About this submission

Heavy is the Head came from a desire to shed light on the CROWN Act, a bill that prohibits workplaces from discriminating against people with natural hair. I wanted to marry two video concepts: commercial and sketch to humor the experiences that black people face within their community, from a ‘70s Afro Sheen-esque perspective.

I've always been enamored with the idea of using infomercials as a way to break the fourth wall and communicate harder topics through humor. And I figured the world of Afro Sheen and Jet Magazine were the perfect vehicles to do that.

Juniper Johnson

Creator

Juniper Johnson (b. Inglewood, CA, 2000) is a Cameroonian-American artist who draws inspiration from the emotional undercurrents of life. Often described as a multi-hyphenate, she explores the labyrinthine nature of blackness through film and literature, probing at themes of identity, youth/early adulthood and the beauty of kinship. She’s an Associate Copywriter for Disney, a 2022 Screenwriting Fellow for Lambda Literary, and a Ringling College of Art and Design graduate with a BFA in Creative Writing and minors in Film Studies, Photography + Imaging and Art History. Her prose and photography can be found in Color Bloc Magazine, Midnight and Indigo, SKEW, and Neptune Magazine. In 2023, she was busy campaigning her first short film, Bahati, which became the official nomination of the Only Wave Film Festival, premiering at the Gasparilla International Film Festival, and the Orlando Film Festival. She has appeared on several interview outlets including Texture Talks UK and WSLR 96.5 FM for her recent film, Heavy is the Head, in continuation of her solo exhibition, The Jubilant Art of Being Black. more...