{"id":8929,"date":"2021-02-16T10:56:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T10:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=8929"},"modified":"2021-02-16T16:10:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T16:10:49","slug":"the-curators-cut-baltimore-barber-and-shooting-survivor-instills-visual-art-and-communal-uplift-into-sculpted-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=8929","title":{"rendered":"The Curator\u2019s Cut: Baltimore Barber and Shooting Survivor Instills Visual Art and Communal Uplift into Sculpted Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Curator\u2019s Cut”<\/b><\/h1>\n

A Baltimore Barber and Shooting Survivor Instills Visual Art and Communal Uplift into Sculpted Heads<\/span><\/h3>\n
by D. Amari Jackson<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Halloween, 2018. Southwest Baltimore. Broad daylight, 2:40 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in the barbershop cutting hair,<\/span> I have a gentleman in my chair,\u201d recalls Troy Staton, of that surreal Halloween day at his former shop, New Beginnings. Despite a packed house of 30 clients waiting on five barbers, Staton\u2014a longtime barber, community advocate, and native of the city\u2019s Cherry Hill neighborhood\u2014was simultaneously preparing his shop for the hordes of smiling, costumed youth that appeared each year as a safe alternative to knocking on doors.<\/span> \u201cWhat we do is have a big trash can filled with candy accessible for the children,\u201d he explains, noting \u201cI believe in <\/span>solutions<\/span> over problems. You come here, we got candy for the kids, and you don\u2019t have to worry about it being tainted, about pedophiles, or none of that. This is a safe haven.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that particular afternoon, the shop was anything but safe. \u201cA gentleman comes in the door,\u201d recounts Staton, and \u201call of a sudden, I hear this ruckus going on,<\/span> people scrambling and whatnot\u2026 I pushed the gentleman in my chair out of the chair to get him to the ground, to protect him.\u201d After the shooting stops and the gunman leaves, \u201cI get up and do an assessment to make sure everybody\u2019s all right\u201d and then, \u201cI feel a burning sensation in the back of my neck.\u201d Staton reached toward the base of his neck and came back with a handful of blood. Upon the subsequent trip to the emergency room, he was informed he\u2019d been hit multiple times, each bullet grazing his neck. Miraculously, Staton was released from the Maryland Shock Trauma Center mere hours later with nothing more than a bandage, and a renewed commitment to his community.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI first became frustrated and angry because I had been hit, I could’ve lost my life, and my work wasn\u2019t done,\u201d acknowledges Staton, revealing he later found, through the community grapevine, that the unidentified shooter had likely been targeting a customer, not him. Even so, he recognized his work on behalf of his community and its youngest members was far from over. \u201cI thank God\u201d that the shooting occurred \u201cbefore the candy distribution took place. It could have been a whole lot worse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Many in the economically challenged neighborhoods of<\/span> southwest Baltimore thank God for Staton. For more than a decade, the popular barber has served others with a host of initiatives aimed at providing both vital resources and communal uplift.<\/span> Five years ago, Staton initiated More Than a Shop, a community-based program offering food distribution, reading sessions, and quick health checkups that has since expanded to a dozen barbershops and salons. In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, the program has hosted over 5000 health screenings<\/span> for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and HIV at area haircare establishments. The Baltimore City Health Department has held regular informational sessions on sexual health at his site, and Staton has worked with Kaiser to coordinate trainings for identifying and managing mental health and substance abuse. And Baltimore\u2019s Enoch Pratt Free Library has joined with Staton to bring local authors into his shop to read to children.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
Still, for all the important services he has brought to area residents in need, the thing Staton is most passionate about sharing with them is visual art. The first thing you experience when you walk into one of his operations, be it his former New Beginnings spot or his current Vanity Salon location, is the vibrant, framed images of African American art that adorn the establishment\u2019s walls. The longtime art enthusiast has run his barbershops like one would a gallery or museum. \u201dI<\/span> was<\/span> going to shows and galleries and<\/span> collecting a lot of art, so I\u2019m bringing<\/span> in fine art from my collection and putting it on display at the barbershop,\u201d says Staton, who then started reaching out to the art community and hosting art shows and receptions. He quickly clarifies that, unlike other shops and salons, \u201cIt\u2019s not posters or commercial art. This is <\/span>fine<\/span><\/i> art.