Varnette P. Honeywood
Dixie Peach, unknown date
unknown medium
This picture has been hanging in a frame on my grandmother’s wall since before I was born. She cut the picture out of a magazine. It depicts the ritualistic practice of hair straightening in a black family (I say, and mean, family, not know if they are supposed to be blood-related or not). White beauty standards have psychologically damaged us as a people, but Honeywood depicts the closeness, familiarity, and bonding of the black women in the kitchen, and I feel that. Although our African roots have been stolen from us and replaced with self- hatred, poverty, and oppression, there is a certain spiritual something that I can only describe as pure love, that makes me thank God I am black. I’m sad to say that there is not much information on Varnette Honeywood’s individual works.
