever. And while by
no means a solution to larger systemic
problems at play, transforming furniture
(and flexible design in general) does
offer viable solutions to common
space problems created by the housing
disparity, making smaller spaces
function optimally. We see our furniture
as a means to enrich people’s experiences
in their homes and think creatively
about their use of space by eschewing the
given floorplan. If we can facilitate one’s
ability to host overnight guests comfortably,
to throw dinner parties for family
and friends without a designated dining
room, to carve out a productive nook in
which to work from home, or exercise
and maintain a healthy lifestyle without
a designated home gym, we’ve made a
difference.
We are proud to support the work and
mission of AphroChic and can’t wait for
the next project! AC
To see AphroChic’s library featuring
custom shelving by Resource Furniture,
pre-order a copy of AphroChic: Celebrating
the Legacy of the Black Family Home.
The multipurpose room at the AphroFarmhouse, showcasing the wall bed from Resource Furniture,
closed on opposite page for the wellness room, and open above to create a guest space.
24 aphrochic issue nine 25

MOOD
BLACK & WHITE
Black and white is timeless. This classic color
palette will never go out of style. And today, classic
black-and-white designs for the home feel fresh
and renewed in stunning silhouettes. Our favorite
pieces in black and white embrace bold curves and
new lines that showcase each piece as a work of art.
Raffia Wall
Hangings
from $425
elanbyrd.com
Goddess Candle
from $10
shadesofblackness.com
Bootyful Black Bum Vase
$85
latzio.com
Cities speckled
clay bowl $80
studiobppco.com
Nasara Chair $251.68
theurbanative.com
Keshia Black
Currant +
Rose Candle
$44
gavinluxe.com
Yoomelingah-yure
Art Basket
$749
babatree.com
Acacia Vessel 2
from $550
nurceramics.com
Cococozy
Square Link
Serving Board
$195
etuhome.com
AphroChic Ndop
Black and Yellow
Pillow $156
perigold.com
26 aphrochic issue nine 27

FEATURES
Out of the Ashes | Life on the Bolé Road | Gee’s Bend Quilts | Her Food
Is a Revolution | Bringing the Indoors Out | The Rhythm of LA | Finding
Home in Diaspora | Soul Man

Fashion
Out of the Ashes
Sindiso Khumalo’s Collection Found Its
Inspiration in a Devastating Fire
Storytelling is an important part of African culture. All
throughout the continent, there are griots — repositories
of oral traditions who keep history and culture alive
through poems, music, songs, tales, and clothes. For
fashion designer Sindiso Khumalo, her newest collection is
a moment of storytelling worthy of the tradition. The South
African designer’s SS22 collection, JAGGER, was created
to preserve the history and legacy of one of Africa’s most
important libraries — the University of Cape Town Jagger
African Studies Library, which was lost to a mountain
fire in April 2021. The blaze consumed great archives of
African literature, maps, political posters, and countless
historical treasures, but the story of the library lives on.
Words by Jeanine Hays
Photos by JD Barnes
30 aphrochic

Fashion
In her collection, Sindiso honors
those treasures lost to the fire and those
who worked in the library to preserve
African scholarship. Two-piece suits in the
collection are dedicated to the librarians
who built the institution’s archives. Political
illustrations by Sinalo Ngcaba are a reference
to the political posters, novels, maps, and
book covers that the fire took. Hand-embroidered
elements and handmade ceramic
buttons evoke the wildflowers that sprung
up on the mountain in the place where the
building once stood.
A London-based architecture-studentturned-fashion-designer,
Sindiso draws
heavily on her Zulu and Ndebele heritage
in her designs, playing out what she terms
a “love affair” with her heritage in physical
form. Far from being an homage only to what
was lost, the collection is also a lesson on how
to preserve and sustain. JAGGER features
sustainable materials, including recycled
cotton and organic cotton blends across the
collection.
The job of a griot is not simply to recount
the past, but to keep alive the lessons and
legacies of history for present generations to
build on. Born out of ashes, JAGGER tells a
story of the past. But Sindiso’s narrative is for
us to hear right now. Bright colors, modern
silhouettes, and sustainable materials,
all tell the story with the aim of inspiring
us towards a bright new future. In this
collection, past and present come together,
reminding us that all is not lost as long as we
follow in those old griot traditions, working
through design with artistry to keep our
history alive. AC
32 aphrochic

Fashion
34 aphrochic

Fashion
36 aphrochic

Fashion
38 aphrochic issue nine 39

Interior Design
Life on
the Bolé
Road

Interior Design
At Home with Hana Getachew
For Hana Getachew, the Bolé Road is a lot of things. It’s the
name of her celebrated textile line, a gorgeous collection of
traditionally-inspired Ethiopian pillows and accessories,
currently enjoying a collaboration with West Elm. It’s a popular
thoroughfare in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the designer was
born. Most of all it’s a metaphor for all of the important journeys
she’s been on in life, starting with the first one.
“I took two very important journeys on Bolé Road,” Hana reflects.
“The first is where I left Ethiopia as a child, because the road
leads to Bolé International Airport. And then the second was
when I returned for the first time, 18 years later.” Now she’s
on the road again, taking a yearlong hiatus from home in her
beloved Brooklyn to enjoy the sights, sounds, and experiences
of London.
Words by Bryan Mason
Photos by Oliver Gordon
issue nine 43

Interior Design

Interior Design
Interior Design

Interior Design
Traveling with her husband, screenwriter Brian Tucker
and their daughter, Gelila, Hana has stepped out of her comfort
zone and into a whole new world — one she seems to like. “The
second I arrived I was so enchanted with London,” she says. At
the center of her enchantment is her family’s adopted home,
a three-bedroom, two-story, Mews-style house in London’s
famed Chelsea neighborhood.
From the entryway, the home opens up into an intriguing
living area made up of two separate rooms. Located directly
across from each other, each has its own distinct design plan
and color scheme. “One is warm and intense, and the other
is all cool, muted tones,” Hana explains. “It was kind of a
weird design challenge.” It was also indicative of how one of
the home’s major selling points could also be one of its few
drawbacks, especially for a designer.
“This place came fully furnished,” she shrugs, “which
makes sense because who would want to furnish a home for
just a year’s stay?” Still, living in a home built around someone
else’s aesthetic took some getting used to. “I almost vetoed
this apartment because of the oxblood sectional in the family
room,” she laughs. “It's just not my vibe.”
The vibe that Hana left in Brooklyn is a highly curated mix
of modern design, Ethiopian culture and family heirlooms. “Incorporating
my culture and my heritage has always been a part
of the spaces I've lived in.” Coming to London meant leaving
some of her favorite things behind. “One of the most important
pieces to me,” she lists, “is this kind of lopsided, off kilter, hide
skin table from my parents' home. I also have beautiful rugs that
I found in Morocco. And I have a gallery wall of baskets. I incorporate
a basket wall in every apartment that I live in.” Once
Brian convinced her that a disagreeable sofa shouldn’t come
between them and the perfect place, Hana got to work bringing
in just enough design to make London feel like home.
Of course the sofa was her first target. She made the
leather feel more cozy adding cushions from her own collection.
The results were inspiring. “I was wondering if our pillows
could even work in the space since there was already a lot going
on color-wise, but it did! I even used our bed runner as a throw!”
Following her success in the first living room, Hana took a more
restrained approach to the second. “I kept the cool side of the
living room more muted with some of our neutral pillows,” she
remembers. After that, the rest was editing. “We rearranged the
seating a bit so it flowed better, moving the armchairs in near
the green settee which is actually a futon.” Hana’s effortlessly
energetic aesthetic and facility with making the right moves in
a space make it hard to believe that she didn’t always know that
this was the field she was destined for.
“I'm not one of those people that knew what they wanted
to be when they were young,” Hana admits. Then she reconsiders.
“Actually I did, I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be a fine
artist.” Following that path, she attended Cornell University as
a fine arts major. Like any good student she had questions, and
soon began to suspect that she wasn’t asking them in the right
place. “I found that I really wasn't getting answers to the kinds
of questions that I had.” So when a friend majoring in interior
design invited Hana to take a class, it was an epiphany. “My mind
was blown. They had classes like ‘Making a difference through
design,’ all these things that I was interested in, and wanted to
explore but wasn't quite getting in the fine arts program. So I
made the transition and the rest is history.”
48 aphrochic

