Author Talk: My Beautiful Black Hair | St. Clair Detrick-Jules

DESCRIPTION

A collection of empowering stories and captivating photos, My Beautiful Black Hair celebrates an aspect of Black femininity—natural hair—and embraces it as a central part of Black womanhood.

"A powerful celebration of self-acceptance and sisterhood." – Kirkus Review

My Beautiful Black Hair is a book about Black women embracing their natural hair. One hundred and one Black women share their stories of learning to love their natural hair and the immense power in that self-love.

St. Clair Detrick-Jules was inspired to write the book when her little sister, Khloe, came home from preschool where a classmate had told her that her hair was ugly. St. Clair wanted to send a message to Khloe and young Black women everywhere that their hair is beautiful just the way it is.

The stories she captured reveal both the depth of the physical and emotional damage done to many women by relaxing their hair and trying to make it look "acceptable," and the incredible resilience, self-love, and acceptance they gained by learning to embrace their hair and free themselves from Eurocentric beauty standards.

Accompanied by beautiful and intimate photographs of each woman, the book is an encouraging voice for young Black women and the adults who remember their own journeys to self-acceptance.

WRITTEN BY BLACK WOMEN, FOR BLACK WOMEN: With powerful interviews and vivid photographs, this book offers an uplifting message to empower any woman looking to love herself just the way she is. It is a love letter to Black women everywhere navigating their relationships to their own hair.

TIMELY TOPIC: My Beautiful Black Hair celebrates Black women's ability to embrace their natural hair and let go of toxic thinking and processes around manipulating it.

UNIQUE TAKE ON FEMINISM: This book offers an uplifting message to empower any woman looking to love herself just the way she is as well as a love letter to Black women everywhere navigating their relationships to their own hair.

Perfect for: Black and Afro-Latinx women from their 20s to 40s, Black and Afro-Latinx parents with young children, fans of women's empowerment stories

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

St. Clair Detrick-Jules is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, author, and activist. She captures personal stories and intimate moments centering Black liberation, immigrant justice, and women's rights. An Afro-Caribbean artist who remains rooted in her community, St. Clair grounds her work in radical love, joy and the knowledge that a more just world is possible.

St. Clair has a BA from Brown University in French and Francophone Studies. She has been featured in The Washington Post, NPR's Strange Fruit, BuzzFeed News, and Everyday Black History: Afro Appreciation. Her documentary DACAmented has received awards at Immigration Film Fest, Baltimore International Black Film Festival, Ogden City Latino Film Festival, and Cornell University’s Centrally Isolated Film Festival. Her book My Beautiful Black Hair (Chronicle Books, September 2021) showcases the photographs and stories of Black women embracing their crowns. St. Clair currently resides in her hometown of Washington, DC.