Simone Mair & Charisse Higgins Discuss the Origins of CurlFest and Their 10-Year Anniversary Celebration
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up this way up for Angela yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We had to jump in right here, but Samona Mayor
is here with us, and Charie Higgins is here. Thank
you ladies for joining me today, for having us the
founders of curl Fast. Yeah, the creators of Curly Girl Collective.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's get into it. So let's talk about the beginnings
for people who are listening, because you know, I know
as a as a curly girl myself, not today though, sorry, Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Being a curly girl your versatile. That we can be straight,
we can be curly, we can do it upbraids, locks.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
All the thing. Wait, are you about to tell me
that you're not curly anymore?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I am my girl.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So my girl parents, I know you guys know parents.
She owns a hair salon in Brooklyn, and so she's
been like, come to the salon, come to the salon.
She does specialize in like so pressive and blowouts and stuff.
And so I haven't worn my hair straight and I
don't know how long that's true.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I've never seen you are straight hair.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, And it used to be like you never seen
me were curly here, you know, so because it was
such a journey to go from straight to curly. It
is so tough to like let your hair grow out
and do all the things. And so she was like,
let me just straighten your hair since you haven't had
a straight and so long, and so I let her
do it. How do you feel, I do like still
like curly hair, you know, but this is easy.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Oh yeah, it bring up and take it out. Yeah,
until it doesn't look fresh anymore, until.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It is first volume.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I need my curls back.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
All right, But let's get into curly Girl collective. For
people listening if this is their first time like coming
out to because curlfest is a thing you know that
you never would have anticipated it turning into. But for
people who don't know the story, let's just give that story.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I tell the long winded version, okay, because it's a
lot of his day. I'll take yes, I'll tell that
had thirty version. So in twenty eleven, I think or
twenty ten, we were it was a bunch of girls
at that There weren't that many natural hair kind of resources,
so we were on Google groups. We're aging ourselves a
(02:06):
little bit, talking all day, right, and chats like what
did I just cut off my hair, et cetera. That
turned into let's have a meetup at one of our
co founder's Brooklyn apartment and we had a meetup.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It was great. We said, let's bring this to the public.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
We had our very first event in twenty eleven, and
we had these little events over the last couple of years,
but they were keep selling out and we're like, we
need a place that has more than three hundred people
in New York and we can invite more people.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Let's have a picnic in the park. The picnic in the.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Park Prospect Park was Curlfest. That's how Curlfest was born.
We came up with a name. We had the picnic
in a park. It was born in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Ten year anniversary anniversary.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I'm so excited. It's crazy to say that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And so it just grew, you know, and naturally grew
from a thousand people to upwards of thirty forty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Right, and something you learned you could monitor.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, it was still learning, but yeah, yeah, So
it's been a blessing. Like we can't believe we're ten
years in. It's kind of crazy to say, but yeah,
we've been doing this work for that long.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, I think even during the pandemic was a
great time for not a great time like that, but
a great time for people to also embrace their natural curls.
We saw a lot of guys embracing their natural life
because some of us.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, but I seeing those extensions now, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, And so talk to me about the pandemic and
what you guys did during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, it's interesting because someone recently asked me this question
and really was an opportunity for me to take a
step back because during the pandemic, there was so much
going on. There was George Floyd, there was you know,
so many opportunities. Well, there's so many instances where black
people felt as though they didn't matter and we weren't seen.
(04:00):
And it was an opportunity for Curly Girl Collective or
even everyone during the pandemic to get together and say, Okay,
how can I feel joy so that I don't go
down this downward spiral of despair because the world is
telling me that I don't matter and I'm in this
house and I'm just stuck here.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Right. So everyone was on lives, etc.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And Curly Girl Collective took that as an opportunity for
us to do programming around black Joy. So we were
doing fitness classes, we were doing lives, we were talking
to various people.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
We can drop some things.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Jadennah is one of my favorites that we spoke to and.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
He shows so much love to us, send women in, etc.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
But it was just an opportunity for us to get
together and say, you know what, black joy is important
in the simplest form, black joy is important. Us being
happy is important, us being celebrated is important, and curl
Fest is an express of that. So it started about
natural hair, but it's grown to be so much more
than that. It's grown to be you know, we demand
to be seen and heard in every facet of life,
(05:10):
and we also enjoy to be happy.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You know what is great And since you talked about
the expression and how it's so much more when you
go to curl Fest, when you get to see people
come out with all the different styles and everything that
they have going on. And I feel like even media
coverage of it has been amazing too for you guys,
because so much creativity. Yes, you know, when you get
to and anybody who's listening, just go and look at
(05:33):
some of the past curl Fest and see some of
the styles that are going on. It's a great time
for people to come out and just like try something different.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
And just be yeah, and just being We get a
lot of questions, Like some people will say, Simone, I
have braids in my hair, can I come to curl
Fast I am or I'm a man and I don't
have hair, Can I come?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, emphatically yes.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
If you have a straight hair, any which away you
wear your hair, if you have a wig, if you
have all of that, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, makeup people feel yes.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Come come to curl Fest and have a great time
because it's the inclusive space that we're creating, right, And
it's much more than here. Like Sureisa, it's called curl
Fests and Curly Girl Collective, but it's really deeper than here.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
It's about mentality, it's about representation.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
It's about creating spaces that we see ourselves in and
create opportunities for entrepreneurs and black and brown businesses. Right,
It's much more than just the actual follicles of the
hair in your head.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
You Know, what I love is seeing the growth of
so many brands that got started that have gone on
to Yeah, to really thrive in this market. Because I
and I always talk about this, Miss Jesse's. That was
the first product that ever gave me like billboards, you know,
when we first started, when I first started on the
Breakfast Club, and that was also a brand that when
(06:54):
I was younger going to Ricky's. Yeah there's a class store,
it would be so hard to find something that was
appropriate from my hair. I remember I used to just
use gel. Yeah remember that. It was like it wasn't
anything specifically for curly or.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
First for blackin ever our very first event when was
talking about what we started croft, they were our very
first sponsor and they did a live big chop before
we even really knew what that was. We came up
with this idea to do a big chop live in
front of everybody, and they took it on the road.
