GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - A stunning photo turning heads around the Twin Cities is meant to make history during February's Black History Month.
Twelve influential African American women from Minnesota are front and center of a new photo spread called "Back to Black."
Stylists at the online magazine Fashion Odds selected women who enrich Minnesota's black history and future. The spread is inspired by a former layout in Vanity Fair called "Women in Black" featuring black supermodels.
"And that's when we said why don't we use 12 influential African American women that would not only be models, but role models?" said Parker, Fashion Odds' creative director. "I want every person that looks at this photo, whether they be black, white, Latino, purple, blue, Asian, I don't care. I want them to see this photo and see their stories and be like, wow!"
Parker helped select women like Sonya Goins, 50, a reporter at Cable 12 news in Brooklyn Park. She's also a mother of three teenager and fights Crohn's disease. She's been hospitalized more than 30 times in past two years.
"I have a saying, I have Crohn's. Crohn's doesn't have me. What that means is, I am not going to let this disease define my life," said Goins.
The illness has nearly taken her life several times, but she still runs extensively and is training and raising funds for a marathon in Dublin, Ireland next summer that will benefit the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.
"This is what you can do if you have half a colon, determination and heart," holding up a handful of medals. "These are all the medals that I've won. I've got these on my mirror at home. When I wake up in the morning I see this. I'm like, I am going to be a winner. I'm going to beat this."
Anna Jones, 22, of Rochester understands. The model, actress and part time Mayo Clinic employee just underwent a double mastectomy. Last spring, Jones found a lump in her breast. The cancer was already between stages 2 and 3, growing at an aggressive rate. She tested positive for the BRCA2 gene, a mutation bringing an increased risk of breast cancer.
"Jan. 3 I went in for my remission and found out I am not on full remission," she said, when tests revealed she had another aggressive gene mutation. "My positive HER2 slipped under the radar when I was tested for it in June. It's a blow to me and my family because we really thought we were done."
Jones now faces one more year of treatment. She says the photo captures beauty in spite of an ugly disease that took her hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and breasts.
"You feel like you are less of a woman and you are not. That is something I've been holding on to," said Jones, who called the photo shoot a "light" and the best part of 2014.
"She is gorgeous and radiant and has this smile and was one of the brightest bulbs in the room the whole time," said Faataemah Ampey, who was also featured in the photo.
As a hairstylist to celebrities, Ampey started a business in her kitchen and today embraces women at every stage in life. She also helps women with cancer with wigs after aunt passed away from the disease.
"That's where I think I have a gift to help women feel beautiful in their skin," said Ampey. "In this field important to celebrate all women of all color and all ages. That's what beauty is."
Ampey has done hair for Nicole Miller, Suzanne Somers, and for Paris Fashion week but says the opportunity to be featured in "Back to Black" means more than other notable experiences.
"It was just really, the best word I can say is empowering. It was just a celebration of new time in the world where we can be celebrated and I was encouraged by it," said Ampey.
Other women featured in the photo include Robyne Robinson, former Minnesota broadcaster and international jewelry designer and Ashley DuBose, a single mother whose singing career recently landed her on NBC's The Voice.
In "Back to Black," the battles fought before make the after timeless.
"I saw a strong black woman," said Goins. "If you read everyone's story, that is what is beautiful."
You can see the photo and read the stories of every woman here.
