Event creater and curator Zorine Truly dances at the HoochieCon party on
Saturday in Glendale. When taking in the images of Black women that adorned the
gallery space at HoochieCon, it’s clear the creator and curator, Zorine Truly,
37, has a major soft spot for hoochie mamas — fly Black women who harness the
power of their sexuality and creative expression as they see fit. Photos on the
walls of the Glendale event space Junior High depict women with artful
multilayered updos reaching for the heavens, big smiles sparkling with gold
embellishments, vibrant acrylic nails as imaginative as they are long. Nostalgic
portraits of friends turning up before the social media boom are spotlighted
along with cherished TV and film movie characters.These women may not have an abundance of money, but they still draw on their unique flair, swagger and innovation as a tool to show up authentically and claim space in a society that tells them they should shrink. Truly knows these women — often classified as hoochies — have always been more than a punchline in a movie or a moodboard fixture divorced from their humanity. Hoochies flip narrow, misogynoir-fueled ideas of what a good or respectable or fashionable woman can look like on its head and look damn good while doing it. And as Truly explains to The Times, hoochies — in their many iterations over the decades — have long set the blueprint for popular trends and it’s high time they received their flowers.
“Simply put, hoochies are pioneers — for so many different genres of things,” says Truly, a North Memphis, Tenn., native and self-anointed Hoochie Historian who translates her research on hoochie culture into bite-sized videos. Interspersed with glimpses into her personal life and adventures around Los Angeles (like casually cutting up with Janelle Monaé at their Age of Pleasure party), Truly’s posts range from celebrations of prominent women and rituals in hoochie culture and their undeniable impact on fashion, beauty, art and pop culture to thoughtful deep dives that contextualize significant cultural moments, like Brandy and Monica’s ’90s smash hit “The Boy Is Mine.”The pull to honor this rich legacy in a major way compelled Truly to launch HoochieCon, a group exhibit featuring mixed media art and music honoring Black women pioneers at the center of hoochie culture. The exhibit, which was co-organized and hosted by the popular queer community space Junior High last weekend, kicked off with three days of activations. The exhibit’s opening day featured the type of moody bisexual lighting that promises a good time. Attendees from near and far came decked with joyful energy and their interpretation of comfortable hoochie attire, and a stripper pole that was added to the gallery for the special day was put to good use thanks to the trio of dancers (Phoenix, Ziyah, Brooklyn) who blessed the space with their skillsThe intention at the heart of HoochieCon resonated with a range of Angelenos on their own journey of discovering and embracing their authentic self and sexual agency, including Earyn McGee, 28. “I am the oldest daughter in a Black family and definitely felt like I had to perform a certain way of being and show up physically a certain way,” she says, noting the baby steps she's been taking toward less filtered self-expression now that she’s grown. “Even with my outfit for today, I was a little bit nervous but I was just like, ‘I’m trying to be in theme. This was an idea that I had and I’m just gonna go with it.’ I’m trying to do all the things that would’ve made kid-me happy.”
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