Tarica June is a DC native, Howard educated Lawyer and hip hop artist. I first learned about Tarica when her song ‘But Anyway,’ chronicling the changing DC landscape due to gentrification went viral online last year. I had the opportunity to meet her after she performed at the most recent Creative Mornings DC gathering and thank her for taking time to share a bit of her story with me.  

“We’ve been hoodwinked to believe that wearing our hair in its natural state is not actually the natural thing to do. And I don’t think we should have to answer questions about why we’re wearing our hair in its natural state because–its natural. Making us explain why we’re doing it feeds into a climate in which relaxers are viewed as the norm. We say “natural hair” when referring to our natural hair, but we just say “hair” when we’re referring to relaxed hair. People talk about “going natural”, and their reasons for doing so, but they never talk about ‘going chemical’. There’s no conversation around that and why it’s happening.”

“When I was little and would color, my mother used to tell me I wasn’t finished if I hadn’t colored the people to look like me. She’d say “You have brown crayons! Use them! Does that little girl look like you?!” So I guess from an early age, before I even knew she was doing it, my mom was teaching me to create images that really reflected who I was. And my mom never had a perm. Now her locs are longer than mine. I think this upbringing inspired me to create SELFIE. I want to instill in young girls that they don’t have to change themselves at all to be beautiful.”