They ended up taking it on the road and doing
(07:28):
it for so many other people, and now we know
what that is like, going back to natural, going back
to your roots. But yeah, mss Jesse's was our very
first sponsor of our.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Event and then even like a lot of these founders
Nasty Shame, Moisture, Yes, yeah, it's also sponsoring. So talk
about Shane Moischer because even the journey with Shamee Moisture
and seeing where they came from. Because I also, you know,
and we've heard about Mayel and the journey that they
had and starting a brand, growing it to a certain point,
but then saying Okay, it's time to expand from here.
(07:59):
And sometimes we don't understand starting a brand and scaling
it and then saying Okay, now it's time for investors
or it's time to sell the brand.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Absolutely, yeah, I mean shout out to Shane Moisture.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
They are also our early sponsor of ours as well,
and they invested in us way before we even knew
how big crow Fest was going to be.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
They're also coming in this.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Year in a big way and sponsoring the entire small
business marketplace where they're bringing in ten different small entrepreneur
and small businesses and their sponsoring the entire area.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So that's great. They're really excited about that.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
And that's kind of their m a right as you
talk about their transition, they have really made been intentional
about giving back to the community. So that is you know,
we tried to align with sponsors that have the same
kind of like investment into black and Brown Spaces in
the same way that Crowfest does bring it back to
the community, and to pick it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Back up of that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
With Shane Moisture during the pandemic, I did a lot
with them. They were giving away grants to black owned businesses. Yeah,
and I think it is important to think about what
brands you do want to align yourself with, because I'm
sure there's people that have wanted to get on board
that maybe you're like.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, let's talk about it. I mean, it is a
partnership and it's a community. It's a constant two way
communication that we have with brands. So people may come
and want to be a part of curl Fest, but
we're like, okay, this is what it means.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
We've talked.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
We've actually had to turn down partnerships because it wasn't
true to our vision and our mission, you know. And
even with Shane Moisture, we had guidelines for them as
well as large as they are and how much they've grown.
But they respect us because they were with us from
the very beginning and they've seen it. They've seen it
grow and blossom and become what it is today. But
(09:42):
we can say that about quite a few other beginning brands,
pioneering natural beauty brands like Carol's Daughter and Curls.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, all of these brands started.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I love that when behind the brand too. Yeah, you know,
it's so imp to see that because we do want
to support the mission statement too before we even Sometimes
before I even try a product, I'm like, all right,
let me see who this person is, because we do
have a lot of.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Ingredients are about and definitely the ingredients.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
And I love that you said that because some people
don't really know, like what who's behind curl Fest. It
looks like this van their like you guys have like
a big organization, but it's really you know, own and
operated one hundred percent by black women, right, two of
which are seated here a. So yeah, we like to
make sure that we need to put ourselves out a
(10:34):
little bit more because that's part we're part of why
we find that curl Fest is successful, because we're not
just selling the culture.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
We are the culture, right.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
And so when when people are making a choice, and
we've seen a transition over the last few years, people
are making choices of where they spend their dollar based
off of integrity of the business, authenticity, right, and so
those are the values that we stand by as well
as founders of curl us.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And this space for other people who have partnerships with
their because you guys are friends and that's how it
all started. How is it working with friends? And what
are some guidelines that you've had to learn along the way,
because that's also there's boundaries, there are certain ways you
have to operate. But for everybody listening and it's like, Okay,
you know, I have this business with my friends, or
I want to start something, what's some advice you can
(11:22):
give in that space?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I mean, it's I think I'm gonna keep it real.
We are friends, right, We are friends in like the
very true sense of the world word.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Sorry. We went to college together.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
There's some parts at the Temple Universe, Temple University. There's
some partner, there's another partner and I that went to
high school and college together. There's some of us that
met on the Natural Hair email throw that we told
you about. And it was hard, and it is hard,
you know, because it's a constant, deliberate action to make
(11:55):
sure that we separate the business from the personal right
and there's sometimes, you know, where we just have to
come together and sometimes there's long conversations, sometimes it's heated conversations.
