As a mixed race person who’s moved between worlds all my life, I’ve been fascinated and often perplexed (still am, in fact) with how we construct identity and find our “people.”

I’ll be honest – both in my personal and professional life, the question of identity has often been a painful and challenging thing for me. But I’ve found that the more I’m willing to lean into the conversation – first with myself, then with others – the more connection I find, and the more easily I’m able to sit with the ambiguity of not neatly fitting in one place or another. My leadership challenge has been to learn to begin to powerfully speak from that place of ambiguity – the middle space – and to develop tools and conversations to support others who find themselves in the middle space as well to do the same.

I found this presentation by actor Sarah Jones to be a fun, poignant and inspiring way to explore the idea of the “middle space.” In the introduction she says, “We’re all born into certain circumstances with particular physical traits, unique developmental and historical contexts – but then what? To what extent do we self-construct and self-invent? What if we could be anyone at anytime?”

and full haired! Simply and absolutely gorgeous.

Lorna Simpson and her daughter, Zora

Lorna Simpson’s work makes me engage with the intersections of identity, voice and the effects that others’ voices (in the form of racism and sexism) have on us.

What do you read in this piece? In relation to the photo above? And what does all of this have to say about the politics of hair in the workplace?

Wigs, Lorna Simpson

For more of Simpson’s work, see this self titled art book, or try google images.