Posted on 10/04/2026 8:05:26 AM PDT by DFG
Cornrows are at the center of a controversy between the Baltimore Rock Opera Society and its former executive director.
Kelly Carnes says the group terminated her contract as executive director two weeks after she started the job after she wore her hair in cornrows.
A spokesperson for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society declined to comment and said it is focused on caring for their internal community. However, the group posted a statement on social media two weeks ago after backlash from a video posted on social media showing Carnes wearing cornrows.
Carnes says the video was taken at a puppet karaoke fundraiser on September 10th, two days after she started the job.
“We have received many heartfelt and concerned messages from members of our community regarding a video circulated on social media showing our new Executive Director, who is white, wearing cornrows at a recent BROS public event. We share the weight of these concerns and take this matter seriously,” the statement from Baltimore Rock Opera Society said.
The organization added it was revising its Anti-Discrimination Policy to address cultural representation and dress and enforcing anti-racism leadership training.
“The mission of this group will focus on initiatives and systemic changes related to community culture, anti-racist practices, inclusion, accountability, equity, and access within BROS,” the statement posted on social media adds.
Carnes says she got her hair cornrowed for the Burning Man festival, which takes place in a desert area in Nevada. She says she did not have time to take the braids out before her first event.
She learned volunteers complained about her hairstyle and that there were cultural appropriation concerns a few days after the BROS event.
“I understand the concerns and I’m very sensitive to them,” said Carnes. “I wear that hairstyle only for the two weeks I’m camping at Burning Man, where the conditions are really rough on your body and your hair and, after a couple of years of not being able to take care of my hair well and seeing many others braid theirs, I talked to my community members there, my fellow campers of color, the people that I work with back here, back home, to ask what the boundaries were in exploring whether or not I could braid my hair to take better care of it.”
Carnes says Baltimore Rock Opera Society held a town hall with the community that she was advised not to attend and held a board meeting a few days later before she received a termination notice saying she was “not a good fit.”
“I’m disappointed that I never even got the chance to do my job,” said Carnes. “It’s kind of a classic judging a book by its cover story instead and, of course, that’s incredibly disappointing, especially coming from an arts organization whose part of their ethos is that radical and fearless self-expression is a part of their dynamic.”
Carnes’ lawyer, Owen Bement, says she is considering her options.
Bement points to the CROWN Act, saying in part, “In Maryland, BROS may not lawfully separate my client because it believes one group of people may have a certain hairstyle while others may not. That is as clear cut a violation of Maryland’s anti-discrimination laws as I have ever seen.”
You can never be leftist enough for the left.
She was a “Burner,” too, and they still tossed her out of the job!
How many rock operas are there?
Tommy
Quadrophenia
Hair
Godspell
Rocky Horror Picture Show?
After that I draw a blank.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road could be a rock opera.
I just don’t get it.
You missed Rock of Ages ... but maybe that is more of a Rock Musical. Then again, I can’t tell the difference between an Opera and a Musical other than the language it is performed in.
The Wall?
ATTENDING BURNING MAN IS ANOTHER REASON.
NO SANE PERSON GOES THERE...
Big issues other than hair.
She and her attorney are going to clean up on this issue.
Sumrall has UF looking pretty good....except for yesterday. They’re doing much better than the previous dudes.
Things get a little fuzzy on the story album vs rock opera front. But certainly somewhere in that spectrum is Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, The Wall, Pink World, Go Out Dancing 1 2 and 3, Operation Mindcrime (also 1 2 and 3 but only 1 is any good). Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds has a lot of spoken word so maybe not. Of course they don’t necessarily have to be album length, Jim Steinman always said he didn’t write long songs, he wrote very short operas, so you’ve got a good chunk of Meat Loaf’s catalog.
And of course, people can always make more. And actually target them for “proper” opera style stage presentations.
“Rock”, being somewhat nonconformist dictates conformity among its workers.
Even Spurrier lost 45-3 to Tennessee his first year.
But he only lost one other game that year, to FSU.
We will see how they respond.
I don’t know what the big deal is. Per the article she only wears them for the two weeks she goes off to join the degenerates at Burning Man
She learned volunteers complained about her hairstyle and that there were cultural appropriation concerns a few days after the BROS event.
So if a black straightens their hair and or colors it blonde she’s sacked? Yeah that’s what I thought.
I guess the Vikings and Celtic tribes were all culturally appropriating black culture, too.
So stupid.
No more electricity, indoor plumbing, HVAC, clean water, internal combustion engines, plastics, or metal beyond bronze for blacks.
Bat out of Hell also fits.
Anyone who speaks English is culturally appropriating, if they’re not of British descent.
The snake is eating its tail.
It’s just a spring clean for the Maytag Speed queen.
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