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Passionately, he continues. \u201cI\u2019m regularly having this art on display, the same as museums, quality art like the works of Lou Stovall, Kevin Cole, Ren\u00e9e Stout, Michael Platt,<\/span> just to name a few. I\u2019m hosting art exhibitions with programs on a four-month rotation,\u201d notes Staton, along \u201cwith art talks. I\u2019m reaching out to artists, and I am building relationships with the artists themselves.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cAt the barbershop, we held symposiums, art shows, art exhibits with nationally known artists,\u201d echoes Sam Christian Holmes, a sculptor and printmaker who worked with Staton on the Black Male Identity Project, a citywide initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI) aimed at dispelling myths about Black men and boys. Holmes, the project codirector who curated the events at the shop, points out that, in 2015, \u201cwe took the Troy Staton collection to Stevenson University in Baltimore County and had a major art exhibit there.\u201d Consistently, Holmes promotes the impact and reach of Staton\u2019s unique approach to the art of barbering. \u201cTroy is an important member of the community, and the activities that he is directing in the barbershop have a major effect on Baltimore and the Black family.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
But long before incorporating his passion for the visual arts into his trade, Staton had to first learn the art of barbering. In an early bid for cash and independence, he picked up clippers for the first time at age 13, practicing on his brother\u2019s hair before expanding to friends in his Baltimore neighborhood. In high school, he followed in his brother\u2019s footsteps and attended barber school at the Westside Skill Center in Baltimore before getting his license and cutting hair at local shops.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/p><\/div>\n
He almost didn\u2019t make the cut. \u201cI was a latchkey kid,\u201d says Staton, the son of a single mother who worked at a local factory. \u201cAt a certain point, I was damn near a statistic,\u201d he reveals, acknowledging \u201cI fell astray running in those streets, and I made some bad decisions.\u201d The turning point came at age 25, after the early deaths of two friends and the birth of a son. \u201cI knew that life was no longer for me and I had to redirect myself and do something else,\u201d remembers Staton, clarifying \u201cI already knew what was waiting for me if I stayed on that same road.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
His trade would provide the path forward as Staton began working with legendary Baltimore barber, Lenny Clay, from Lenny\u2019s House of Naturals. It was there he learned from the \u201cpowerful Black men\u201d he encountered, the primary being Clay.<\/span> \u201cI\u2019m in the shop and this guy comes in and says he\u2019s going to run for office,\u201d recalls Staton. \u201cNow I’m a dude who don\u2019t know nothing about none of this\u201d and, after hearing him out, \u201cMr. Clay said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll support you, so what do you think I should do?\u201d The men strategized, continues Staton and, a few weeks later,\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m watching the news, and this same guy is on there saying he\u2019s running to be the mayor of Baltimore, and his name is Kurt Schmoke. I’m like, that’s the guy I seen talking to Lenny!\u201d Never having been exposed to that type of power dynamic among Black men, Staton was blown away.<\/span> \u201cNext thing I know, this man wins the election to become the first Black mayor of Baltimore.\u201d After the race,<\/span> mayor-elect<\/span> Schmoke \u201creturned to the shop and said, \u2018Lenny, thank you for your support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
The exposure would continue as Staton encountered Black judges, millionaires, and celebrities\u00a0 like Oprah Winfrey who would specifically seek out Clay to get their hair cut when in the area. \u201cThis gentleman showed me that there was more to being a barber than just being a barber,\u201d says Staton, promoting how Clay \u201cinstilled things in me like having a commitment to the community\u201d and ideals like \u201cwe don’t take, we give back.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
So, adds Staton, now \u201cI knew better, so I could only do better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Staton did just that. Upon opening his own barbershop in 2008\u2014decades after being fascinated by the background art he watched on the Cosby Show as a kid\u2014he recognized he could best serve his community by marrying his twin passions of barbering and art. Soon after, Staton opened New Beginnings and began to<\/span> \u201cbuild ongoing relationships with the schools because I clearly understood that, in the city of Baltimore, the art was one of the first things that was cut out of the budget for education. And I believe in solutions over problems, so with me collecting art, I understood it should not be hoarded, but shared.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Lou Stovall, Troy and Sam Gilliam
, Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/p><\/div>\n