Interior Design
Making history meant first getting a job at an interior
design firm before making the transition into textiles and
a brand of her own. “As an interior designer, I love textiles
and picking finishes and furniture,” Hana confesses. “So for
me, developing a textile line felt like a natural transition.”
The other major influence leading to the start of her line was
Hana’s second big trip on the Bolé Road — her first trip back to
Ethiopia. “That first trip back was really a pivotal moment in my
life,” she reminisces. “Being immersed in my culture, and my
country once again. I think that's when I first started thinking
about wanting to be more involved.”
Down the stairs from the living rooms, another open space
is home to the kitchen, dining room and an atrium leading to
a beautiful outdoor seating area. Like the upstairs, Hana recognized
a hot/cool dichotomy in the design plan, this time
spread across the kitchen and dining room. “The kitchen’s
cool cabinets, subtle blue tint and marble backsplash and shelf
completely offsets the intense warmth of the dining area,” she
says. Though in her heart it’s the bright colors of the dining
room she really loves. “These amazing orange chairs just sing to
me.” Together, the two spaces are the most popular part of the
house, where the family spends most of its time. It’s proven to
be ideal for spending time together. “Our New York home really
made it easy to eat in front of the TV,” Hana says. “But here, with
the living room upstairs, we just cook and eat, do work and
homework downstairs. And there’s a playroom just down the
hall.”
While the kitchen and dining room may see the most use,
other rooms vie for position as Hana’s favorite. One of the frontrunners
is her office. Originally designed as a nursery, complete
with whimsical toucan-patterned wallpaper, it soon became
an ideal space for Hana to take time to keep track of the many
sides of her brand; sides that include collaborating with teams
of weavers in Ethiopia who help to bring Hana’s products to
life while giving her the opportunity to connect and give back.
“A big part of why I started this company, is to not only be more
connected to Ethiopia, but also to contribute in supporting
the development of the economy,” she says. “The people of the
South are really known for their weaving skills. They are the
main contributors to weaving production in the country but
each region has a very distinct aesthetic in their clothing and in
their textiles. I love having the opportunity to share that.”
Hana’s textiles make another bold appearance in her
London home in the cozy and chic outdoor space, accessible
through her office. Just as in the rest of the home, pillows,
throw blankets and even a rug add dimensions of color and
culture to this intimate seating area, complementing the lush,
green plants that hang from the walls. Embracing it as one of the
areas where she could do the most design work, Hana played
with furniture layouts as well as color palettes to create three
separate seating areas. “It just makes it so cozy and inviting,” she
smiles.
Even with all of its other amenities, Hana admits that
it was the bedrooms this home had to offer that made it her
choice — especially the one for her daughter Gelila. The pretty,
pink interior features several built-in sleeping spaces as well
as a whimsical hanging light pendant and pompom-styled wall
art. In her own bedroom, Hana’s textiles infuse similar pops
of pink to energize the largely neutral color palette. There, the
main attraction for Hana isn’t the room itself, but the room
it’s attached to. “The master bath is one of my top three rooms
here,” she grins. With an impressive list of features including
a stand-alone tub, heated floors and towel rack and walnut
cabinets along with a cool sounding name — “They call [master
bathrooms] ‘ensuites’ here,” she says — the bathroom is one of
the things Hana says she’ll find hardest to leave behind when
their time in London is through. “I don't know if I'll ever have any
of these again,” she frets.
When she was three years old, the Bolé Road took Hana
Getachew away from Ethiopia. Eighteen years later it took her
back. Since then it’s taken her in and through all aspects of the
interior design industry and into her own brand, to new ways of
connecting with her heritage and sharing it with the world. Now,
as her time in London draws to a close, Hana is ready to set out
on the road again to see where it takes her next, knowing that
wherever it leads, the road will always bring her home. AC
To explore Hana’s latest collection of pillows and textiles visit West
Elm.
52 aphrochic

Interior Design
54 aphrochic

Interior Design

Culture
Gee’s
Bend
African American Works
of Early Modern Art
Quilts
One of the potential hazards of loving art is the
tendency to see it as something separate from everyday
life — a thing apart, with no ability to function practically
beyond what it stirs in us emotionally or intellectually.
Sometimes that can be true, but often
our most inspired works are the ones inspired by a
practical need, like the patterned rugs of the Middle
East and Central Asia. Similarly, the African American
quilts of Gee’s Bend, hailed as pivotal works of modern
art in museum exhibitions around the country, were
inspired by the simple need to stay warm.
Words by Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Photographs of Quilted by Katie Mae provided by Etsy
60 aphrochic issue nine 61

Culture
The small community of Gee’s Bend, located at an isolated bend
in the Alabama River, about 50 miles south of Selma, began in 1816 as
the cotton plantation of Joseph Gee. The plantation was later sold,
along with its workforce of 47 enslaved laborers to a relative, Mark H.
Pettway. Though the land would change hands repeatedly afterward,
most of the current community’s inhabitants — the descendants of
those enslaved on the original plantation, still bear the Pettway name.
The tradition of quilt making that developed in Gee’s Bend
likely traces back to the earliest days of the plantation itself, drawing
from a combination of African, Native American and original techniques.
The quilts first came to national attention in the 1960s with
the formation of the Freedom Quilting Bee. This collection of Gee’s
Bend women gathered after auctions of the quilts in New York City
attracted the attention of Vogue, Bloomingdales and eventually the
Smithsonian. The collective was a way for women in the community to
earn money and rally support for the voting drives of the Civil Rights
Movement. In retaliation, the local government ceased ferry service to
the community, effectively isolating it, save for a single country road.
Undeterred, the collective continued to gain friends and connections
and is credited with causing a resurgence of popularity for quilts in
American interior design in the 1960s.
By the time the 21st century arrived, the Gee’s Bend quilts were
firmly established as works of art. The first exhibition, The Quilts
of Gee's Bend, was held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2002
before traveling across the country. In 2006, ferry service to the
community was restored.
Gee’s Bend quilts come in a variety of styles, each of them
a departure from the more structured traditions of Europe and
European Americans. These styles can be generally categorized as
abstract/improvisation; geometric; bricklayer; Sears corduroy; and
workclothes. The abstract or improvised quilts are often considered
the most emblematic of the tradition. Easily the most emotional of the
styles, their aesthetic has often been compared to that of jazz improvisation
for the free-form and energetic perspective they express.
The geometric quilts are dazzling works of art repeating
simple shapes like triangles or rectangles in creative and unexpected
patterns. This style was very popular among Gee’s Bend quilters in
the early 20th century. Their bright, energetic displays are a striking
contrast to what the community was experiencing through the Great
Depression years.
Bricklayer quilts begin with a single piece of fabric, with strips
of additional cloth woven in from the edges to frame the original
pattern in the center. A longtime favorite within the community, the
technique has been compared to the “Call and Response” tradition of
African American music, as found in gospel and the Blues.
The corduroy and workclothes techniques speak to the very roots
of the tradition. In the '70s, the Freedom Quilting Bee produced pillow
cases for Sears. Scraps of the material provided inevitably found
their way into their quilts. The works produced during this period
are unique both for their color palette and being made of corduroy,
considered an atypical fabric for quilting. Worn workclothes on the
other hand, were the first and most enduring resource for Gee’s Bend
quilters. The fabric, already beaten and worn from hard use in the
fields, lent a hauntingly weathered feel to the quilts when strips of
the material were laid out in abstract patterns — or in some cases, no
pattern at all.
Gee’s Bend quilts can be displayed in the home in any number of
ways. As works of art they can be hung on the walls or even framed to
create a dramatic backdrop. But it’s just as fitting to put them to their
original uses. They were made to keep families together and warm,
and there’s no more practical or artistic reason to bring something
into your home than that. However you choose to incorporate a Gee’s
Bend quilt into your home decor, it’s important to do so in a way that
recognizes the fraught history and long tradition that they emerge
from and continue to represent, respecting them not just as folk art
“from the margins,” but as modern art from the heart. AC
Authentic Gee’s Bend Quilts can now be discovered online. Here are
some of our favorite resources for authentic quilts:
Quilted by Katie Mae on Etsy
Katie Mae specializes in traditional Gee’s Bend quilting.
She is a verified Gee’s Bend Maker on Etsy. Her handstitched
quilts come in a variety of abstract patterns.
Mary Lee Bendolph on Artsy
Mary Lee Bendolph is one of the best known Gee’s Bend
Quilters. Her works include salvaged materials that
have been re-imagined into complex abstract patterns.
Her expressive works for sale or on auction can be discovered
on Artsy.
62 aphrochic issue nine 63

