About Redbone Afropuff

In 2009, as more of my grandparents’ siblings and peers began to pass away and at the thought that their entire generation would soon disappear, I began to take a strong interest in not only spending time with my remaining grandparents, but also in recording their wisdom.

With the positive experience of The Pink Slip Blog – Living Life Laid Off, I got the idea to use a blog to honor my female elders in a large and public way and to bring living history to light in a way that inspires other people, especially women younger than I, to respect, talk to, and listen to their elders.

I was awarded an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to create Redbone Afropuff, a blog that would combine commentary, essays and other nonfiction, creative non-fiction, poems, fictional accounts, family histories, and video and other multi-media outlets from various artists.  The blog’s larger purpose is to raise the artistic quality of blogs, to celebrate and empower black women and to lend more unique black female voices to the growing field of alternative media.  The blog’s name is a nod to me and my heritage; “redbone” is a term often used in the south to refer to fair-skinned black women.  Afropuff is a style unique to people with truly kinky hair, and a style in which I often wear my hair.

If you are a female artist and you would like to share your unique perspective on Redbone Afropuff, please contact me. After a few months of posts, the blog’s voice will become more clear to you, and while the medium of expression is open, I do ask that all posts from guest artists maintain the integrity of the grant and of the blog’s purpose.  The recruitment of artists is open and is not limited to black females.

I sincerely hope you are inspired and informed by the stories you find here.  As always, I thank you for reading.

Mariam Williams