JUNETEENTH AT RÜME ATELIER REIMAGINED THE RITUALS THAT MAKE BLACK AMERICAN CULTURE THRIVE
Text by Zamiya Jean
On the Sunday following Juneteenth, RÜME Atelier hosted “Sunday’s Best,” a gathering to celebrate the unique traditions of Sunday morning rituals shared across the Black American experience. The social was the 2nd installment that week at the atelier honoring Juneteenth. “Off-Top: Salon Architexture” was presented that Thursday and offered a strong introduction to the weekend through an experimental installation reflecting on the cultural complexities of African American hair and salon practices. Hosted in Off-Top’s exhibition space, “Sunday’s Best” brought eventgoers together to dress up, share food, and experience beautiful, contemporary Black art.
Curated by Gwendolyn Boykins with assistance from Amarachi Ede, the Off-Top exhibition was fashioned with architectural elements that define traditional Black beauty salons. “Off-Top is about honoring the spaces that raised us,” Gwen shared. “The salon has always been more than a place to get your hair done…it’s a classroom, a living room, a stage, and an archive. I wanted to challenge artists to take those memories off one’s head and into the room so people could experience Black hair culture as architecture and art—something effortlessly creative.”
With design at the forefront of her work, Gwen is no stranger to grand event production. Since the atelier’s opening this past April, RÜME’s co-founders Gwen and Annie Lian, both fashion designers and Brooklyn creatives, have transformed the Bushwick space into a cultural hub that transcends fashion and reality.
Each event hosted by RÜME is meant to tell a story from its inception. The open-door agency consistently redesigns innovative floor setups that specifically cater to each hosted event, designed to highlight the liminal space between art, design, fashion, and cultural memory. Following the “Removed With My Teeth” and “Traces of Unfamiliar Memories” exhibitions, one being an AAPI presentation and screening curated by Annie, Off-Top was another cultural hit that graced RÜME’s floors.
For “Sunday’s Best,” the ritual of attending church with grandly adorned hats and sharp southern style was the central dress code of the afternoon. This representation highlighted the significant impact of Black American spiritual gatherings. It dared to celebrate these practices that connect the church and Black families without the pressure of cultural exclusion. Fashion for “Sunday’s Best” served as a medium to bring Black people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds to come together and ‘break bread.’ With this in mind, the eventgoers did not disappoint. The element of New York street style married with the prim and proper style of Sunday’s best brought the event’s vision to life. And that was only the beginning.
Artwork by Nafisah
Upon entering the space, one was welcomed with a host of portraiture, clothing, fine art, sculptures, and comfort food to commemorate the occasion. Much like the celebratory gatherings that follow a packed morning in church, guests were greeted with the sweet, reminiscent phrase “Honey, what would you like to eat?” as one of the hosts fixed a plate of chicken and waffles, potato salad, and a masterfully blended glass of sorrel with a subtle spiked twist. Between bites and conversations, the exhibition became an extension of the gathering itself, where food, fashion, art, and cultural memories united effortlessly.
Artwork by Faith Brown
H(A I R), created by Faith Brown, was impossible to miss when walking in. Her piece was a cake-shaped sculpture fully constructed of red, black, and green textured hair (the colors of the Black American flag), topped with an afro pick. Below it laid a latex-based foundation, created by in-house set designer Gwen herself, which reimagined hair grease as a binding residue. Hair picks, combs, beads, and clips were all enmeshed in the grease structure, an introspective representation of the value of Black hair items when detached from the head.
Artwork by Gwendolyn Boykins
Above hung a chandelier of handheld decorative mirrors that reflected the event’s atmosphere right back at the viewer. This specific centerpiece redefined beauty itself, capturing the surrounding artwork and eventgoers in the reflections.
Hair is art, and further, the physical manifestation of Black life through experimentation. This message was amplified in the exhibitors’ range of using hair as a medium to touch on Black pride, familial relationships, culture, and identity in their own rite of passage.
Toward the back of the exhibition was a showcase of clothing designs enclosed in long, hanging cylinders made of blue silk. BARBICIDE Chamber by Camryn McClain represented the infamous blue disinfectants found in immersion jars in most American hair salons. This immersive installation created a seamless connection between fashion and the cultural influence of the salon throughout Black American life.
The artwork for Juneteenth at RÜME was seamlessly tied together through the ever-present themes of Black joy, memory, and cultural hair practices, all situated in the same community space. Off-Top’s presentation quickly became a creative shout of Black excellence represented in our shared expressions of identity.
Archive magazines from EBONY and Suede also complemented the viewing experience, along with Off-Top’s own zine made by Brittani Morganfield. The zine emphasized the traditions of Black joy represented through infinite hair expressions. It acted as its own piece of ephemera from such a reflective community event; the space was painted with collaged archival images of Sunday fashionites, old beauty magazines, and artist statements from the exhibitors.
Juneteenth, a time to reflect on liberty and Black American resilience, is also an opportunity to celebrate the everyday practices that define our collective resilience through joy. The memories attached to everyday rituals carry traditions across lifetimes and preserve our culture. Through these exhibitions, we are reminded of the Black American traditions, techniques, and practices that are continually passed down to make way for new networks of community celebrations. During a time centered on reflection, RÜME invited the Brooklyn community to sit back, observe, and partake in the sharing of generational histories. With that, Off-Top and “Sunday’s Best” became a memorable “celebratory exhale to close out Juneteenth weekend”.
Photography thanks to: Andrew Espinal, Tyrone Satchell, and Destiny Hodges