Food
Her Food Is
a Revolution
Tiffany-Anne Parkes of Pienanny Forces Us
To Reckon With History One Pie At A Time
“You have a social responsibility as an artist,” says Tiffany-Anne
Parkes, the founder of Pienanny. It’s a responsibility that
she does not take lightly. Speaking with the culinary artist
over Zoom, it’s clear that Parkes is always thinking deeply
and intentionally about the work she’s doing, even while
on vacation. Enjoying the Jamaican sun while visiting with
family, her hair pulled back in beach-ready blonde cornrows,
she’s equal parts reflective and instructive, talking about
pies as if she was still teaching history in front of a classroom
— a full-time profession that she recently left this year. “Why
aren’t we taking it a step further,” she asks [after a pause],
“and thinking about how we can use culinary artistry to say
something meaningful?”
Words by Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Photographs by Theodore Samuels and courtesy of Pienanny
64 aphrochic

Food
Part of the answer may be
that, for most of us, “culinary
artistry” isn’t something we’ve
ever conceived of — at least not
the way that Parkes does. While
there are a number of worldclass
chefs leading conversations
on how food connects to
deeper questions of class, equity,
and social justice, there are few
visual artists using food as their
medium. For Parkes, the connection
is clear, resulting in a
unique blend of food and art that
blurs the line between fine artist
and chef to the point of near irrelevance.
The artist/chef uses
her hands to mold dough into
enticing pies that hold urgent
historic narratives, presenting
her audience with social commentary
we can eat. A combination
made even more remarkable
by the fact that as an artist and a
chef, she’s entirely self-taught.
“I don't have any ‘chefs’
in my family,” Parkes explains.
“Most of what I learned about
cooking I learned in the kitchen,
just watching my mother or
watching my aunts, and cousins.
I would say it was a really organic
process.” Her path as a visual
artist has been equally organic,
and like cooking, she’s been at it
for as long as she can remember.
“I started drawing at the age of
five. And so visual art has always
been an outlet for me,” she
recalls. Proud of her Jamaican
heritage, Parkes prefers flavors
and fillings traditional to the
island. But for those of us not
fortunate enough to have tasted
her work, there’s joy to be found
in what we see.
On her Instagram, which
is as much a gallery space as a
menu and visual diary, there’s
the deeply hued pie in dark
raspberry that was inspired
by Elizabeth Catlett’s There
Is a Woman In Every Color, a
feminine face etched beautifully
into the dark purple crust. Other
works depict an image of Queen
Nanny, leader of an 18th century
community of Jamaican Maroons
on a tart drizzled with caramel
sauce and a gingersnap crust
that’s home to a hibiscus custard
shaped into the silhouette of
Saartjie Baartman, the Khoikhoi
South African woman who was
illegally enslaved and displayed
across Europe and whose body
was later deconstructed for
study. Looking much like a piece
at a Kara Walker exhibit, and
with similar impact, serving up
important histories and uncomfortable
truths, the Baartman
piece puts viewers in exactly the
type of double-bind that characterizes
so much of Pienanny’s
work: While some of us may
look away from the history, no
one’s going to turn away from the
pie. And like any good teacher,
Parkes uses that allure to get our
attention and keep it until the
lesson is done.
“I was really going to be an
English teacher,” says Parkes,
who eventually went on to develop
curricula for the District of Columbia’s
Public Schools before
teaching history at a grade
school in Harlem. Now her love of
teaching, literature, and history
has been brought together in
her pies, a process that Parkes
professes, started due to the
pandemic and the growing civil
rights movement that spread
around the globe in 2020.
“Once the George Floyd murder
happened,” she remembers,
“maybe like three months into
lockdown, and Black Lives Matter
started happening, it provided
an outlet for me.” With her new
project and pen name, Pienanny,
Parkes began building a following
on Instagram, baking, creating,
sharing her process, all while
sharing historical narratives that
invite her followers to go a little
deeper and learn a bit more. And
whether her work is ultimately
seen as food or art, for Parkes,
what’s really important is the
narrative, not just for learning,
but for healing. “I like to call it art
therapy because when I was a kid,
I would always withdraw when
I would do anything artistic. I
would do these things because
they've always made me feel
better. It was my outlet. So now
I find myself going back to the
practices that I was really into as
a child.”
Parkes is now working on
launching her new project, A
Seat Above The Table. Her new
non-profit will host what she
describes as a highly curated
multimedia, multidisciplinary
dining experience. “As Black
women, Black people, we're
always talking to each other
about issues, we're always
talking to each other about all
kinds of things. But we're never
having these conversations
with the people that we need to
have these conversations with
because they're too uncomfortable.
But we have to start. That
has to happen if you really want
there to be some sort of progress
or change.” Whether through
art or outreach, the Pienanny is
a woman with a story to tell —
a story that’s for us, by us, and
that we all need to hear if we’re
to reach the happy ending at it’s
conclusion. “It's meant to be culturally
inclusive and exclusive,”
she smiles. “It's like a joke. If you
get it, you get it. If you don't, then
that's telling too.” AC
issue nine 67

Food
This tart design was initially inspired
by the title of Nicole A. Taylor’s recently
released cookbook Watermelon and Red
Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and
Black Celebrations. The imagery is not
meant to evoke nostalgia or fondness;
rather it is a call to acknowledge history
as always working in our present social
construct. The black bird is representative
of loss and death as well as our everlasting
connection to and guidance from
ancestral planes. I also play with the ideas
of reclamation, ownership, and hope.
My personal belief is that art at its best
is a discourse that involves provocation
and inquiry. With this piece, my aim
is to provoke the viewer to read about
the economic and political positioning
of watermelon during America’s
Reconstruction period. And should any
viewer find themselves enamored by the
imagery, my hope is that they say it out
loud with their chest and someone asks
them, “Why?” — Tiffany-Anne Parkes
Reconstructed Watermelon Lemon Tart
INGREDIENTS
Crust
16 oz Saltine Crackers
2 tsp Sea Salt
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) softened Unsalted Butter
Watermelon Lemon Curd
1 cup Fresh Meyer Lemon Juice
½ cup Fresh Watermelon Juice
21 oz (1 ½ can) Condensed Milk
1 tbsp activated charcoal powder
6 Jumbo Eggs
Garnish
Basil Leaf
Blackberries
Dehydrated Watermelon Pulp
Preheat the oven to 365 degrees.
Throw the crackers, butter, and salt into a food processor and blend well. ***If you do not have
a food processor this can be done using a blender or manually with a mortar and pestle. In this
case, be sure to combine the ground crackers and salt before adding the butter.
Scoop three cups of the mixture into a 10-inch pie or tart pan. Using the bottom of a measuring
cup, press the mixture into the pan until you have a full ¼- inch thick crust. Place the shell in the
oven and bake it for 12-15 mins. or until the crust is a very light golden brown.
While the crust is par baking, whisk the lemon juice, watermelon juice, condensed milk, charcoal
powder, and eggs in a bowl until just fully blended. Do not over beat.
Remove the crust from the oven, fill with the custard mixture, and place back in the oven for
15-20 minutes or until the filling is set. Once baked, allow the tart to cool to room temperature,
and then place it in the fridge overnight. ***For a velvety smooth filling, use a hot water bath and
bake at 355 degrees for 45 minutes.
68 aphrochic issue nine 69

Entertaining
Bringing The
Indoors Out
An Outdoor Oasis Perfect for Entertaining
It’s that time of year. Time for summer barbecues, family reunions, fish
fries, and getting together with family and friends to enjoy the great
outdoors. During this season of entertaining, it’s also a great time to
bring the indoors outside, creating comfortable spaces to sit, relax, and
entertain for the next few months.
Words by Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Interior Design by AphroChic
Photographers: Seth Caplan and Chinasa Cooper
issue nine 71

Entertaining

Entertaining
But outdoor spaces aren’t just about the grill and a patio table.
They can be living spaces specially crafted to provide the ultimate in
comfort with a look that reflects your personal style. In this project
we thought of every detail to create the perfect outdoor dining space
where our client can entertain all year long (even in the winter months
with a tent overhead).
This plain backyard in the Bronx was transformed by our team
into a stunning oasis. The design started with creating a graphic base
for the outdoor space. Just like shopping for flooring and rugs for your
interior, we were in need of a striking floor to replace what used to
be a dirt surface. A statement-setting concrete floor made of hexagon
tiles immediately adds a modern touch.
To define the space and make those tiles pop, walls were built to
create a restful and relaxing retreat away from the noise of the city.
Hand painted black, the walls are the start of a cool and classic blackand-white
color palette. Black outdoor pillows and cushions are highlighted
by black-and-white bolsters on custom seating.
In addition to modular seating and stools, a dining area was also
carved out in this cozy outdoor space. Woven seating brings a modern
feel to the high-bar dining table and chairs. And outdoor art on the brick
wall defines the dining area and adds some indoor style to the space.
While the main color palette is in black and white, color is added with
lots and lots of plants. The lush plants bring in a wash of green and pink,
adding life and color to this space. Just like the concrete floor and furnishings,
the pots are weather-resistant giving them longevity year-round.
The result is an outdoor oasis that looks and feels like an
extended living room and it’s the perfect place to host outdoor dinner
parties with friends and family. AC

