Tangled Roots: Capturing Black Culture

Tangled Roots: Capturing Black Culture

OPENING RECEPTION: August 8, 5:30 – 7 PM
ON VIEW: August 8 – 31, 2024
PHOTOGRAPHY ROUNDTABLE: August 31, 2024, 5-6:30 PM, FREE, please REGISTER in advance.
Featuring Allyn Brown, Earl Manning, Diana Chappell, and Michael DiBari talking about photography as an artistic practice.

Suffolk Center’s award-winning Art Galleries are FREE & Open to the Public: Tuesdays – Saturdays, 10 AM – 4 PM.

Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts is proud to present Tangled Roots: Capturing Black Culture, a new photography exhibition that highlights the various expressions of the textured hair community, woven into the roots of culture. Featured portraits are by two exceptional photographers: Allyn Brown from O’Neal’s Photography Studio in Suffolk, Virginia and Earl Manning, a contemporary photographer from Hampton, Virginia.

Meet the artists and see their amazing photographs at the free opening reception on Thursday, August 8, from 5:30pm to 7pm. Tangled Roots: Capturing Black Culture is on view in the Center’s award-winning art galleries from August 8-31, 2024.

This photography exhibition is an extension of the Tangled Roots: An Exploration of Diversity, Culture and Identity expo, held at the Suffolk Center in March 2024, curated by Brittany Waller with the Sunshine Connections and GoodSociety Group. Local Suffolk photographer, Allyn Brown, attended the Tangled Roots expo and captured the various expressions of Black hair in portraits. These portraits celebrate Black American creatives and professionals in Hampton Roads. Allyn continues his photography practice in Suffolk this summer with a new photography series featured in this exhibition.

Earl Manning will be showcasing two of his photography series: What’s On Your Head?? which aims to deconstruct the stigma associated with natural Black hair and traditional beauty standards. Manning states, “the beauty and complexity of Black hair can be seen through the designs we choose, the products we use and the various textures that make our hair diverse.”

“I’m honored to continue the Tangled Roots series as it evokes curiosity and conversation about the Black experience,” described Nana A.N. Ferdnance, the Visual Arts Manager at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts and curator of the exhibition. “Textured hair is rooted in the multifaceted history of the Black diaspora and continues as a limitless expression of Black identity. The dialogue between Black hair and cultural expression are deeply intertwined. As a Black American creative, there is a personal responsibility to bring visibility and engage audiences at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts with narratives of the Black aesthetic.”