But what I love about us is that what is
always underlining and what is always present is the passion
for the business, and we understand that it's bigger than us, right,
(12:19):
so we always do whatever is in the best interests
of the business, you know, And that's what I probably
us being able to be. You know, Curly Girl Collective
is more than ten years in, but curl Fest is
ten years in and we're still here. And the reason
why is because we realize how important our.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Mission and our vision is for the.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Larger I like that slogan, We're still here.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I love it, Yes, yes, and I want to talk
about for because this is a personal mission, right, So Seria,
let's talk about your hair journey first. Yes, yes, yes,
because I love your hair every day, let's go so.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, you know what it is. I'm gonna be honest
about it today.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
The reason why it's like this today is because I
gotta get my hair done for Girl Fast tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So I'm like, what can I do?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That's cute?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And I love our natural hair because we're able to
do things like that. But yeah, the way my natural
hair started I'll take it back to when I was
four or five years old. My mom at the time
just you know, lack of education and just because she
thought it was the best thing to do pur my
hair so that it could be more manageable. So it
(13:34):
took And she wasn't the best hairstylist either, so it
took me.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
A while being.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So, I mean then it wasn't her do that I
was going to the hairstylist, but it took me a
while to you know, be playing in the mirror trying
to figure out how to style my hair, et cetera.
Going through the instances where I'm going to school and
I hate the way my hair looks, I don't like
the way I styled it, or I'm up all night
styling my hair. But then it got to a point
where I would educate myself.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
HM.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
So I was one of the first people that are
that we that joined the natural hair thread because I
was one of the people that was already natural back
in twenty twenty ten or two thousand and nine. Ahad
of the curve ahead of the curve because we were
in Philly and Philly was ahead of the curve, so
they were in Philly.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
My hair journey, And what about you, Simon, talk to
me about your journey. I love your hair, listen, but
y'all came in here representing because I'm even walking down
the street.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
They're like, I love your hair, but that's a thing.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
My hair journey is. I don't have a crazy story.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
It kind of I cut off my relaxer because of
health reasons. It was just my hair was unhealthy. I
cut it off. I was starting over and I was
wearing weaves all the time, right, you would never see
my real hair. I was wearing sewings and bust downs
and braids back to back to back, and it just
wasn't healthy for my hair, right. And somehow, I'm not
sure who bro into the natural hair group that we
(15:01):
were talking about, and it was found my little small
community of women who were also going through the same
thing at the same time, young women, right, maybe leaving
college at that time was my time frame and trying
to figure out what.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I looked like and try to.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Redefine what beauty was to me, right, and so it
had to it was like a learning experience to say,
you know, I, you know, in my little teeny WEENI.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Appro I still look beautiful, right.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And relearning what that means and maybe even you know,
having to stand up to maybe family and friends who
may say.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Girl, put a put away on, right.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
But we all have those we all have those type
of stories. Or your boyfriend at the time like I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Like your hair like that. I don't like hair. I
want your hair straight. I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, because people.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Are liking my hair straight, and I'm like, I missed
my texture.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yes, yeah, yeah, You'll get those comments and then you'll
start to question, you know, whether or not you look
beautiful any other way, right, And so that's the journey,
and those are the type of the journeys that people
are still going through now.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I mean even professionalism, people act like it's more professional.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Oh yeah, I get here is this story?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah in twenty four so many of us, so many
black women have similar stories, right, because we all go
through the same thing. I like everything that's the moments
talking about. I'm like, yeah, I can relate to that.
And I think that's why curlfest is so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, because there's people who work in corporate America and
during the pandemic, they were you know, we got to
just be ourselves at home.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
But when it was time to count to zooms, you
go get yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Right now, I want you guys to reminisce to when
you guys first started this ten years ago, and it
was way more than you could have possibly imagined. How
did you feel when you did the first curl fest?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh my god?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
So the first curl Fest happened because we having these
small events and we were selling out, right, So then
we decided to do something in the park. We literally
thought that we could only target about three hundred, two
hundred people, and then we looked around and there were
five hundred people.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And I mean these was double that, maybe like.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
A thousand in and out throughout the day.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
I would have been happy with a thousand people. But
I mean the way that it happened was really just
from word of mouth. It was just from word of mouth.
Social media wasn't even a big thing at that time,
and people just came out just because they happened to
see something happening in the park, right, and then came
and then from there we're talking about it for the
(17:41):
next year, trying to tell their friends or their friends.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And it made me feel like, you know, we have
something here. Listen, we gotta keep doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
You know how I knew about it so because I
live in Brooklyn and I go running in Prospect Park
and so I was running one day and I seen
all these women like looking real cute, and I'm like,
what's going on? And That's when I first found out
about and then I was like.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Oh yeah, I mean it was the most I can't
even describe it. It just was so beautiful and it
was so like I was on cloud nine. And it
still happens to this day. Every curl Yeah, we are
on cloud nine because it takes so much to put
it together and as large as it becomes, it's so
much planning, so much, you know, disappointment, so much happy
(18:28):
things that I like, everything is a mix of everything,
so many emotions. But when you get there and you
just see the joy and the community and just like
everybody come together, the best reactions are always from the men.