City Stories
The Rhythm of LA
Interior Designer Ron Woodson Takes Us on a Tour
of His Family’s History in the City of Angels
Ron Woodson’s family has had a creative impact in Los Angeles
for three generations, contributing to the sights and sounds that
made the City of Angels what it is today. Music was the driving
force that set the tone for his family’s LA experience, starting
with his grandfather, Frank Woodson Sr. In a childhood that could
be a movie script, Ron Woodson grew up around jazz greats and
Hollywood legends, and can even claim the iconic Bobby Short as
his godfather.
Words by Cheminne Taylor-Smith
Images Provided by Ron Woodson
issue nine 77

City Stories
“Growing up in LA for me was fantastic,” he says. “I didn’t have
a typical childhood. I went to a lot of gigs and rehearsals with my dad
and got to experience a grand lifestyle that most kids, let alone a young
black kid, never got to experience. I was always mature beyond my
years, and I was a very well-mannered and extremely exposed child,
wearing blue blazers, slacks, and black-and-white saddle shoes.”
His family’s Los Angeles life started with his grandfather, who
owned a large part of the property in South LA that later became the
King/Drew Medical Center. The land included a small farm with
chickens, cows, goats, homing pigeons, dogs, and geese. But Frank
Woodson was also a musician who played bass, and later went on to
be the founder of the Watts Symphony Orchestra. “He was very civic
minded,” Ron Woodson says. “He exposed young inner-city kids to
music. In his later years he was honored by then-Mayor Tom Bradley,
who was a family friend.”
Ron’s father Buddy Woodson was almost predestined to have
a musical career and he followed in his father’s footsteps by playing
upright bass. But Buddy’s musical focus was the growing jazz scene of
his time, and he performed in the most famous jazz clubs of the ’40s,
’50s, and ’60s in LA. In fact, Ron’s father met his mother in one of those
clubs. “They met in South LA at the Club Alabam,” Ron says. “They met
while my dad was performing there.”
Club Alabam was on Central Avenue in a predominantly Black
area of Los Angeles, and was one of the premier destinations — along
with the Dunbar Hotel — for jazz in the city. Both venues drew huge
crowds, including white jazz fans from the west side of the city. “Both
clubs had a rich history of jazz and bebop,” according to Ron. “The
clubs were the mecca of ‘cool’ on Central Avenue.”
Buddy Woodson’s career took off as a bass player, and he also
worked as a studio musician, performing on albums with Sammy Davis
Frank Woodson Sr., Buddy Woodson, and Ron Woodson.
Frank Woodson Sr.
Buddy Woodson with his 1956 Cadillac in Los Angeles.
Buddy Woodson playing upright bass with Sammy Davis Jr.
Buddy Woodson
78 aphrochic issue nine 79

City Stories
Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington,
Bobby Short, Gerald Wilson, Sonny Criss, Buddy Colette, and Barney
Kessel. He worked in theater orchestras, movies, and television, and
he played across the U.S. and in Europe. He also performed in west LA
clubs like the one at the Beverly Hills Hotel, at a time when it wasn’t
common for Black patrons to be allowed into those venues.
“My father never talked about issues he had being a Black man in a
white world of entertainment," Ron says. "I’m sure it wasn’t always easy
for him, but he still made huge strides in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. I
don’t know if he wanted to shield me from that or not.”
Ron said his mother Elgar Woodson was also a strong woman.
“She wasn’t a pushover with anyone or any uncomfortable issues,”
he reveals. “She spoke her mind and stood up for what she knew
was right and she instilled those values in me. My father and my
mother made sure I had a real understanding of what it meant and
how to navigate being a young Black man in America, lessons I live
by to this day. Those lessons have helped me to become the man
that I am.”
Ron’s childhood settings of iconic clubs, movie sets, and grand LA
homes definitely had an impact on his future … after a detour. “I was
in corporate life before becoming an interior designer,” he laughs. “I
always had a creative side that I didn’t really hone in on until my late
20s. As a kid, my mother and I would redecorate our house often and
my bedroom was never the same for six months. My parents sent me
to art school at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I honed my art
skills from there, but never thought I would be in the creative world as
a career.”
Fast forward and Ron has a thriving design business with his
partner Jaime Rummerfield. Woodson & Rummerfield’s was named one
of the Top 20 Interior Designers by The Hollywood Reporter and Interior
Designers of the Year by the National ARTS Council. The duo has worked
on incredible LA structures by iconic Black architect Paul R. Williams as
well as Greystone Mansion and others by Richard Neutra, Donald Wexler
and Gordon Gaufman. They also enjoy a full portfolio of celebrity clients.
“Being a native Angeleno really informs my design style from the
grandeur of old Hollywood, movie sets, and the backdrop of LA style,”
Ron says. “Also, being fortunate enough to visit grand homes from a
very early age informed my design sense.”
Committed to preserving LA’s architectural heritage, Ron worked
with Rummerfield to found Save Iconic Architecture in 2016. The goal
of the organization is to help prevent major architectural structures
from being torn down. “To date our proudest rescue is the Standard
Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, a true landmark on the famed Sunset
Strip,” he says.
For Ron, the LA lifestyle is still very much where his heart is. “I
love the indoor and outdoor living, architecture, the beach, and wide
variety of cultures. I miss the days when people dressed up to go
places in Los Angeles, but it’s still a mecca for art, design, fashion, and
culinary cuisine. People are attracted to LA because you can reinvent
yourself into anything and anybody you want to be.”
Although many of the clubs and venues from his father’s day
are no longer there, even Ron’s “meet cute” with his husband Tom
took place in a Silver Lake bar. “We met there 33 years ago,” he says.
“We were friends for several years and we became a couple, and this
year we will have been together 28 years.” Proving that even a native
Angeleno can get the perfect Hollywood happy ending. AC
Follow Ron Woodson on Instagram at @rwwoodson or on the Woodson
& Rummerfield's account at @woodson_rummerfields.
Ron Woodson, age 7, above.
Ron with Lionel Hampton, below, and Ron's sister Julie Boutte.
Ron Woodson's Must-See
Sights in LA
1. Musso & Frank Grill
2. Santa Monica and Venice
beaches
3. Griffith Observatory
4. Museums: The Broad, The
Hammer, MOCA, LACMA (in
the process of being re-modeled),
the Motion Picture
museum, and the Norton Simon
in Pasadena
5. A play at the Hollywood
Pantages Theatre, where my
father played in the past
6. A drive up the coast on PCH
(Pacific Coast Hwy)
Ron Woodson's mother Elgar Woodson with
Duke Ellington, above, and the extended
Woodson family, right.
80 aphrochic issue nine 81

City Stories
Afro modern decor that creates a sense of connection.
Jamie Rummerfield and Ron Woodson, principals at Woodson & Rummerfield's interior design firm, and founders
of Save Iconic Architecture.
SIA (Save Iconic Architecture) is
a nonprofit that brings education,
awareness and landmarking to iconic
structures in Los Angeles. The group
welcomes the public’s support to continue
the work to save the city’s architectural
history. For more information, go
to siaprojects.org
82 aphrochic
www.reflektiondesign.com
@reflektiondesign

Reference
Finding Home
in Diaspora
Where is home? Is it where you were born, where you grew
up, where you feel most comfortable, or is it wherever
you are right now? Is it where your ancestors are from or
where they went? Is home something fixed in time, or can
it change, in the span of a single lifetime or over a course
of generations? Though we rarely talk about it from this
perspective, the question of home has always been central
to the concept of diasporas. It takes on special significance,
as so many things do, within the African Diaspora, where
everything is meaningful and nothing is simple.
Words by Bryan Mason
Images by zbruch
84 aphrochic

