The Kitchen

A psychiatric ward as the metaphor of the incarceration of Black women. At stake, Black identity as it is made visible or concealed in hair and hairstyles, caught between the interiorisation of the dominant White model and self-negation. Like the heroine of Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama, Larkin’s heroine hides her hair under a smooth wig, and reproduces the violence of alienation vis-à -vis the young girl who perpetuates her story.

Alile Sharon Larkin is an author, screenwriter, teacher and video-maker. Among her films is Your Children Come Back to You (1979).