Then I can't even I can't even describe it, Angela.
(18:50):
It's just indescribable.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And you know, you talk about certain times disappointments too,
and let's talk about that too, because sometimes there was
a period of time when it was like was flowing. Yes,
sponsorship money was flowing. They like, let's pour entities, you know,
events like this and black people, black women. But then
it feels like people have pulled back on that because yeah,
some large corporations, you know, they've done things and sometimes
(19:16):
it could be performative at a certain period of time,
but then it's like, Okay, let's cut this program, let's
cut this Funday. What's that process been like for you guys,
because you do have something that's established, that's proven.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, I mean we both get talk about it week.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, I mean really, I mean from my perspective, I
think we've seen in the last year or two, you know,
a lot of ODI initiatives have been cut, right, diversity
and inclusion initiatives, and some people may put crow fests
in that box as well.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Right, we were around.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
And have been established well before. It kind of has
been cool to be you know, have d and I
you know, we've seen that resurgence from a lot of
big brands since.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
George Floyd era.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Right, And so yeah, I said, transparently is hard, Right,
It's hard for event producers. It's hard for event producers
that are owned and operated by black women. And we
talk about that right, and so we consistently have to
prove our worthiness all the time, what you know, our credibility,
our cultural equity, which is hard to quantify. So it's
(20:15):
still a struggle, but we're still here and I love
that tagle. I'm gonna take it. We are still here,
you know, by hook up crook. We are still fighting
to stay in this space because we know we deserve
and you know, there's there's ups and downs in every business,
and so we feel like our mission and our vision
is stronger than any of the bumps in the road.
(20:39):
But like you know, people like you Angela who come
and support us and allow us to be on this.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
This need is making sure this is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
We appreciate it so much.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And I will say this too, just to add to that,
I want our community to know that, Asimo said, it's
it's a small team behind this that does everything. And
to your point, things have been cut, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's always a.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I'll say, a fight to make sure that we let
people know what our value is. We communicate what the
value is, we share our metrics, we share you know,
what the the black community's dollar is doing. Not only
are women coming out. But men are coming out. People
from all races are coming out. All over the world
(21:32):
are coming out.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Men are coming out.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
So I mean, there's so much value in this space, right,
and we sometimes get overlooked. And you know, our community
holds us to a high regard and that's because we've
always said it set.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The bar really high.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So I just want our community to know that, you know,
it's not it's not always easy for us, but we
are still here and we are still committed to making
sure that we put our best product forward, even when
we don't have the backing that we used to have.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Okay, but yeah, we want to make sure that we
continue to ramp that up. And yeah, people know about it.
So what is happening this year for the ten year anniversary?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, well you go ahead, do you want to say?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, because I'm excited. Number one, we are back
in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, okay, right, right.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
We are back in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
We see it, yes, but going be everywhere, right, And
there were quite a few people that missed that. So
when we made the announcement that we were coming back
to Brooklyn, everybody was very excited.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We are in a different venue. We are at the Bandshell,
which is.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Celebrate Brooklyn and Prospect Park, so it is more of
an intimate venue. But we have some great sponsors that
we're excited about. Shamee Moisture is going to be there.
They're bringing ten small business vendors as well. We have
our Vendor Marketplace, which is going to showcase other small
business is that we're excited about. They showcase everything from
(23:03):
fashion to accessories to goods. We'll have music per usual,
we'll have food per usual, We'll have gift bags. Oh,
and I get cover give I'm really excited about it.
We got sacred in the gift bag. I know a
lot of people be excited about that, and some of
the usual suspects. Our gift bags are like the most
coveted and they are going to be flyer this year.
(23:25):
So yeah, we're excited about this year.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
All right, Well, I'm excited too, and I'm happy that
y'all are back in Brooklyn. Yes, I'll be around, so
I think I'm I'm coming through to show my support too.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, yes for you.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh really, y'all won't even know I'm a pop up
and regular you know.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Hell, let us know you there because we got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
But honestly, thank you both so much for coming through
and making the time to come up here. And we'll
make sure everybody knows curl Fest is happening this weekend.
