TO A NEW HEVAHL explores the lives of five black women in their last days working for the Hevahl Textile Company. Using the power of magical soil, natural dying, and black hair, they claim victory for themselves. 

In New Hevahl, nature can be reclaimed as a tool, a superpower. This is for tender-headed girls that tried to make potions from grass and flowers when they were younger, looking for power and having to leave it behind along with a connection to the greater outdoors. This is for hair stylists that make their living in their living rooms, watching your craft glorified only on paler skin, for all who have been responsible for a black child’s hair, whose hands held patience and understanding through hours of fidgeting and begging for breaks. Thank you for braiding, twisting, curling, continuing anyway. New Hevahl is for you.

Image credit: Zak Goggins, The Invitation, 2019. Polymer print, paper.