Reference
Starting from Home
In positing one of the earliest frameworks
for defining and studying the African Diaspora,
scholar Joseph Harris laid out several important
characteristics. Describing the African Diaspora
as a “triadic relationship” involving Africa, its
descendants, and the lands to which they were
dispersed, Harris further stipulates that the
cohesion of our diaspora depends upon, “collective
memories and myths about Africa as
the homeland or place of origin; a tradition of
a physical and psychological return; a common
socioeconomic condition; a transnational
network; and a sustained resistance to Africans’
presence abroad and an affirmation of their
human rights.” Taken together, these characteristics
describe the Diaspora as a “dynamic,
continuous, and complex phenomenon stretching
across time, geography, class, and gender.”
Subsequent to Harris’ early framings,
numerous scholars have taken up the challenge
of describing the characteristics through which
diasporas can be more clearly defined. Historian
Kim Butler’s work on the subject is representative
of a large portion of current diaspora
models. In 2019, her work was cited by scholar
Chukwuemeka Nwosu as a “useful schema for
diaspora study which is divided into five dimensions:
(1) reasons for and conditions [of] the
dispersal; (2) relationship with the homeland; (3)
relationship with hostlands; (4) interrelationships
within diaspora groups.” All of which are
taken an the basis for the fifth concern: “comparative
studies of different diasporas.”
In creating her model, Butler drew on
the work of political scientist William Safran in
which diaspora is defined by five characteristics:
1) dispersal to two or more locations, 2) collective
mythology of the homeland, 3) alienation from
hostland, 4) idealization of return to homeland,
and 5) ongoing relationship to homeland. In
particular, Butler carves three specific features
out of Safran’s list as being those which most
diaspora scholars will mention. First, is that
the dispersal must carry the displaced to two or
more locations. Second, is the shared relationship
to a homeland whether real or imagined.
Third, is the awareness of a shared group
identity. To this, Butler adds the stipulation that
the outcome of the dispersal must last for two
generations or more.
While a single, definitive list of features
that characterize all diasporas has yet to
emerge, scholars continue to work toward
a consensus on diasporic features because,
as Butler notes, “[h]uman beings have been
in perpetual motion since the dawn of time,
but not all their movements have resulted in
diasporas.” Yet despite the often small variations
in the specific criteria different scholars
lay out for identifying diasporas and the often
large variations in implication that they entail,
one thing that remains a constant feature is
the complicated relationship diasporas exhibit
between homeland and hostland. But are we
sure that we know which is which?
From a historical perspective, the roles of
homeland and hostland in the African Diaspora
are very clearly cast. Certainly it was the shared
vision of an African homeland that gave animus
to the various movements and projects of Black
activists and intellectuals both before and
during the time of Pan-Africanism. It is just as
clear — taking African Americans as an example
— that the idea of a home within the hostland
was, for the majority of American history unfathomable.
Even before Emancipation, many
American states had passed or seriously considered
laws banning the settlement of Black
people within their borders. Frederick Douglass
would reflect bitterly on the African experience
of America in this period, saying:
I have no love for America, as such; I
have no patriotism. I have no country.
What country have I? The institutions
of this country do not know me,
do not recognize me as a man. I am not
thought of, spoken of, in any direction,
out of the anti-slavery ranks, as a man.
I am not thought of, or spoken of, except
as a piece of property belonging to some
[so-called] Christian slaveholder, and
all the religious and political institutions
of this country, alike pronounce
me a slave and a chattel.
Yet generations later, in the aftermath of
Pan-Africanism and the rising tide of diaspora,
the question emerges as to whether Africa still
constitutes a homeland and America a hostland.
Stranger in the Homeland
In the autobiographical narrative Lose
Your Mother, literary scholar and author Sadiya
Hartman tells the story of her search to find
meaning in the history of slavery through
research in Ghana. Though expecting a return
home, she soon discovers that the distance
between the Old World and the New is measured
in more than leagues of ocean:
My customs belonged to another
country. My too-fast gait best suited to
navigating the streets of Manhattan,
my unfashionable German walking
shoes, my unruly tufts twisted into two
French braids, fuzzy and unfurling
in the humid air. Old and new worlds
stamped my face, a blend of peoples
and nations and masters and slaves
long forgotten. In the jumble of my
features, no certain line of origin could
be traced. Clearly I was not Fanti, or
Ashanti, or Ewe, or Ga.
Struggling with the realization that
“home” is no simpler a concept in Africa than
in America, Hartman comes to realize the full
breadth of the divide in an epiphany born of a
power outage.
Not being able to see clearly is tantamount
to ignorance, and since early
modernity the ignorance of the West
has been projected onto Africa…But
I knew better. My flashlight was not a
defense against dark, dark, Africa but
against my own compromised sight,
my own thickheadedness. I had been in
Ghana nearly half a year and I barely
understood the world around me. All
I had discovered was a series of empty
rooms and abandoned warehouses.
I had nothing to show for the time
endured. I had collected no artifacts. I
had found no stories.
The image of Africa as a welcoming
homeland is, at least in part, the “Mother” lost in
the title of the work as Hartman came to realize
that, “those who stayed behind told different
stories than the children of the captives who were
dragged across the sea.” In place of a homeland
she found a world where she could only be obruni
— a stranger, a hostland eager to inform her that,
as she would later reflect, “a black face didn’t
make me kin.” The simple pragmatism of the
situation was flatly laid out to Hartman by a friend
with several more years of experience living in
Ghana than she had. “When you go to Chicago,”
the friend asked, “do you expect black folks there
to welcome you because you’re from New York?
Well, why should it be any different here?”
Though meaningful, Hartman’s
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Reference
apparent ambivalence toward the idea of Africa-as-homeland
as a result of her experiences
in Ghana is not necessarily a recent addition
to the African American psyche. In his own
work, Paul Gilroy discusses at length the similar
feelings of Martin Delany and other early Black
intellectuals upon arriving in Africa. Likewise
Richard Wright’s Black Power offers a fascinating
look at the author’s coming to terms with his
own perspectives on Africa while visiting Ghana
for the first time to make the acquaintance of
future president, Kwame Nkrumah.
From Host to Home
Simultaneous with Africa’s vacillation
in its position as homeland, many destinations
of dispersion, such as America, have
become similarly fluid in their designation as
the hostland. Several generations have passed
between Frederick Douglass’ statements on
the stateless nature of the African-American —
an interval which has been filled with thoughts
and voices, acts, movements, and writings, all
to answer a question that W.E.B. DuBois framed
but did not originate:
Are [we] Americans or foreigners? [T]
his the American black man knows: his
fight here is a fight to the finish. Either
he dies or wins. If he wins it will be by no
subterfuge or evasion of amalgamation.
He will enter modern civilization here
in America as a black man on terms of
perfect and unlimited equality with any
white man, or he will not enter at all.
While certainly the level of equity in
American society that DuBois demands is not
yet achieved, and the fight he describes is not
nearly over, the statement is a clear assertion
that the future of the African in America
depended on making the hostland into a home.
While Kim Butler and other scholars have cited
the importance to diaspora of a dispersion that
lasts for generations, few frameworks for identifying
diaspora take into account the effect of
passing years with regard to the designations of
home and host.
Time Brings Change
The changing places of homeland and
hostland in the minds of the dispersed present
a number of questions to the stability and future
sustainability of the African Diaspora concept.
For example, if homeland and hostland are, as
many scholars contend, vital presences in the
existence of a diaspora, yet Africa does not constitute
a homeland, and America a hostland, do
African Americans still qualify as members of
a diaspora? Do Caribbean nations, for which
the issue of hostlands has long since passed?
Recalling Butler’s statement that not all human
migrations have spawned diaspora raises the
question of whether diaspora merely constitutes
a mid-point, an interim between dispersal
and, in Dubois’ words, “amalgamation.” As the
interests of African Diaspora cultures and communities
continue to diverge, and the spirit of international
collaboration is replaced by a vague
cultural awareness and the receding image of a
shared home, the possibility is that we are simply
outgrowing diaspora, not because the history and
relationships it describes have lost relevance,
but because the frameworks we have erected
to understand its reality are not constructed to
account for the passage of time.
That diaspora should pass away is pre-ordained.
The death of the African Diaspora is
hard-wired into every model of the concept
that depends upon an identity based on fixed
notions of hostland and homeland. Such a construction
is impossible to maintain over time
as the relationship of the dispersed group to
the two poles of its identity must, by simple
process of attrition, change. That African
Americans have come to consider America to
be the homeland, despite tensions with a white
supremacist power structure is evident in the
writings of African American intellectuals from
DuBois and King to Kimberly Crenshaw and
Patricia Hill Collins and in the work of activists
from Frederick Douglass to Colin Kaepernick.
While such a transition may or may not be the
fate of all diaspora, it is an apparent reality of the
African. It is a sentiment succinctly expressed by
the free Afro-American community of Philadelphia
who in 1817 stated:
We are NATIVES of this country…Not
a few of our fathers suffered and bled to
purchase its independence…We have
toiled to cultivate it, and to raise it to
its present prosperous condition; we
ask only to share equal privileges with
those who come from distant lands, to
enjoy the fruits of our labour. Let these
moderate requests be granted, and we
[will] not go to Africa or anywhere else
to be improved and happy.
The level of attachment evidenced by
African Americans for a nation in which we
continue to struggle socially, politically, and economically
for equality, suggests a clear transposing
of the positions of home and host. For the
nations of the Caribbean whose governance lies
in the hands of the descendants of the dispersed
it is not unreasonable to presume at least an
equal attachment to the “hostland” as home.
A Diaspora Without Host or Home?
Ultimately, the issue is not whether the
African Diaspora itself will endure. The people of
the Diaspora and the cultural relationships that
comprise it will outlive the use of the term even
as they predate it. Instead, it’s a matter of whether
the frameworks by which we articulate the
structure of diaspora can remain accurate in time
with the changes in identity and culture which
must accompany the survival of the dispersed.
So long as diaspora is constructed around fixed
concepts of homeland and hostland, it will remain
a transient concept, one which every surviving
culture must eventually surrender to the march
of history. But fortunately, this is a problem of
rhetoric rather than relationship, requiring us
to reevaluate not the existence of the African
Diaspora but the ways in which we imagine and
discuss it. Even more fortunately, one of the
earliest African Diaspora theorists may have
already shown us where to start.
Going back to Joseph Harris’ list of
diaspora traits we see he makes an interesting
addition to his mention of Africa, citing its importance
as either the homeland, “or place of
origin.” Generally we assume that it has to be
both, but what if that isn’t the case? Whether
we view the African continent as the collective
“homeland” of all Black people, it will remain,
indelibly, the point of origin for all peoples and
cultures of the African Diaspora. Because of this,
drawing a distinction between the two can seem
like a pointlessly small hair to split. But then, as
we’ve already seen, small variations in concept
can lead to big differences in application.
Whatever the outcome of such discussions,
one thing above all is important to
remember: that the dispersion of people from
the African continent and the many points of
connection that exist between the cultures
of the descendants of that event are facts of
history. Concepts like the African Diaspora or
Pan-Africanism are not about creating a reality,
but helping us to better understand a reality
that is already happening. This is important
for us because as human beings, our ability to
negotiate a particular reality, to steer it towards
a desirable outcome rests largely on how we
choose to see the shape of it. AC
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Sounds
Soul Man
New Orleans-born artist Greg Banks
Is the Saint of Soul Music
Have you ever had one of those days? A terrible day, right in the
middle of everything being bad, when you can’t remember how
good it used to be and can’t imagine it ever being that good again?
And then something happens, someone happens, they do or say
something that cuts through all the bad, and they didn’t even know
what they’d done? With music and song, Greg Banks has been that
person to break through on more than one occasion. We know,
because he did it for us.
We were walking through Union Square in Manhattan killing time
between doctor visits just as we were beginning to grapple with
Jeanine’s long COVID diagnosis. Her body was weak, her steps
shaky, and we had no idea how long she would take to improve -
or if she ever would. Then we heard someone singing. Playing in
a corner of the square, people crowded around, Greg Banks was
doing his thing. Looking like he was channeling Lenny Kravitz and
Jimi Hendrix with a sound that was soul, r&b and funk all at once,
his voice brightened our day and the days of everyone close enough
to hear.
Interview by Bryan Mason and Jeanine Hays
Photos by Marlenê Duperley, Clarence Klingebeil, and Michael Pollack
90 aphrochic