Where can people go to get more information.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
And curlfest dot com and when we're on Instagram at
Curly Girl Collective. We are also on Facebook and we
are on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yes, and we have a.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Promo code if that's okay, Okay, yes, the twenty percent
of all tickets. The code is back to b K
b A c K t O b K.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
We love a promo code. Yes, yes, all right, I'm
gonna bring my curls back for it.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, now you know you want to bring your curls.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Okay, but I appreciate you. I will see you on Saturday,
so make sure y'all come out and support. It's way
up
What's up this way up for Angela yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We had to jump in right here, but Samona Mayor
is here with us, and Charie Higgins is here. Thank
you ladies for joining me today, for having us the
founders of curl Fast. Yeah, the creators of Curly Girl Collective.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's get into it. So let's talk about the beginnings
for people who are listening, because you know, I know
as a as a curly girl myself, not today though, sorry, Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Being a curly girl your versatile. That we can be straight,
we can be curly, we can do it upbraids, locks.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
All the thing. Wait, are you about to tell me
that you're not curly anymore?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I am my girl.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So my girl parents, I know you guys know parents.
She owns a hair salon in Brooklyn, and so she's
been like, come to the salon, come to the salon.
She does specialize in like so pressive and blowouts and stuff.
And so I haven't worn my hair straight and I
don't know how long that's true.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I've never seen you are straight hair.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, And it used to be like you never seen
me were curly here, you know, so because it was
such a journey to go from straight to curly. It
is so tough to like let your hair grow out
and do all the things. And so she was like,
let me just straighten your hair since you haven't had
a straight and so long, and so I let her
do it. How do you feel, I do like still
like curly hair, you know, but this is easy.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Oh yeah, it bring up and take it out. Yeah,
until it doesn't look fresh anymore, until.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It is first volume.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I need my curls back.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
All right, But let's get into curly Girl collective. For
people listening if this is their first time like coming
out to because curlfest is a thing you know that
you never would have anticipated it turning into. But for
people who don't know the story, let's just give that story.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I tell the long winded version, okay, because it's a
lot of his day. I'll take yes, I'll tell that
had thirty version. So in twenty eleven, I think or
twenty ten, we were it was a bunch of girls
at that There weren't that many natural hair kind of resources,
so we were on Google groups. We're aging ourselves a
(02:06):
little bit, talking all day, right, and chats like what
did I just cut off my hair, et cetera. That
turned into let's have a meetup at one of our
co founder's Brooklyn apartment and we had a meetup.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It was great. We said, let's bring this to the public.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
We had our very first event in twenty eleven, and
we had these little events over the last couple of years,
but they were keep selling out and we're like, we
need a place that has more than three hundred people
in New York and we can invite more people.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Let's have a picnic in the park. The picnic in the.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Park Prospect Park was Curlfest. That's how Curlfest was born.
We came up with a name. We had the picnic
in a park. It was born in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Ten year anniversary anniversary.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I'm so excited. It's crazy to say that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And so it just grew, you know, and naturally grew
from a thousand people to upwards of thirty forty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Right, and something you learned you could monitor.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, it was still learning, but yeah, yeah, So
it's been a blessing. Like we can't believe we're ten
years in. It's kind of crazy to say, but yeah,
we've been doing this work for that long.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, I think even during the pandemic was a
great time for not a great time like that, but
a great time for people to also embrace their natural curls.
We saw a lot of guys embracing their natural life
because some of us.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, but I seeing those extensions now, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, And so talk to me about the pandemic and
what you guys did during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, it's interesting because someone recently asked me this question
and really was an opportunity for me to take a
step back because during the pandemic, there was so much
going on. There was George Floyd, there was you know,
so many opportunities. Well, there's so many instances where black
people felt as though they didn't matter and we weren't seen.
(04:00):
And it was an opportunity for Curly Girl Collective or
even everyone during the pandemic to get together and say, Okay,
how can I feel joy so that I don't go
down this downward spiral of despair because the world is
telling me that I don't matter and I'm in this
house and I'm just stuck here.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Right. So everyone was on lives, etc.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
And Curly Girl Collective took that as an opportunity for
us to do programming around black Joy. So we were
doing fitness classes, we were doing lives, we were talking
to various people.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
We can drop some things.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Jadennah is one of my favorites that we spoke to and.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
He shows so much love to us, send women in, etc.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
But it was just an opportunity for us to get
together and say, you know what, black joy is important
in the simplest form, black joy is important. Us being
happy is important, us being celebrated is important, and curl
Fest is an express of that. So it started about
natural hair, but it's grown to be so much more
than that. It's grown to be you know, we demand
to be seen and heard in every facet of life,
(05:10):
and we also enjoy to be happy.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You know what is great And since you talked about
the expression and how it's so much more when you
go to curl Fest, when you get to see people
come out with all the different styles and everything that
they have going on. And I feel like even media
coverage of it has been amazing too for you guys,
because so much creativity. Yes, you know, when you get
to and anybody who's listening, just go and look at
(05:33):
some of the past curl Fest and see some of
the styles that are going on. It's a great time
for people to come out and just like try something different.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
And just be yeah, and just being We get a
lot of questions, Like some people will say, Simone, I
have braids in my hair, can I come to curl
Fast I am or I'm a man and I don't
have hair, Can I come?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, emphatically yes.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
If you have a straight hair, any which away you
wear your hair, if you have a wig, if you
have all of that, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, makeup people feel yes.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Come come to curl Fest and have a great time
because it's the inclusive space that we're creating, right, And
it's much more than here. Like Sureisa, it's called curl
Fests and Curly Girl Collective, but it's really deeper than here.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
It's about mentality, it's about representation.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
It's about creating spaces that we see ourselves in and
create opportunities for entrepreneurs and black and brown businesses. Right,
It's much more than just the actual follicles of the
hair in your head.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
You Know, what I love is seeing the growth of
so many brands that got started that have gone on
to Yeah, to really thrive in this market. Because I
and I always talk about this, Miss Jesse's. That was
the first product that ever gave me like billboards, you know,
when we first started, when I first started on the
Breakfast Club, and that was also a brand that when
(06:54):
I was younger going to Ricky's. Yeah there's a class store,
it would be so hard to find something that was
appropriate from my hair. I remember I used to just
use gel. Yeah remember that. It was like it wasn't
anything specifically for curly or.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
First for blackin ever our very first event when was
talking about what we started croft, they were our very
first sponsor and they did a live big chop before
we even really knew what that was. We came up
with this idea to do a big chop live in
front of everybody, and they took it on the road.
