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Transcription: [00:11:47]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Miss Coremen is that your--you're agreeing with that, is it uh--

[00:11:51]
{SPEAKER name="Ms.Coreman"}
I don't spend much time with my hair as I should, nor as I would like to.
[00:11:56]
The styles I create I basically create them for myself,
[00:12:00]
but I've, I haven't had the opportunity to wear but maybe two or three.

[00:12:06]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
The style I'm wearing is one of her creations.

[00:12:09]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Haha, how often with uh, with all three of you, do uh,
[00:12:16]
do the people whose, whose hair that you've braided, uh come back after the period of time of,

[00:12:24]
let's say, three months, and and want the exact same thing replicated, or how much,

[00:12:30]
how much do you find your own customers pressuring you to change and innovate within your work?

[00:12:38]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 4"}
Most of my, most of my customers that I've had, I've had for like as long as I've been braiding for about six years and they pretty much trust me,

[00:12:47]
they'll tell me maybe fine, make sure it's goin back this way, or make sure it's all going to one side,

[00:12:51]
but they'll mostly tell me to just pattern it as I want to pattern it,
[00:12:55]
they pretty much trust my creations

[00:13:00]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Ms. Coreman how does that work for you?

[00:13:02]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
That's, my clients, they just let me do whatever I feel they trust me.

[00:13:08]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Does that, but,I guess what I am asking is whether that causes you to then do things sort of on a conservative side,

[00:13:15]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
Yes.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Not changing, not changing-

{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
No, I don't change

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
-things too much.


[00:13:18]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
no, I don't change it that much, because most of my clients are professional women,
[00:13:21]
and I have to sorta keep to the basic styles so it's not that much,
[00:13:26]
I've had one lady she been wearing the same style for maybe eight years.

[00:13:31]
She comes in and get the same thing over and over again, but there's always a di-,
[00:13:35]
it's always different, an artist can never duplicate the same thing twice.

[00:13:41]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 4"}
I don't like to do the same ones over and over.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
You can't. You can't

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
You don't? Does it get boring that way?

[00:13:47]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 4"}
No, I just like to be creative, I like cause of when I start braiding, I want to know what it is gonna look like at the end myself,
[00:13:53]
so it just excites me even more to keep continuing to braid

[00:13:57]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
I've had a lady too, I braided her hair for the first time and she counted each row,
[00:14:05]
and she came back again and got the same style and she counted each row again and it was two less.

[00:14:13]
And she said, oh, it's two less, ya know, she wanted those two.

[[Laughter]]

[00:14:19]
So it's never the same, it's something always different about it.

[00:14:24]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
What's the most dissatisfied customer that you've ever had?

[00:14:30]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
I don't have any.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Oh come on. Nobody has ever, uh,

[00:14:33]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
I don't have any.

[00:14:34]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
How about in the world of, I know, this was a topic you were talking about before, with it's really been,

[00:14:41]
only recently that braiding has been acceptable among the, ya know, the world of professional women,
[00:14:49]
as something that is alright to work in a law office and so forth.

[00:14:54]
Have you, have either of you, any of you, run into situations where, where your customers, or the people whose hair you've braided
[00:15:03]
have found that they weren't as well accepted with a new style as they had hoped.

Mmm-hmm. [Affirmation]

[00:15:09]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Can you talk a little about that?

[00:15:10]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
I've had a lot of clients that had to stop wearing their hair braided because of a new job.
[00:15:14]
Ya know, they weren't accepted, but there are quite a few women that I try to, my best to encourage to wear it anyway. Ya know.

[00:15:26]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
How's that gone?

[00:15:27]
{SPEAKER name="Ms. Coreman"}
Well, it works for some of them, but for some it doesn't work for.

[00:15:31]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
One women came up to me here at the festival and said how much she wanted to have her hair braided.
[00:15:36]
But she worked in a bank in New Jersey and she said there was no way.

[00:15:41]
She'd lose her job if she wore the braids on the job, no matter how sophisticated the style was.

[00:15:49]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 4"}
And that's disgusting really.

Mm-hmm.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Oh, Ms. -----

[00:15:53]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
It's cultural imperialism is what it is.

[[Laughter]]


[00:15:59]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Ms. --- within the circle of people whose hair you braid within your family and friends.
[00:16:08]
How much interest is there among them in departing from the techniques that,

[00:16:14]
that uh, that you learned when you were becoming introduced to braiding, and where you grew up.

[00:16:22]
How much have they themselves been influenced by American styles,
[00:16:26]
how much of they have pressed you to change the way you do things?

[00:16:29]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 5"}
Umm, they would either come with a style that is done in an American way.
[00:16:33]
That's umm, well I don't know if I can say it is American way.
[00:16:37]
It's just the underhand and I do the overhand.
[00:16:39]
It can just be the same style, but I would do the overhand technique instead of the underhand,
[00:16:47]
and then braid will be on top as it is supposed to be.
[00:16:50]
But it will just be the same style, the same parting of the, of the hair and the same design.

[00:16:58]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Okay, we are gonna have to move along and make room for another workshop that's coming up here in a few minutes.

[00:17:07]
As I said, you'll have a-
[00:17:09]
I encourage all of you to visit with all four of these ladies.
[00:17:14]
They're not difficult to spot, they're sort of dressed like,
[00:17:18]
Just like they work together.

[00:17:23]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Which they do, and again I want to thank them for what's in many ways a difficult and often a tiring exercise.

[00:17:32]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
People are asking questions and talking to people about what they do every day at the festival for six hours a day
[00:17:39]
and to come over here in this more formal setting and talk about it,
[00:17:43]
You know- it's not always the easiest thing to do,

[00:17:47]
but I hope that for those of you who've joined this, you've gotten a better sense of what they're like as people
[00:17:51]
and if you have any more questions about, about them, about their work,
[00:17:56]
about the tradition in which they're involved,

[00:18:00]
I encourage you to talk with them over in the, the large-
[00:18:04]
it won't help if I say it's a red and white striped tent.

[00:18:06]
The large tent, second from the walkway over here behind you and to your left.
[00:18:12]
So thank you for your attention. There will be another workshop starting here in a couple minutes.

[00:18:17]
[Applause]