Sounds
We weren’t the first to be mesmerized by
this incredible artist who was bringing music
straight to the people through his Concert on
the Block series. The series began two years
ago, at the start of the pandemic, as Banks’ way
of fighting against the darkness and fear we all
felt in 2020. Since then, it’s grown beyond his
block, taking him around the globe as he uplifts
a populous weary of disease and war with music
that stirs the soul. We had the opportunity to
sit down with Banks to discuss his life, career,
concert series, and his upcoming album - and to
say thanks for being in the park on the right day.
AphroChic: What first drew you to music?
Greg Banks: Coming from New Orleans
there's a tradition called Super Sunday where
tons of musicians come together. They have
this procession that goes throughout the city.
And I was fortunate enough to live on one of the
routes. So as soon as I was about five, when they
would come I would go to my front door and I
would stand out watching. And at that moment, I
understood the power of leadership. I didn't understand
what came with it. But what I saw was
this man leading the band and all these people
coming around and wanting to be there. And it
was positive. I understood that much. It was a
joy and love that resonated in the air that people
wanted to be a part of. I didn't quite know at that
age what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to
have that impact.
AC: New Orleans is one of our favorite
cities. It truly does feel like music is in the air. You
grew up there during Hurricane Katrina. How
did that harrowing event influence your life?
GB: Hurricane Katrina was a moment
that really changed my life. I was a sophomore
in high school, and a great student. And I was
in the marching band. Everything I thought
was normal got turned upside down. Some
of my friends I’ve still never seen since then.
My childhood home was destroyed, all of my
childhood photos, all those things were lost.
My siblings were all over the United States for
months at a time. The only thing that got me
through that, outside of the grace of God, first
and foremost, was that one thing that stayed
present throughout my life, and that was music.
And at that age, I was able to realize, if this ever
happens in life again, this unforeseen circumstance,
I want to continue to do what got me
through. And the one thing that got me through
was my music. Not just keeping it to myself and
holding it. It was about sharing it, being a vessel
of hope, and using it to bring others the joy that
I found by holding on to it. So coming from New
Orleans going through Katrina really cemented
for me that I needed to be a musician.
AC: What brought you to New York?
GB: A couple of months after Hurricane
Katrina, I ended up in Natchez, Mississippi. I
went back to New Orleans after Natchez and I
got a full scholarship to Xavier University where
I studied classical voice. And while I was there
I felt like this is cool and I’m creating a buzz,
but I felt like there was something more that
needed to happen. I felt like I wanted to be more
than a hometown hero. And for me, the best
way to prove that was to go to a city, the biggest
town there is and be a small fish until I became
enormous. So that's what I did. I packed up what
I had and I moved.
AC: You’ve been in New York now for quite
some time, performing and building your craft as
a musician. How did Concert on the Block come
about?
GB: When the world shut down and music
venues closed and festivals, I was scared, to say
the least. Because as an artist who's cultivated
a career following somewhat of a blueprint —
which is you go out, you perform at the venues,
you make connections, you build up your brand,
you build up awareness, and then you can live
off your art. I was finally at a point where I felt
like that was about to happen and then the world
shut down. So for me, it was about how can I take
complete ownership of where I am with all that I
can and can't control? Secondly, am I doing everything
I can do to manifest my dreams? One
day, I was like, I'm not gonna sit on the couch
anymore and moan and complain. I'm gonna
make something happen. So that's what I did.
I started the pop-up Concert on the
Block Series on the corner of my neighborhood
in Brooklyn. I got up, did my first concert
on the corner two years ago, and that first day
neighbors were just kind of walking around and
when I started playing they stopped and they
came over and had blankets and they ran and
called more neighbors and it was such an overzealous
moment. And they asked me when was
the next one. And I was like, I don't know, maybe
tomorrow. And then it was like 100 people the
next day. And I was like, okay, this is really gonna
92 aphrochic

