‘Don’t touch my hair” is a racially-charged statement of Black femininity, encapsulating the personal as political. Hair is political here too, though there is plenty of consenting touching in Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy following a day in the life of a Harlem braiding salon.
Bioh’s follow-up to School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, is again directed by Monique Touko and has dazzled audiences on Broadway. You can see why: it contains such abundant charm, humour and insuppressible, crowd-pleasing energy that it is hard to be anything but seduced by its radiating warmth.
