Curls & Culture: BSA Brings New Haven Entrepreneur to Campus

As a cold front wrapped its arms around the northeast on a partly cloudy Saturday night in late March, students found warmth inside St. John Hall. Transforming the Bay Room into a proverbial beauty salon and barbershop, members of the Choate Rosemary Hall Black Student Alliance (BSA) gathered. Filling the room with laughter and smiles, students welcomed Luvena Leslie, owner of The Curly Hair Salon, for Strength, Heritage, and Beauty, a special event designed by the BSA and the Office of Equity and Inclusion to build community, empower others, and provide much-needed information about how to better care for their curly hair.

"Beauty practices around hair are connected to culture and identity. For many people, learning how to care for and embrace their natural hair is about more than appearance," Luvena Leslie said. "[Events] like this create space for people to see themselves reflected in a positive way. That can be empowering because it shifts the narrative from trying to fit into a standard to appreciating your personal beauty. When people feel confident in the way they look, it affects how they show up in the world."

The hour-long event featured a live demo, giveaways, and light refreshments while also making space for Leslie to share a bit of her own hair story. From the Curly Confidence blog to The Curly Hair Salon, she has worked tirelessly not only to run a successful business but also to be a resource for others who once struggled to find confidence in their hair.

"The way I approach beauty, confidence, and self-acceptance today is completely different from when I was growing up. Today, I no longer look to society to define what beauty is. I decide what’s beautiful. That shift has changed everything for me, not just personally, but in how I run my salon," Leslie explained. "My goal was to create a space where people don’t feel like they have to fit a standard, but instead feel confident embracing who they already are. Growing up without that kind of space left a void that I hope others don’t have to feel."

Leslie's desire to create a welcoming, inviting space for those who don't always feel seen not only aligns with BSA's goals for Strength, Heritage, and Beauty, but it also mirrors the sentiments of some of the club's members. Since Ralph Bunche II ’61 set foot on campus at The Choate School and Helene Terri Façon enrolled at Rosemary Hall in 1966, Black students at Choate Rosemary Hall have courageously forged their own paths to success and created spaces for themselves and future students to feel accepted and included. Decades later, that legacy isn’t just remembered—it’s lived. For students like CJ Lord ’27, whose connection to the school is shaped in part by seeing how past BSA and Choate Afro-Latino Student Alliance (CALSA) members have bonded, the organization represents more than a club. It’s an inherited network—one rooted in making people feel comfortable, and one whose bonds continue long after students leave campus.

"I decided to join BSA because we didn't really have anything like it at my old school that united our entire Black student population," Rahewa Ocbazgi '27 explained, sitting next to her fellow BSA members, Lord, Idara Ekanem ’27, Suri Talentino ’28, and Nina Strickland ’28. "So, coming here and being a part of BSA with some of my closest friends has been one of the memorable parts of my Choate experience so far."

"I feel similarly. I'm from Atlanta, a very proud Black city. We see Black excellence a lot," Strickland added. "So, coming to BSA was kind of like finding a piece of home in a place that wasn't as familiar at first. I'd never been to Connecticut before coming to Choate, so BSA allowed me to be around people who looked like me and had shared experiences."

Nina, Rahewa, CJ, Suri, and Idara each take pride in continuing to push BSA forward into bigger and better events and opportunities. Next up? An event that expands upon Strength, Heritage, and Beauty, and puts other hairstyles and types under the spotlight.

"If possible, I would love to do a similar event next year that focuses on other types of Black hair," Ocbazgi said. "I think it's really important to learn how to braid your own hair. It's already expensive, spending $300 every single time. So, having an event like that would be really helpful. It'd also be really nice because it could help build community. I could do my friend's hair, and they could do mine for free."

"Braid maintenance is also important to a lot of us, so having an event to talk about the maintenance of your hair would be nice," Ekanem added. It's one thing to style it and make it look good, but it would be nice to have [Luvena Leslie] come back and talk about that as well."

Photo Credit: Joseph M. Avena is a Digital Content Producer at Choate Rosemary Hall, bringing expertise in content creation and community engagement.

Editorial Credit: Ryan Shepard '14 is the Manager of Editorial Services at Choate Rosemary Hall.