Photos | Janae Patrice
HARLAN'S BARBERSHOP
WE ARE STILL HERE, 2023
Site-specific commission
Sequel Architecture
2513 Woodland Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Oil and archival paper on MDF panels
Diptych, 60 × 96 in.
Created in partnership with Harlan and April Thomas, Harlan's Barbershop...We Are Still Here honors the legacy of Harlan's Barbershop, a cornerstone of Des Moines' Black community from 1968–2015. Developed through archival research, oral histories, and community storytelling, the work incorporates voices, names, and memories directly into its surface, preserving histories that continue to shape the present.
When we get the chance to visit history and tell about it, I believe what we have in such an encounter is the responsibility to change the present and the future.
"We are still here."- Ted Jefferson: Harlan's Barbershop patron
Photos | Janae Patrice Photography
From to March to December of 2023, I worked on creating the 2513 Woodland Barbershop Office Project beginning with research and an online open call for story submissions from barbershop patrons and community members. The open call for stories closed in September of 2023. Out of this call came many untold stories from the past and these stories, quotes, names, and comments were incorporated directly into the artwork itself.
My one-one-one conversations with Harlan and April Thomas, some of their patrons who are still in Iowa, and my research brought about a wealth of knowledge and a spectrum of emotions that have yet to settle.
I pushed all of this into layers of black oil and wood. I cut out feelings, thoughts, and words... but they are still with me. I faded time in grey scales, like a barber does, across the expanse of the human surface. Because we are human, we will forget some things and we will miss things.
REST IN POWER
Harlan Howard Thomas, Sr., 84, passed away Tuesday, January 28, 2025.