Sounds
work and more than my neighborhood needs it. So I started
going to different places and bringing the love to as many places
as I could.
ACM: You are definitely spreading the love all over New York
City and have even been recognized by Pepsi as a goodwill ambassador
for the city. There’s one particular person whose life has
been changed by an interaction you had with him at one of your
pop-up concerts. Can you tell us about your friendship with Jayson
Corwise, an unhoused man who you met in the subway?
GB: I met Jason indirectly at Jay Street Metro Tech. And I was
playing a song, Something in the Air, and he was on the other side
of the platform. And I just saw him staring and he walked over and
came down. He stood there for about 20 minutes and was like man,
that’s a beautiful song and he walked away. So I saw him again at
Metropolitan on the mezzanine and this time he sung a couple of
words as he was passing by. The next time I saw him I was playing
the same song and I talked to him and he just let it out and started
singing about this lost love that he misses and he wishes he could
make it right again.
Two things happened that night. I got home and showed
my manager the video, and she said, "You got to put this up."
So I put it up and the next day I had 500,000 likes on Facebook.
People started saying: "We love this so much, thank you for this
moment." So I was like, what he did was monumental, I’m going
to go find him. So I bought a prepaid cell phone and I went back
to the same station, week after week and I finally saw him again.
I told him what happened with the song and how amazing it was,
and I’m like, "Listen here's your phone, we're going to set up a
studio session, we got to go to studio." So I gave him the phone.
And a couple of days went by and we actually set up the session
and he came.
We got him a hotel room, got him cleaned up, got him
some new clothes and also started a GoFundMe to facilitate
some housing for him because there's crazy changes
happening in our subway system where they’re just saying I
don't know where you're gonna go, but you gotta go. And he
expressed to me on many occasions that many times he just
felt ignored and he just stayed to himself and didn't bother
other people. But at this moment, he felt like he made it. And
I was like, man, you matter so much more than you ever know.
So now we're actually prepared to release it.
A couple of days later two young ladies reached out to
me on Instagram. One was his niece and one was his daughter
who hadn’t spoken to him in years. I gave them his phone
number, they began to talk and this beautiful connection
happened.
AC: Wow! Such an amazing story and it absolutely shows
where your heart is in your work as a musician. Are you working
on new music with Jayson?
GB: Yes. We’re putting out the first single, Something In
The Air featuring Jayson Corwise. And that will be followed
by another single titled My Way, that tells the story in three
minutes about how I’ve come to realize that I have a specific
purpose. And that will be followed by a single called God
Stepped In. And God Stepped In was a song that I wrote during
the pandemic, because what I was seeing was these catastrophic
wars and all this chaos happening in the world. My mother
raised us on the Bible and reading the Bible, there were so many
stories where man was faced with an obstacle bigger than him
and God's intervention was the only thing that changed it. So
the song is a story of all these things happening in the world
and how it will all change and become different if God intervenes.
I believe that intervention will be a change of heart for us,
who knows what it will be in our lifetime, but it has to happen in
order for life to change. AC
Subscribe to AphroChic’s One Story Up podcast for more from
this interview and a special performance by Greg Banks. And visit
gregbanksmusic.com for news on his upcoming album.
issue nine 95

PINPOINT
Artists & Artisans | Civics | Who Are You

ARTISTS & ARTISANS
Jérôme Lagarrigue
At the star t of 2022, an exciting announcement
was made by the Brooklyn Museum. The
museum had acquired a series of works by
some of today’s most inf luential artists to be a
part of their permanent collection. Featured
on the list were works by Kara Walker, Laura
Aguilar, and Jérôme Lagarrigue. It was
groundbreaking news, as major museums
have been working to create more inclusive
spaces, with new works by artists of color
entering permanent collections. The museum
had acquired Lagarrigue’s painting Besieged
— part of the French-American artist’s
series The Tipping Point — an expressionist
portrayal of a riot, a lens into the many
conflicts happening around the world today.
Words by Jeanine Hays
Photos by Patrick Cline
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ARTISTS & ARTISANS
It was no surprise that Lagarrigue’s
work was chosen to become part of the
museum’s contemporary collection. With a
career that has spanned decades, Lagarrigue’s
work speaks to the moment, inviting
the viewer to look at the urgency of now, with
every expressive stroke of his brush and each
movement of his spatula. “My fascination
with riots stems from my upbringing in Paris;
the art of protesting is embedded within
French culture, from the French Revolution
of 1789 to the student strikes of May 1968
and the more recent riots of 2005. I describe
the act of rioting in abstract form, without
taking a political position on the conflict zone
of protesters and law enforcement officers,”
says Lagarrigue.
Born to an American mother and a
French father, and living between the two
countries, just like his life, Lagarrigue’s work
spans geographical lines. “I am not interested
in portraying riots that have occurred
in history, but rather to recreate fictional
conflicts, using elements from available
photographs, etchings, and drawings. Geographic
locations remain unidentifiable. Protesters
and policemen are anonymous. I draw
my inspiration from etchings and drawings
capturing the 'Negro' riots of 1712–41, the abolitionist
riots of 1834–35, as well as photographs
documenting the race riots in Atlanta
of 1906, the civil rights movement, the Palestinian
Intifada, the Los Angeles and Crown
Heights riots, the recent London riots, and
the Arab Spring demonstrations.”
While The Tipping Point series acts
almost as a record of the times we are
currently living in, Lagarrigue’s work has
also been more insular and intimate at
times. His series, Visible Man, was inspired
by his muse, Shaun Ross. A model with
albinism, Lagarrigue was intrigued with
the refraction and transformation of light
on Ross’ pigment-less hair, eyes, and skin.
The Brooklyn-based artist presented an
exhibition featuring large-scale canvases
of Ross, mixing a unique color palette
developed over time to intimately reflect
his subject.
Lagarrigue continues to show his work
around the world. Most recently at the Grand
Palais Éphémère in Paris. His paintings,
with their unique color palettes and raw
emotion all played out through abstract expressionism
on canvas, invite the viewer to
look deeper, search honestly and find in the
brushstrokes a reflection of themselves and
the world around them. AC
Visit jeromelagarrigue.com to explore more of
Jérôme’s work.
100 aphrochic

ARTISTS & ARTISANS

CIVICS
Public Policy Must Meet The Needs Of The People
“Strategy. Action. Walk into who you claim to be and lead.” Jill Scott’s reading of her poem,
Agitation Definition #3 at the nationally televised, Juneteenth: A Global Celebration, was
an urgent call to action. A rebuke of America’s so-called leaders — political and cultural
— who seem to be failing us at every turn. She was demanding that those in a position
to lead, do so. The fiery poem, ending with Scott’s defiant scream, “LEAD!”, evoked
remembrances of Fannie Lou Hamer’s emphatic rallying cry, “We are sick and tired
of being sick and tired!” Half a desperate plea and half a revolutionary command, the
moment captured perfectly the emotions of a nation that genuinely wants to be better
than it is, yet feels itself edging ever closer to something terrible.
The Call to Lead
In a nation where the citizenry is continuing
to grow more and more weary
around lack of action about the things that
matter, Scott and Hamer’s refrains echo
down a long chamber of history. Questions of
slavery, suffrage and civil rights have evolved
into the current issues of gun control, law
enforcement reform, the right to bodily
autonomy, our right to vote, and so much
more. Though the majority of Americans
agree on wanting more progressive approaches
to many of these issues, we are
often made to feel like we are yelling into
the abyss. Like Scott, we demand that our
members of Congress lead, but these calls
are going unanswered. Every day it seems
harder and harder to get the leadership in
our nation to do anything that will change
things for the better.
Often, when faced with the question of
leadership, our attention naturally goes to
the federal government. At that level, there
are many clear reasons that change is not
occurring: the filibuster has made the Senate
an almost completely inactive part of the
legislative branch; the Biden Administration
lags behind in the progress that many
Americans voted for; and today’s Supreme
Court — a rolling catastrophe of blatantly
partisan and logically contradictory rulings
— is the most actively conservative that our
nation has had since the 1950s. But our government
takes place on many levels, from
the three federal branches at the top all the
way down to state legislatures, city councils
and school boards. At stake for all of them, is
the question of public policy.
It Is What It Is. Isn’t It?
Public policy is the part of government
that most directly affects the day-to-day
lives of the people. It’s not only an integral
part of our democracy, it literally defines
our way of life and guides many of the most
important aspects of our society: your access
to medical care, its cost and your right to
specific procedures; the workings of public
utilities and availability of public transportation
in your community; the presence or
absence of domestic violence and sexual
assault prevention programs in your
community; the minimum wage you can
earn; who can vote — when, where and how;
even the books your children read in school
— all of these things are guided by public
policy. As a result, a lot of the things we look
at as, “just the way things are,” are actually
the result of specific policies. Public policy
is with us each and every day, determining
what we can and can’t access, can and can’t
do, and how we should or shouldn’t behave
in our society. In a healthy political system,
democratically elected officials are attentive
to the needs of their people and create
public policy to shape the actions of gov-
Words by Jeanine Hays
Photo by Photographs by Lucas Gouvea, Julian Myles,
Juan Manuel Merino and Oladimeji Odunsi
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CIVICS
ernment in response to those needs. In an
unhealthy system, the relationship between
elected officials and the people is broken
or distorted and public policy becomes
something else.
As recently as 2020, scholars such as
Antonio Lassance and Sara Rinfreft have
defined public policy technically as “an institutionalized
proposal to solve relevant and
real-world problems, guided by a conception
and implemented by programs as a course
of action created[…] typically by a government
or nonprofit organization, in response
to social issues.” However, much of what is
currently being called public policy does not
fit that definition. Instead of responding to
social issues, many of the policies currently
being introduced by governors, school board
leaders and members of Congress are guided
by political, corporate and cultural agendas
fostered by special interest groups like the
National Rifle Association, wealthy donors
like the Koch Brothers and conservative
think tanks like The Heritage Foundation.
These groups have focused their energies on
putting forth socially prescriptive conservative
legislation including anti-trans bills,
forced-pregnancy legislation, and laws that
would limit education by banning inclusive
histories and diverse books. These bills do
not originate from or respond to any social
need and many are in direct contravention to
public opinion. Instead, they are an attempt
to dictate the shape of American society, restricting
the promises of this nation to a few,
while disenfranchising most. While these
initiatives sometimes hide behind a veneer
of strict constitutional interpretation, increasingly
they are naked grabs at control
with no veneer at all. When legislators ignore
the will of the people in favor of individuals
and groups with wealth-based access and
bills are focused on establishing a tightly
controlled way of life around a restrictive
ideology rather than the realities of public
need, public policy becomes social engineering.
Learning on the Job
In theory, it’s easy to blur the distinction
between public policy and social engineering.
After all, both are interpretations
of power relationships between government
and the people, resulting in action that
directly affects — even determines — the
outcomes of people’s lives. Put into practice
however, the difference (in general) is
clear: public policy frees people to live the
lives they want, while social engineering
restricts them into lives determined by
someone else. I learned the difference, and
the power of public policy while working as
a policy attorney for one of California’s top
non-profit organizations.
Focusing on domestic violence and
sexual assault prevention, I worked on bills
with the Obama Administration, projects
with a young San Francisco District Attorney
who is now our Vice President, worked on
improving signature legislation introduced by
our current president, and was tasked with developing
solutions to help address social issues
on both the federal and state level. My job was
to do exactly what Lassance and Rinfreft stated
— look at the problem and develop policy to
address people’s needs. But my approach to
policy had been shaped even earlier.
While attending law school in Washington
DC, I interned at a women’s organization
that provided direct services to victims
of domestic violence. The organization had
lawyers on staff working with families in
need. On any given day, we helped women
and their children escape violent situations,
get into shelters, file restraining orders, and
anything else they needed.
One woman who I’ve never forgotten
had three children and was working to
escape her abusive husband. Every time she
came to the office, she carried a purse so big
it visibly weighed her down. In place of the
things people typically assume fill a woman’s
purse, hers carried files. There was one for
her herself and one for each of her children
holding birth certificates, medical histories,
social security cards, and a host of other
documents. That purse held all of their lives
on paper, her way of being prepared for the
day she needed to escape with her little ones
in the night. And she never let it leave her side.
The image of that mother and that huge,
weighted bag stayed with me throughout my
career in public policy. When I worked on
the reauthorization of the Violence Against
Women Act, I kept her story in my mind every
day. It was my goal to write public policy that
would make it easier for that mother and
anyone else facing such horrific violence
to access the services they needed to get to
safety. I thought about how the legislation I
was helping to write could literally take the
load off of victims of violence who had to
carry so much to survive. My job was to write
good public policy to respond to her needs
and the needs of her children.
Electing a Healthier Society
A healthy democracy has good public
policy. Good public policies begin with
elected officials understanding and responding
to the needs of people. The community,
therefore, is the most crucial element in
shaping policy and determining the overall
health of our democracy, beginning with the
elections that decide who our officials are.
So it is vital that we, the people, recognize
the importance of public policy and accept
the responsibility of our roles in creating it.
We must elect responsive, community-focused
lawmakers and continually hold them
accountable for their actions and inactions,
because a return to community-based public
policy is a vital step in shaping America’s
future for the good. Fortunately, it’s a trail
that’s already being blazed.
issue nine 107

