Hayden5 Produces CROWN Day PSA Celebrating Black Hair

By The Denver Egotist / July 7, 2021 /

Production company Hayden5 recently teamed up with Phenomenal, a female-driven media brand and creative agency dedicated to underrepresented communities, to create and finance “Own Your Crown” — a PSA celebrating National CROWN Day on July 3rd. Conceived as part of a larger initiative by Phenomenal to extend the national day into CROWN Month through the month of July, the PSA is a poetic tribute to the legacy, rituals and strength of Black women and their hair.

The CROWN Coalition, an alliance of organizations, including founding members Dove, National Urban League, Color Of Change, and Western Center on Law and Poverty, declared July 3rd as National CROWN Day last year to mark the one-year anniversary of the CROWN Act (“Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair”), which ensures protection against race-based hairstyle discrimination in the workplace and public schools.

Directed by JJ Anderson, “Own Your Crown” portrays Black hair as a representation of intergenerational power through a revolving sequence of various women fashioning their textured crowns — from braids and locs to twists and knots. A moving poem, written by Yazmin Monet Watkins, reinforces the PSA’s message of empowerment and self-love around the authentic Black experience of hair.