This is a Kickstarter worth standing beside!
Watch as Ama Karikari-Yawson shares the inspiration for her upcoming children’s book.
The inspiration…
One day, I took my 3-year-old son, Jojo, to a barber.
I explicitly asked the barber not to shave off all of Jojo’s hair and to just make it shorter. The barber then proceeded to, in my view, shave Jojo’s head practically bald. “Whoa, whoa, I told you that I did not want it bald, this is way too low!”, I exclaimed. “How can I tell you this? You’ve got a real nig*** here. He is a native boy. He is from the tribe. This ain’t pretty hair. This is the best cut for him” said the black barber with clippers still in the front of Jojo’s hair.
The Book…
I was sick for days after the incident. The n-word is such a filthy word. I did not know what to do to shield my own sons and all of our children from such manifestations of racism, both internalized and externalized.
A long time ago, I heard someone say that all pain should be turned into art in order to make pain beautiful. But how was I going to make it art? I’m a critical writer, not an artist. But one day I was watching Super Soul Sunday on OWN and a speaker said that art is no different from prayer so I prayed to God for a story. God gave me Sunne’s Gift.
Sunne’s Gift is a fable about a magical creature named Sunne.
Ama’s son Jojo before the haircut.