They ended up taking it on the road and doing
(07:28):
it for so many other people, and now we know
what that is like, going back to natural, going back
to your roots. But yeah, mss Jesse's was our very
first sponsor of our.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Event and then even like a lot of these founders
Nasty Shame, Moisture, Yes, yeah, it's also sponsoring. So talk
about Shane Moischer because even the journey with Shamee Moisture
and seeing where they came from. Because I also, you know,
and we've heard about Mayel and the journey that they
had and starting a brand, growing it to a certain point,
but then saying Okay, it's time to expand from here.
(07:59):
And sometimes we don't understand starting a brand and scaling
it and then saying Okay, now it's time for investors
or it's time to sell the brand.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Absolutely, yeah, I mean shout out to Shane Moisture.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
They are also our early sponsor of ours as well,
and they invested in us way before we even knew
how big crow Fest was going to be.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
They're also coming in this.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Year in a big way and sponsoring the entire small
business marketplace where they're bringing in ten different small entrepreneur
and small businesses and their sponsoring the entire area.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So that's great. They're really excited about that.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
And that's kind of their m a right as you
talk about their transition, they have really made been intentional
about giving back to the community. So that is you know,
we tried to align with sponsors that have the same
kind of like investment into black and Brown Spaces in
the same way that Crowfest does bring it back to
the community, and to pick it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Back up of that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
With Shane Moisture during the pandemic, I did a lot
with them. They were giving away grants to black owned businesses. Yeah,
and I think it is important to think about what
brands you do want to align yourself with, because I'm
sure there's people that have wanted to get on board
that maybe you're like.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, let's talk about it. I mean, it is a
partnership and it's a community. It's a constant two way
communication that we have with brands. So people may come
and want to be a part of curl Fest, but
we're like, okay, this is what it means.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
We've talked.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
We've actually had to turn down partnerships because it wasn't
true to our vision and our mission, you know. And
even with Shane Moisture, we had guidelines for them as
well as large as they are and how much they've grown.
But they respect us because they were with us from
the very beginning and they've seen it. They've seen it
grow and blossom and become what it is today. But
(09:42):
we can say that about quite a few other beginning brands,
pioneering natural beauty brands like Carol's Daughter and Curls.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You know, all of these brands started.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I love that when behind the brand too. Yeah, you know,
it's so imp to see that because we do want
to support the mission statement too before we even Sometimes
before I even try a product, I'm like, all right,
let me see who this person is, because we do
have a lot of.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Ingredients are about and definitely the ingredients.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
And I love that you said that because some people
don't really know, like what who's behind curl Fest. It
looks like this van their like you guys have like
a big organization, but it's really you know, own and
operated one hundred percent by black women, right, two of
which are seated here a. So yeah, we like to
make sure that we need to put ourselves out a
(10:34):
little bit more because that's part we're part of why
we find that curl Fest is successful, because we're not
just selling the culture.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
We are the culture, right.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
And so when when people are making a choice, and
we've seen a transition over the last few years, people
are making choices of where they spend their dollar based
off of integrity of the business, authenticity, right, and so
those are the values that we stand by as well
as founders of curl us.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And this space for other people who have partnerships with
their because you guys are friends and that's how it
all started. How is it working with friends? And what
are some guidelines that you've had to learn along the way,
because that's also there's boundaries, there are certain ways you
have to operate. But for everybody listening and it's like, Okay,
you know, I have this business with my friends, or
I want to start something, what's some advice you can
(11:22):
give in that space?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I mean, it's I think I'm gonna keep it real.
We are friends, right, We are friends in like the
very true sense of the world word.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Sorry. We went to college together.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
There's some parts at the Temple Universe, Temple University. There's
some partner, there's another partner and I that went to
high school and college together. There's some of us that
met on the Natural Hair email throw that we told
you about. And it was hard, and it is hard,
you know, because it's a constant, deliberate action to make
(11:55):
sure that we separate the business from the personal right
and there's sometimes, you know, where we just have to
come together and sometimes there's long conversations, sometimes it's heated conversations.
