Beauty and brilliance before it's own view. Ageless wisdom before its own time.
"For me, it is a spiritual statement, and also stemming from practical considerations." Mesha Monge-Irizarry in explanation of her braids.
Feelings from (and within) the forefront of activism often erupt in emotions equal to the issues in question: Politics, economics, social injustices, civil laws challenged by civil unrest, and law enforcement accountability.
For those who become involved and/or inducted raises a question as to "How does one care take their appearances from arrears within activism?"
Mesha Monge-Irizarry, director/founder of the Idriss Stelley Foundation is a community organizer in the Bay Area of San Francisco, CA. Her foundation counsels and advocates for people who encounter law enforcement abuse. Mesha's braids exemplifies a precedent for prestige.
Daily in and out of her duties, they display themselves of their own parallels of prudence.
"My braids are an integral part of my spiritual being, while occasionally when I am in a foul mood." she explained. Miss Irizarry would later laugh in her linkage of emotion and style neglect, "I only state as an excuse that I am having a 'Bad Braids Day." She washes them twice a week, and interweaves every single one of them, herself.
Therein throughout her life lies assumptions and unawareness of her heritage, in light of her pigmentation. "People assuming that I am white feel offended by about me." Mesha says. She explains how some felt that she was stealing a part of African-American heritage.
Beneath her birth is a variety of ethnic cultures from the Pyrenees Mountains: Jewish, Black (Moor) and Basque.
Bringing forth boundless energy with each step of resistance, at age 63, Mesha Monge-Irizarry continues to flourish from a fountain of youth into a mountain of momentum.
"Now older, I get confused with Black Power Katherine Cleaver, or told that I look like Eartha Kit !" she jokes.
"A girl without braids is like a city without bridges."
-Roman Payne
