Fashionable Resistance: The Art of Critical Thinking and Change Making

My new custom made earrings arrived in the mail the other day. Many of you know that I’m into earrings that make a statement and usually depict my favorite Black “change makers”, such as Malcolm X. Well, the brilliant and fellow sistah vegan Mercedes Martin helped me continue my “fashionable resistance” by designing and making a pair of Zora Neale Hurston earrings for me. I told her that I wanted Zora Neale Hurston on earrings. She took a famous photo that most of us Hurston fans know, and did her magic. The result is the above image. If you look closely you’ll notice that there are actual gems around Hurston’s neck that Mercedes glued onto the earrings. And on the other side of the earrings are these words:

Mercedes used recycled material to make her jewelry and other fashionable items. She made my earrings out of repurposed event flyers. Click on the images above to see more of her work.

If you don’t know who Zora Neale Hurston is, consider reading her book Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Also, for a future Sistah Vegan endeavor, I will be collaborating with artists and designers to make a new line of Sistah Vegan “approved” jewelry called “Fashionable Resistance”, which will showcase the activists and scholars who have been influential as critical thinkers and change makers for my scholarship and activism, such as the Malcolm X earrings I am wearing in this photo below, designed by Charisma Eclectic, another fellow sistah vegan. I would love to showcase folk such as pattrice jones, Angela Davis, Bryant Terry, DJ Cavem, Lauren Ornelas (Food Empowerment Project), Octavia Butler (vegan by the way) and Queen Afua (with proper permission from them of course). A Kickstarter campaign will be coming soon for that 🙂