But what I love about us is that what is
always underlining and what is always present is the passion
for the business, and we understand that it's bigger than us, right,
(12:19):
so we always do whatever is in the best interests
of the business, you know, And that's what I probably
us being able to be. You know, Curly Girl Collective
is more than ten years in, but curl Fest is
ten years in and we're still here. And the reason
why is because we realize how important our.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Mission and our vision is for the.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Larger I like that slogan, We're still here.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I love it, Yes, yes, and I want to talk
about for because this is a personal mission, right, So Seria,
let's talk about your hair journey first. Yes, yes, yes,
because I love your hair every day, let's go so.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, you know what it is. I'm gonna be honest
about it today.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
The reason why it's like this today is because I
gotta get my hair done for Girl Fast tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So I'm like, what can I do?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That's cute?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And I love our natural hair because we're able to
do things like that. But yeah, the way my natural
hair started I'll take it back to when I was
four or five years old. My mom at the time
just you know, lack of education and just because she
thought it was the best thing to do pur my
hair so that it could be more manageable. So it
(13:34):
took And she wasn't the best hairstylist either, so it
took me.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
A while being.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So, I mean then it wasn't her do that I
was going to the hairstylist, but it took me a
while to you know, be playing in the mirror trying
to figure out how to style my hair, et cetera.
Going through the instances where I'm going to school and
I hate the way my hair looks, I don't like
the way I styled it, or I'm up all night
styling my hair. But then it got to a point
where I would educate myself.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
HM.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
So I was one of the first people that are
that we that joined the natural hair thread because I
was one of the people that was already natural back
in twenty twenty ten or two thousand and nine. Ahad
of the curve ahead of the curve because we were
in Philly and Philly was ahead of the curve, so
they were in Philly.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
My hair journey, And what about you, Simon, talk to
me about your journey. I love your hair, listen, but
y'all came in here representing because I'm even walking down
the street.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
They're like, I love your hair, but that's a thing.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
My hair journey is. I don't have a crazy story.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
It kind of I cut off my relaxer because of
health reasons. It was just my hair was unhealthy. I
cut it off. I was starting over and I was
wearing weaves all the time, right, you would never see
my real hair. I was wearing sewings and bust downs
and braids back to back to back, and it just
wasn't healthy for my hair, right. And somehow, I'm not
sure who bro into the natural hair group that we
(15:01):
were talking about, and it was found my little small
community of women who were also going through the same
thing at the same time, young women, right, maybe leaving
college at that time was my time frame and trying
to figure out what.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I looked like and try to.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Redefine what beauty was to me, right, and so it
had to it was like a learning experience to say,
you know, I, you know, in my little teeny WEENI.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Appro I still look beautiful, right.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And relearning what that means and maybe even you know,
having to stand up to maybe family and friends who
may say.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Girl, put a put away on, right.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
But we all have those we all have those type
of stories. Or your boyfriend at the time like I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Like your hair like that. I don't like hair. I
want your hair straight. I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, because people.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Are liking my hair straight, and I'm like, I missed
my texture.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yes, yeah, yeah, You'll get those comments and then you'll
start to question, you know, whether or not you look
beautiful any other way, right, And so that's the journey,
and those are the type of the journeys that people
are still going through now.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I mean even professionalism, people act like it's more professional.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Oh yeah, I get here is this story?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah in twenty four so many of us, so many
black women have similar stories, right, because we all go
through the same thing. I like everything that's the moments
talking about. I'm like, yeah, I can relate to that.
And I think that's why curlfest is so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, because there's people who work in corporate America and
during the pandemic, they were you know, we got to
just be ourselves at home.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
But when it was time to count to zooms, you
go get yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Right now, I want you guys to reminisce to when
you guys first started this ten years ago, and it
was way more than you could have possibly imagined. How
did you feel when you did the first curl fest?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh my god?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
So the first curl Fest happened because we having these
small events and we were selling out, right, So then
we decided to do something in the park. We literally
thought that we could only target about three hundred, two
hundred people, and then we looked around and there were
five hundred people.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And I mean these was double that, maybe like.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
A thousand in and out throughout the day.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
I would have been happy with a thousand people. But
I mean the way that it happened was really just
from word of mouth. It was just from word of mouth.
Social media wasn't even a big thing at that time,
and people just came out just because they happened to
see something happening in the park, right, and then came
and then from there we're talking about it for the
(17:41):
next year, trying to tell their friends or their friends.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And it made me feel like, you know, we have
something here. Listen, we gotta keep doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
You know how I knew about it so because I
live in Brooklyn and I go running in Prospect Park
and so I was running one day and I seen
all these women like looking real cute, and I'm like,
what's going on? And That's when I first found out
about and then I was like.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Oh yeah, I mean it was the most I can't
even describe it. It just was so beautiful and it
was so like I was on cloud nine. And it
still happens to this day. Every curl Yeah, we are
on cloud nine because it takes so much to put
it together and as large as it becomes, it's so
much planning, so much, you know, disappointment, so much happy
(18:28):
things that I like, everything is a mix of everything,
so many emotions. But when you get there and you
just see the joy and the community and just like
everybody come together, the best reactions are always from the men.
