Yaya Alafia, veteran of America’s Next Top Model (S3) turned actress (catch her in Lee Daniels’ The Butler) recently lent her intelligent voice to an NPR segment celebrating Black History Month. In this short interview, Alafia expertly side-skirts that ever-infuriating-for-a-natural-haired-woman-question (“Is that your real hair?”…her answer is priceless), and discusses her vantage as a woman growing up bi-racial and bi-national; she has both Brazilian and African roots. Alafia is also the product of social activist parents, and now takes up the mantle of change “even if it’s just the hearts and minds of people in [her] neighborhood.”
Advanced soundbyte — when asked how she planned to celebrate Black History Month, Alafia replied: “I was raised in a family that did Black History Month every month. It’s hard for me to get caught up in holidays that are kind of arbitrary — but it’s much better than the alternative, which is complete ignorance. And if it takes one month for people to kind of bow and learn and appreciate and study, for the kids to get some kind of information in school…that’s great. But my son is definitely going to get his history all year round.”
Said a mouthful there, lady.
Image courtesy of Blackrunway.com
