When Styling

Barbara Jones-Hogu was the only trained printmaker among the early members of the artists' collective AfriCOBRA. Her knowledge of silkscreen was crucial to the collective's success in getting their messages out. Screenprints have long been used for social critique and raising awareness because they are inexpensive to produce and easy to distribute. Intent on reaching everyday people, AfriCOBRA created prints in small editions and sold them at affordable prices in Black-owned bookstores and record shops.

Jones-Hogu is known for the expressive lettering in her prints. Her texts range from simple slogans to passages of poetry, such as the quote that appears in Rise and Take Control from "For My People" (1937) by Margaret Walker, a leading poet of the Chicago Black Renaissance. The message in When Styling'--"When Styling Think of Self-Determination-Liberation"--celebrates fashion and hairstyle as important forms of Black creativity and political resistance.