Seems like a good day to announce that I received a Hellman Fellows award to develop an Open Source Afro Hair Library, an antiracist database for high quality 3D models of Black hair.

Read about my research and the necessity of this project here: https://bit.ly/osahl 

I'm looking for 3D artist collaborators to seed the Afro Hair Library. These are PAID commissions for those who can craft loving representations of Blackness. It would be great to work with other Black and PoC artists, so please share/tag folks. I can work with all skill levels.

Shout out to the incredible @Hdharris_irl for being my first collaborator on this project, and really setting the bar for these Black digital futures we find ourselves in. This project is about beauty, but it goes beyond representation; IT'S ABOUT PAYING BLACK FOLKS

This project builds off the work of many, but particularly @safiyanoble and @ruha9. Read their books.

Let me illustrate the problem with a few images from my research. In the last year, these are the kinds of images I found when looking for 3D models of Black people and our hair...

These are supposed to be Black people, with that reddish one titled "Mixed Race Jerry"

Mixed Race Jerry keeps me up at night.

But maybe that person is just a bad sculptor? I got you.

Here's some "high quality" models. Mind you, these results come from the innocuous search term "afro hair".

I'm not trying to see crude racial stereotypes, I'm trying to make games and other 3D work that features Black folks, Black women and femmes in particular. So where are we in all this?

It gets worse.

This is on the *first* page of results on cgtrader for "afro hair", like, thank you for these culturally appropriate braids but no thank you to the rope? I didn't ask for kink on this day, but if I want to see depictions of Black women, that's what I'm gonna get.

"Yeah but that's just somebody making thirst 3D, no kink shaming, maybe she wants to be depicted like that hashtag feminism."

Okay sir, and I know you're a sir, but then there's this.

Not *all* of the Black 3D models are terrible racist and misogynistic caricatures, but the decent stand beside the abhorrent. I'm not into it.

We're gonna make something better that's free and accessible to novices and professionals alike. No more "we just don't know how".

Let's see more of this, courtesy of @Hdharris_irl

In conclusion, enjoy these palate cleansers

OH! If you're not Black but want to support the project you can 1. share this! 2. share your time/donate 3D models 3. donate to the project.

Oh and I need a web developer so blast that out, too.

Happy Juneteenth y'all. Abolish the police. Cancel Rent. Read Marx. <3