Then I can't even I can't even describe it, Angela.
(18:50):
It's just indescribable.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And you know, you talk about certain times disappointments too,
and let's talk about that too, because sometimes there was
a period of time when it was like was flowing. Yes,
sponsorship money was flowing. They like, let's pour entities, you know,
events like this and black people, black women. But then
it feels like people have pulled back on that because yeah,
some large corporations, you know, they've done things and sometimes
(19:16):
it could be performative at a certain period of time,
but then it's like, Okay, let's cut this program, let's
cut this Funday. What's that process been like for you guys,
because you do have something that's established, that's proven.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, I mean we both get talk about it week.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, I mean really, I mean from my perspective, I
think we've seen in the last year or two, you know,
a lot of ODI initiatives have been cut, right, diversity
and inclusion initiatives, and some people may put crow fests
in that box as well.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Right, we were around.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
And have been established well before. It kind of has
been cool to be you know, have d and I
you know, we've seen that resurgence from a lot of
big brands since.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
George Floyd era.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Right, And so yeah, I said, transparently is hard, Right,
It's hard for event producers. It's hard for event producers
that are owned and operated by black women. And we
talk about that right, and so we consistently have to
prove our worthiness all the time, what you know, our credibility,
our cultural equity, which is hard to quantify. So it's
(20:15):
still a struggle, but we're still here and I love
that tagle. I'm gonna take it. We are still here,
you know, by hook up crook. We are still fighting
to stay in this space because we know we deserve
and you know, there's there's ups and downs in every business,
and so we feel like our mission and our vision
is stronger than any of the bumps in the road.
(20:39):
But like you know, people like you Angela who come
and support us and allow us to be on this.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
This need is making sure this is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
We appreciate it so much.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And I will say this too, just to add to that,
I want our community to know that, Asimo said, it's
it's a small team behind this that does everything. And
to your point, things have been cut, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's always a.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I'll say, a fight to make sure that we let
people know what our value is. We communicate what the
value is, we share our metrics, we share you know,
what the the black community's dollar is doing. Not only
are women coming out. But men are coming out. People
from all races are coming out. All over the world
(21:32):
are coming out.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Men are coming out.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
So I mean, there's so much value in this space, right,
and we sometimes get overlooked. And you know, our community
holds us to a high regard and that's because we've
always said it set.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The bar really high.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So I just want our community to know that, you know,
it's not it's not always easy for us, but we
are still here and we are still committed to making
sure that we put our best product forward, even when
we don't have the backing that we used to have.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Okay, but yeah, we want to make sure that we
continue to ramp that up. And yeah, people know about it.
So what is happening this year for the ten year anniversary?
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, well you go ahead, do you want to say?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, because I'm excited. Number one, we are back
in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, okay, right, right.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
We are back in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
We see it, yes, but going be everywhere, right, And
there were quite a few people that missed that. So
when we made the announcement that we were coming back
to Brooklyn, everybody was very excited.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We are in a different venue. We are at the Bandshell,
which is.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Celebrate Brooklyn and Prospect Park, so it is more of
an intimate venue. But we have some great sponsors that
we're excited about. Shamee Moisture is going to be there.
They're bringing ten small business vendors as well. We have
our Vendor Marketplace, which is going to showcase other small
business is that we're excited about. They showcase everything from
(23:03):
fashion to accessories to goods. We'll have music per usual,
we'll have food per usual, We'll have gift bags. Oh,
and I get cover give I'm really excited about it.
We got sacred in the gift bag. I know a
lot of people be excited about that, and some of
the usual suspects. Our gift bags are like the most
coveted and they are going to be flyer this year.
(23:25):
So yeah, we're excited about this year.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
All right, Well, I'm excited too, and I'm happy that
y'all are back in Brooklyn. Yes, I'll be around, so
I think I'm I'm coming through to show my support too.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, yes for you.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh really, y'all won't even know I'm a pop up
and regular you know.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Hell, let us know you there because we got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
But honestly, thank you both so much for coming through
and making the time to come up here. And we'll
make sure everybody knows curl Fest is happening this weekend.
Where can people go to get more information.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
And curlfest dot com and when we're on Instagram at
Curly Girl Collective. We are also on Facebook and we
are on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yes, and we have a.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Promo code if that's okay, Okay, yes, the twenty percent
of all tickets. The code is back to b K
b A c K t O b K.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
We love a promo code. Yes, yes, all right, I'm
gonna bring my curls back for it.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, now you know you want to bring your curls.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Okay, but I appreciate you. I will see you on Saturday,
so make sure y'all come out and support. It's way
up
Host
Angela Yee
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