CIVICS
Community-based public policy approaches
have already been successfully
adopted in public health and policing in
cities, states and other countries. The University
of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public
Health has a specific program on community-based
approaches. Their community
development program “addresses the
economic, social, and physical well-being
of communities. The process requires skills
in education, planning, policy, organizing,
and political action.” This cross-disciplinary,
people-centered approach is a way
of looking at how to assist communities by
responding to a variety of needs including
social policy, health and education all at
once. Such an approach is becoming ever
more important as our society deals with a
web of complex issues, like racism, climate
change, global pandemics and our current
gun violence epidemic. And such approaches
can go from outliers to the norm with deeper
citizen engagement.
LEAD!
Like Fannie Lou Hamer before her, Jill
Scott, in a moment and a word, laid at the feet
of our nation’s lawmakers the full weight of
our frustration, our hopes and our demands.
But that word was not for the lawmakers
alone. While there are three branches of government
in the United States, they are all
beholden to the citizenry, and it is critical
that the citizenry participate in developing
better policies that respond to our needs.
It’s never been more important that each
of us get engaged and thankfully, it’s never
been easier to become an engaged citizen.
Through social media and new technologies
all it takes is an instant to take action on the
issues that are important to you — issues that
need you to be in the fight for the long haul.
Here are some ways that you can get involved
in shaping public policy in your community:
1. Stay Informed. An informed citizenry
is an important part of a functioning
democracy. Staying informed on the issues
that matter to you is as easy as signing up for
text messages from some of your favorite
nonprofit organizations. They’ll let you
know about upcoming legislation, issues or
activism activities that you can get engaged in.
2. Meet. Citizens can’t rely on representatives
to lead without their involvement. We
have a role in ensuring that representatives
do their job and holding them accountable for
the jobs that they do. Meeting with your local,
state and federal representatives is a great
way to inform them about community needs
and hold them accountable. You can plan a
meeting via a citizen’s group, a non-profit or
simply call and schedule an appointment with
your representative’s office. It important to
remember that council members and representatives
are not celebrities, aristocrats or
lords. They work for you and you have a right
to meet with them.
3. Call. Calling your local, state and
federal leaders is also a good way to communicate
if you’d like them to support specific
legislation. It’s simple. Call their local office,
leave a voicemail or speak to a staff member
letting them know you are a constituent.
Provide your name, your zip code and let
them know the issue that you’re calling about.
Offices have to document calls from constituents
and it’s a great way for leaders to gauge
what issues their constituents care about.
4. Volunteer. An active citizenry is
also an important part of a democracy. You
can volunteer to make calls on election day,
volunteer as a poll worker, and volunteer to
register people to vote in your community.
Dedicating even just a few volunteers hours
every year can be a huge help. And if you don’t
have the time, look into donating to help
support the work being done on the ground.
5. Rally. Protest works! Host a rally, participate
in a march, take the to the streets and
help amplify the issues that are important to
you. Protest is an important way for citizens to
raise their voices in a very visible way. Whether
it’s a small group or millions of people, protest
makes it hard for elected officials to look away
and it raises the public consciousness and
awareness around an issue.
6. Stay Committed. This is a difficult
time. But times just like it can be found all
throughout this nation’s history. Each time
things improved it was because of people
who believed in the promise of America
and who urged us forward. Elections will go
wrong, rulings won’t always go our way and
social engineering agendas and the people
behind them will never stop trying to bend
things into the way they think they should
be. But the only thing between us and their
vision of American society — is us. So let
every setback be a call for more engagement,
because its only over when we give up.
If you’re just getting started, here’s our
list of organizations, many Black-founded,
that will keep you informed about important
public policy, legislative activities and that
also have ways for you and your family to
volunteer and get involved:
When We All Vote. Founded by Michelle
Obama, When We All Vote is a leading national
and nonpartisan initiative to change the
culture around voting and increase participation
across race and age. whenweallvote.org
Color of Change. A progressive
nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization
focused on strengthening the political voice
of African Americans. colorofchange.org
ACLU. The American Civil Liberties
Union is a nonprofit organization founded
in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual
rights and liberties guaranteed to every
person in this country by the Constitution
and laws of the United States”. aclu.org
NAACP. The NAACP works to disrupt
inequality, dismantle racism, and accelerate
change in key areas including criminal
justice, health care, education, climate, and
the economy. naacp.org
Jeanine Hays worked in public policy
for over a decade. She developed the Know
More campaign, a national domestic violence
and sexual assault prevention campaign for
college students and drafted key areas of the
federal Violence Against Women Act focused on
the prevention of violence against women and
sexual assault on college campuses.
108 aphrochic

WHO ARE YOU
Name:
LaQueanya Henry
Based In:
Elk Grove, California
Occupation:
Baker, Co-Founder & Owner of
Sugar Coated Cupcakes
sugarcoatedcupcakes.com
Black Culture Is:
My identity. A representation
of who I am forged from the
traditions handed down from
generations before me…from my
parents and grandparents.
It is also in the traditions that
I have created for my children,
grandchildren and theirs to
come.
It is unapologetically living the
undiluted truth of who I am
regardless of what pressures and
stereotypes might exist!
110 aphrochic