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In my other life, I’m an African-American Vernacular Jazz dancer and co-leader of the London dance troupe, The Dinahs.

Photo credits c. Sudden Island

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J is for joy. January has been trash ❤️ so here are a few little things that brought me joy this month.

Allo! 👋🏿 As well as chatting about hair, irl I also love dancing African American Vernacular Jazz. Imagine 1930s and 40s, vintage, swing time, big band vibe. I have a complicated relationship with it, so made this zine at the @grrrlzinefair artist residency back in Dec! It's a Black dance but a v white scene. And being a dark skinned Black woman dancing a dance in a majority white space that borrows from a time where Black people, Black women and especially dark skinned women were consistently persecuted is...WHEW!! (Even when Black women were given stage time back then, colourism made sure lighter skinned Black women were upfront - think paper bag tests...) Anyways, I am grateful to the Black women who have and continue to do the ting! Especially @cookiesjammin @marieswingjazzdance and lots more ❤️

Some of the sweeter moments 2020 gifted me that I feel very lucky to have had 🎁

Sad that I had to google "are there 26 or 27 letters in the alphabet" but anyway here are the alphabet minizines i managed to make this year! I made to the letter i, so only 18... or 17 to go 👌🏿

I spent some quality time with @nana.amaphoto reflecting on my hair project for @a2omag. Feel sooo grateful to have connected with some amazing people this past few years and seen it grow little by little 💖 You can see the full ting at @a2omag!

Happy Sunday to you! Thanks to a lovely benefactor I have 2 zines to give away and would love them to go to Black folks. Plz tag a friend who you think is wonderful and should have a copy, or a frenemy you want to confuse, and I will pick someone at random on Thursday. If you write something particularly lovely about them that would be nice! I'll also pop in some postcards and stickers 🌺💕🌺

I is for i am not my hair. A little zine dedicated to our auntie @indiaarie ❤️

Evening! So here are some pics of Jeni LeGon who I v intensely admire. If you've read Zadie Smith's Swing Time you might have heard of her! She is one of my all time dance faves and could literally tap on pointe aka on the top of her tippy toes!!

Okay Gladys Bentley is AMAZING and I only came across her last year. She was a queer Blues entertainer who always played in a statement top hat and white tux. Already a stan!! The height of her career was in the 1920s and 30s during the Harlem Renaissance and she played the piano in that effortless way where her hands look like they are flyyying over the keys. She also seemed hilarious, like she insisted to a newspaper she was married to a white woman but no one ever knew who... Gladys wrote her life story in Ebony magazine and called it I Am A Woman Again, about her coming to terms with her gender and sexuality and you can find it on Queer Music Heritage website (which is a great resource btw). It's a bit of a heartbreaking/ painful read but highly recommended. Here's a lil quote from it:

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