Black Doll Project

On campus, I am on the board of Grupo Quisqueyano which is the Dominican and Haitian student group on campus. As part of our annual Mariposa week, one of our events highlighted an Afro-Dominican artist named Clarivel Ruiz. Clarivel Ruiz is an academic and activist alongside being an artist. She randomly came across a doll-making workshop and decided to attend. From that point on, she thought about how growing up, she did not have a single black doll to play with. She also found her nieces questioning their afrocentric features because of eurocentric beauty standards. From there, the Black Doll Project. The goal of the Black Doll Project is to send 1,000 dolls to the Caribbean, specifically Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti so that the children their have toys to play with that represent them. Clarivel hand-makes each doll, but since the inception of the project, many people have began to donate black dolls for her to send over as well. This art project really touched me as it hit close to home with my roots in the Caribbean. It was very affirming to see that individuals are taking the responsibility that companies often do not take to ensure that our children see representation and feel validated in seeing people who look like them.