CRITIC’S PICK: “The first 80 minutes of the 90-minute play...are a buffet of delights. Even David Zinn’s set for the beauty shop’s interior, once the grate is unlocked and lifted, receives entrance applause. From that moment on, the director, Whitney White, keeps the stage activated and the stories simmering at a happy bubble.”
Read more

“Despite some narrative clunkiness, ’Jaja’ offers plenty to celebrate...It's a passionate portrayal of Black womanhood in Harlem and all the diverse experiences that encompasses. And it's a love letter to the artistry of hair braiding, a millennia-old form of artistry that allows its participants to express themselves even as they transform themselves. Much like theatre.”
Read more

“Bioh has written a colorful, tactile, and caring work, letting us in on both the beauty of the braiding process...and the intense labor of it”
Read more

“ ‘Jaja’s’ is a comedy about life as it is lived in this place, about community, aspiration and entrepreneurship. Mostly, though, it’s a show about immigrants getting the job done, and having fun doing it, one braid at a time.”
Read more

“ ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ celebrates business owners like Jaja and the ladies who work for her. It’s also a portrait that illustrates everything it takes for Black women, especially immigrants, to survive in this country. Amid the sacrifices and the tears, the play showcases the community these women build among themselves and how they care for each other when no one else will.”
Read more

"“This bittersweet facet of the play seems to be token Bioh’s not-so-sunny perspective, which emerges as the 95 minutes of ‘Jaja’s’ wind down, when she introduces a harsher reality...You sense in her fate the dramatist’s anger, as she pulls the rug of joy out from under ‘Jaja’s’ and forces us to confront a colder truth about the dangers immigrants face. The customers’ braids may hold, it seems, even when the braider’s life unravels.” "
Read more

“Writing what you know works out wonderfully well for playwright Jocelyn Bioh in ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,’ a sparkling ensemble comedy as tautly woven as one of the intricate hairdos in Jaja’s Harlem salon...The playwright does at the end of this wickedly entertaining evening give in to the urge to highlight her characters’ plights a bit too baldly.”
Read more

“There are no easy answers to the complex problems that ‘Jaja's African Hair Braiding’ presents, and certainly none that can be solved within the span of a single day. Instead, the play encourages viewers to inspect the way the current world works and, hopefully, leave its salon with a greater sense of compassion and understanding for those around them tirelessly working to make ends meet.”
Read more