Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave)

by Leelee Jackson

COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU’LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) is a beautiful yet painful collection of 13 vignettes from young Black women navigating American society. Through scenes and monologues, COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU’LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) explores how Black women, regardless of their upbringing, skin tone, curl pattern, hair length and texture, contend with the tension between ownership of the self and others’ sense of...

COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU’LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) is a beautiful yet painful collection of 13 vignettes from young Black women navigating American society. Through scenes and monologues, COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU’LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) explores how Black women, regardless of their upbringing, skin tone, curl pattern, hair length and texture, contend with the tension between ownership of the self and others’ sense of entitlement to their bodies.

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Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave)

Recommended by

  • Inda Craig-Galván: Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave) by Leelee Jackson
    “

    This is powerful, bold writing. The scenes and monologues are written with a truth and ownership of the narrative that skillfully gives voice to so many of our lived experiences.

    This is powerful, bold writing. The scenes and monologues are written with a truth and ownership of the narrative that skillfully gives voice to so many of our lived experiences.

    ”
  • Emma Goldman-Sherman: Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave) by Leelee Jackson
    “

    Beautiful, funny at times, angry at times, and sad - lotsa sadness and heart. I think of my own (white girl) hair issues and I fall in love with these vignettes. From the girls with their blonde towel hair to the Duplicates and finally the one who falls - a wonderful play about Black women living and dying - Jackson makes the invisible visible, and we should all pay attention.

    Beautiful, funny at times, angry at times, and sad - lotsa sadness and heart. I think of my own (white girl) hair issues and I fall in love with these vignettes. From the girls with their blonde towel hair to the Duplicates and finally the one who falls - a wonderful play about Black women living and dying - Jackson makes the invisible visible, and we should all pay attention.

    ”

Development History

Production History

  • Community Theater, SkyPilot Theatre Company , 2017
  • Community Theater, Sorority Theatre Project , 2018