A duo bring their passion for community and art to life with AfroChic

We're in Sway!

By Karen Welcome

Amoye Henry is ever radiant and positive at a 3am. It’s clear that there’s no stopping the hard-working women of AfroChic. She excited to tell me about her and Natasha Adiyana Morris’s upcoming Cultural Arts Exhibit at The Great Hall.  June 9, 2012 will mark the third time that AfroChic will bring together artists of different disciplines to celebrate and highlight the African diaspora. “We want to explore different layers of our community,” says Henry.

When the duo launched AfroChic in 2010 they never imagined it growing at the rate it has. Henry and Morris’s first event focused on pride and expression for natural hair. They were pleasantly surprised when they were met with a much larger attendance than expected.

The second year they went back to the drawing board and redesigned their event to be all-inclusive, seeing that the African diaspora couldn’t be separated within groups of natural and processed hair. They wanted to celebrate black men and women in all their beauty and expanded their event to include vendors, artists and industry leaders. In turn they created a platform for self-promotion and sustainability. They also paid more attention to community outreach, which they quickly discovered they have a real passion for.

Camp AfroChic was launched to give young women in priority neighbourhoods access to workshops, mentorships and retreats. The last Camp AfroChic retreat was  a mother-daughter trip to Niagara Falls. The women in attendance discussed various issues, from broken mother-daughter bonds to acceptable ages for young girls to get their hair permed.

Since launching AfroChic in 2010, Henry and Morris have also launched a Valentine’s Day event called Love to celebrate the artistry and contributions of black men and women. And a community brunch called Community Voices held at Trane Studio for elderly people and community members.

With an established web series called AfroChic TV, and future plans of taking Camp AfroChic to Ghana and South Africa, as well as plans for taking their cultural exhibit overseas to Europe, there aren’t enough hours in the day for Henry and Morris. They are well aware that “there’s no rest for the weary,” but with ambition that most wish could be bottled and sold, they’re unstoppable.

AfroChic takes place on June 9 at the Great Hall, Toronto. For more information, go to www.afrochic.ca.

Photo credit: Trendsetter Photography

Link to Sway article