Is Brooklyn ah study Hairdressing

A wall painting of a barber shop, Backstreet at Barataria, Trinidad courtesy of P.D.

This is an eye catcher located off Barataria, Trinidad. The owner of the Barber shop wants you to know that he had his Hairdressing training in a Big City, namely Brooklyn, New York. There, he realized that how elegant, confident and refine you look can take you places such as to this wall. The artist responsible for this motto has executed the barber as a Saga Boy who is decked out in a red polyester suit complemented with black brogue shoes. He posture shows his seductiveness and availability to both sexes to lure them into his shop. Men want to look like him, and woman just want to be with him. His self-assurance is represented by his hand tug at his waist. His personal haircut should have a clean part to finish his look.

His companion, and love of his profession is a seven foot Claes Oldenburg barbering shears. Both are standing in front of a varnish stone wall that shows a specular view of new grand city with its high risers and sky walks, Port of Spain.
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Brooklyn, New York is one of many places in the world of immigration that has deep historical meaning for people of African descent. It represents hope and for many, financial success. The bowels of New York open out every year and spit their inhabitants holding green cards and visa’s back to their islands for carnivals. Only to ingest them again.

The painting on this backstreet barber shop holds in mind all of the meaning associated with such promise. The image is reminiscent of the old fashioned photographs taken during the Harlem Renaissance and our own distant past of the 1950’s, where the elegant black population dressed for success, as opposed to excess today.

Our painter tells us that self assurance is all in a good shave and mark of the head. It causes men to admire and women to perspire with desire. The background of nondescript buildings hark to a metropolis of unknown origin, the foreground with the tree remind you of Central Park, Manhattan or anywhere that urban meets suburban. He is standing in a red,velvet suit with a scissors that flanks him in size, an Andy Warhol or Claes Oldenburg prop that makes clear that the message is all about style,class and polish. - Adele