Tending Cornrows, 2026
Paper Collage on Bristol Paper
11 in x 14 in (27.94 cm x 35.56 cm)
The history of the braiding style, cornrows, stretches back thousands of years. The term itself, however, emerged in the Americas, where the linear patterns of the hairstyle resembled the corn and cane fields where enslaved people labored. Yet, within that landscape of exploitation, cornrows were used for liberation as they were used to conceal seeds and food, map escape routes, and carry messages.
Tending Cornrows braids the history of Black stewardship of the land with the history of cornrows. Both are practices of care and cultivation; just as fields are tended, nourished, and shaped, so too is Black hair. To care for the land is also to care for one another, and to care for hair is to play a role in that same lineage of nurture. Soil and scalp, seed and strand, field and braid, we are an extension of the land we live on, and we must care for it as it is one of our own.