HAIR LOVE WINS THE OSCAR!
Image: Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
We believe you can absolutely speak dreams into existence. Going beyond believing into KNOWING and EXPECTANCY. And that is exactly what We are over the moon excited about the recent win for natural hair crowns with Hair Love winning the Oscar for best animated short film this past Sunday!
It was videos of black fathers lovingly styling their daughters’ hair that inspired Chicago native Matthew Cherry to launch a Kickstarter campaign in 2017 fund the short film, “Hair Love.”
On Sunday, Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver accepted the Academy Award for best animated short film for the project.
Hair Love, is a 7 minute animated short film that centers around the relationship between an African-American father, Stephen, his daughter, Zuri and her hair. Despite having long locks, Stephen has been used to his wife doing his daughter's hair, so when she is unavailable right before a big event, Stephen will have to figure it out on his own. This sounds simple enough, but we soon come to find that Zuri's hair has a mind of its own.
This story was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects, and also wanting to promote hair love amongst young men and women of color. It is our hope that this project will inspire.
In his Oscar acceptance speech Sunday, Matthew A. Cherry, the director of the Academy Award-winning animated short film “Hair Love,” called attention to efforts to ban discrimination by schools and employers against black hairstyles amid growing momentum for the movement to normalize natural hairstyles.
“ ‘Hair Love’ was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation,” Cherry said after accepting the award with Sony Pictures Animation executive Karen Rupert Toliver. “We wanted to normalize black hair. There’s a very important issue that’s out there, the CROWN Act, and if we can help to get this passed in all 50 states, it will help stories like DeAndre Arnold’s — who is our special guest tonight — stop to happen.”
The story of the Texas high school senior who was required to cut his dreadlocks to walk out at graduation drew national attention. On Thursday, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus announced it is working on its version of the CROWN Act, which stands for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, to explicitly ban discrimination based on race-related hair textures and styles.
With Texas, some 25 states are considering or have passed similar legislation, according to a website for the CROWN Coalition, a network of civil rights organizations, black advocacy groups and the beauty brand Dove.
More states are trying to protect black employees who want to wear natural hairstyles at work
New Jersey, New York and California have all passed laws based on those bills; Montgomery County in Maryland has also passed similar legislation. A federal bill was introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.) in December.
“The film itself is not focused on hair discrimination, but in his remarks, he elevated the CROWN Act and the need to normalize black hair,” Adjoa Botwe-Asamoah, a political consultant who has led advocacy efforts for the CROWN Act, said in an interview. She added that the recognition for the short film, which follows a black father’s efforts to style the hair of his daughter, “is a huge win for the movement and all of us focused on this issue.”
Lawmakers to introduce first federal bills to ban race-based hair discrimination
Cherry’s film, which was created after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign took off, blowing past its initial goals of $75,000 and then $125,000 to bring in more than $280,000, reflects growing interest in the issue, The Washington Post’s Bethonie Butler reported.
“Hair Love” started as a side project for Cherry, a former National Football League player, who was working at the time as an executive at the production company Monkeypaw; he pulled in a number of celebrity funders and several longtime animators and attracted Toliver, who also worked on the short film as a side project, Butler reported.
Congrats on an epic win for the crown & the culture!
References: Washington Post & MatthewACherry.com