Commemorative Headdress of Her Journey Beyond Heaven

A sculpture of a headdress titled, "Commemorative Headdress of Her Journey Beyond Heaven," created by Kenya (Robinson). The headdress is primarily composed of varying types of hair combs and blue nylon threads. The main body of the headdress is roughly ovoid shape, with black hair combs and black hair picks fanning up and back with the teeth pointing outwards. The black combs come to a point at the top, with two back-to-back black handled combs tied together. There are four tortoiseshell-colored handled combs, two on the top with teeth pointing down and two on the bottom with teeth pointing up, shaped to appear like an open mouth, near the front center of the headdress. Dozens of long, single pieces of royal blue nylon strings are strung through the tortoiseshell-colored combs, and melted at the top end to keep from slipping through holes in comb. The royal blue nylon strings serve as long fringe that hangs at the front, long past the rest of the headdress. There is a single banana clip fastener that functions to hold the two back halves of the headdress together. Some of the combs have [Goody] brand sticker labels still attached. Some of the combs on the body are held together with screws and screw fasteners, black coated wire, and black plastic zip ties.

Credit: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture