Episode 2 of Three Sisters. Diversity Club.

Listen to Episode 2 of Three Sisters on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify

The visual artist Titus Kaphar was asked at a talk in Cincinnati how long his work had been political. He told the audience that for some people -- people like him -- the work is always viewed as political.

Recorded two days after the 2020 presidential election and two days before the race was called for Biden, the Beard sisters took a break from refreshing their news feeds to speak of this same idea and many riveting others in Episode 2 of Three Sisters.

Even without direct conversations about race and politics in the Beard household, the young sisters were inspired by dogeared books including The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Kaffir Boy, Native Son, Invisible Man and Her Eyes Were Watching God (get these titles and more at DeAndra's Beyond Barcode Bookstore! See below for direct links.) These books were often being read simultaneously, one sister waiting to pick up the book the second another put it down. When sister Devona began to eschew hair straighteners, it was clear to the younger sisters that an act of bravery was happening, even if they didn't have the words to explain it as anti-racist representation.

The sisters also talk about the challenges of parenting and the need for new rituals -- ones that take rituals of oppression and turn them on their head. As always, the conversation is deeply personal and beautifully, tenderly universal.

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MORE RESOURCES from THREE SISTERS

BOOKS

DeAndra owns Beyond Barcodes Bookstore in Kokomo, Indiana. By supporting Beyond Barcodes, you are supporting Black-Owned, Independent Booksellers and the Three Sisters.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
Kaffir Boy
Native Son
Invisible Man
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops
Hair Matters: Beauty, Power and Black Women's Consciousness
Americanah
The Politics of Black Women's Hair

And because the theme is sisters:
Difficult Women

Children/Middle Reader:

Can I Touch Your Hair
Hair Love
Happy To Nappy
My Hair Is A Garden
Woke: A Young Poets Guide To Justice

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• The documentary Good Hair by Chris Rock
• India Arie's song I am Not My Hair
• Kinky, curly hair: a tool of resistance across the African diaspora
• “My Hair is Bomb”: Black Girls’ Identities and Resistance
• Afro comb exhibition by Professor Robert L. Belcher
• “Scholaring” While Black:Discourses on Race, Gender, and theTenure Track, Dr. Sydney Freeman
• The "Good Hair" Study: Explicit and Implicit Attitudes Towards Black Women's Hair
• How Natural Black Hair at Work Became a Civil Rights Issue
• Hair It Is: Examining the Experiences of Black Women with Natural Hair
• The Politics of Black Women's Hair
• Digital sister circles: sites of resistance against hegemonic ideologies about black natural hair
• 'Oe! My Hare Gaan Huistoe': Hair-Styling as Black Cultural Practice

HBCUs

Devona - Fisk University
Rana - Tuskegee University
DeAndra - Bethune Cookman University

TV Sitcom based on HBCU Experience: A Different World Season 1 Trailer