As he continued to collect, share, and study fine art, Staton became aware of the work of a variety of artists in the Baltimore-Washington area including Joyce J. Scott, Sam Gilliam, Stovall, Stout, and Platt.<\/span> \u201cThey were living, they were in my proximity and I reached out to some of these artists and, lo and behold, they were receptive, and they opened up their doors, their hearts, and embraced me.\u201d Upon forging these relationships, Staton was further exposed to the works of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, David Driskell,<\/span> and<\/span> Curlee Holton,<\/span> along with such famous collectors as J. Larry Frazier.<\/span><\/p>\n
Over time, others began to take notice of the inspired art, relationships, and community services Staton was providing the residents of his region. In 2015, he was awarded a Warnock Fellowship for his innovation in \u201cfusing fine art with the art of barbering to uplift the community.\u201d In 2018, he received a Baltimore Corps<\/span> Fellowship for \u201chelping to break the cycle of isolation from traditional arts and higher education communities while uplifting students, parents, and residents through culturally relevant art exhibitions and programming.\u201d And last year,<\/span> Staton was named a 2020 fellow at OSI for pursuing innovative approaches and community solutions to the fundamental challenges of an open society. As a recipient, Staton received $60,000 to expand his current initiatives for an 18-month period.<\/span> At the time of the OSI selection, Alma Roberts, Kaiser\u2019s interim director of Community Health and Economic Opportunity and Impact, told<\/span> the<\/span> Baltimore Sun<\/span><\/i> that Staton is \u201csomeone you wish you had in every community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
But for all of his extraordinary accomplishments over the past decade, one of the things Staton is most proud of occurred in the aftermath of the Halloween 2018 shooting.<\/span> \u201cAll the way up until then, I never looked at myself as an advocate,\u201d says Staton. \u201cI was just doing my part for my community, giving back to those who so freely had given to me and my family. But I knew I had been spared for a reason.\u201d While the shooting motivated him to step up his work and expand it to more shops and salons, Staton was surprised by the way the Baltimore community stepped up for him. The city of Baltimore, the mayor\u2019s office, and the local community reached out to the popular barber with messages of love, concern, and support.<\/span> \u201cThat was not something that was expected,\u201d admits Staton. Even the local press, well-known to sensationalize such crimes occurring in the predominantly Black communities of southwest Baltimore, ultimately took a different route with the incident. Staton was told by local reporters that when they asked around about the shooting and researched him online, all they kept getting was a long list of the selfless things the barber was doing for his community.<\/span> One of them questioned why they were just finding out about his ongoing work on behalf of Baltimore residents. \u201cMy thing was, I wasn’t doing it for y’all,\u201d says Staton, recalling the 2018 conversation with the reporter. \u201cI was doing it because it was needed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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Photo courtesy of Troy Staton via Facebook Page<\/p><\/div>\n
What is now needed, Staton believes, is the expansion of his More than a Shop network of barbershops and salons into the surrounding county of Baltimore and, ultimately, nationwide. He stresses community education and healthy collaboration as the much needed solutions for the issues that plague neighborhoods like those in southwest Baltimore. He believes the pivotal role of barbershops and salons in this communal uplift process will increasingly \u201cbecome the norm,\u201d especially given the current limitations of community resource centers. \u201cWhat I understand is if you live outside a four-block radius, you will not get the resources readily available at these resource centers,\u201d says Staton. \u201cBut every three or four blocks, there\u2019s a barbershop or a beauty salon. So let\u2019s connect, educate, and work with the barbershops and salons to help them connect with these resource centers to reach all of these individuals and create a healthier culture by addressing these issues directly in the community of those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Staton\u2019s nationwide aspirations may sound like a massive or lofty goal, he drives his intentions home in a strikingly simple fashion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to share art with the community, with the kids, you know?\u201d says Staton. \u201cI wanted to show people that we have African American art, that we are a beautiful people, that this is our children, this is our lives, this is our story, this is our heritage.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to be able to do my little part in a barbershop in Baltimore\u2026 well, that shows me that my work was all worthwhile.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
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