Margaret Bowland’s solo show at Babcock Galleries, Excerpts from the Great American Songbook, brings me back to the days of hot combs by the stove and fresh Easter Sunday clothes.

It is a wonder how Bowland captures this facet of young Black American culture so accurately. That is until you notice the direct references to Kehinde Wiley and Kara Walker, which shows her scope of influence.

The portraits hold beautiful, somber and precocious young girls as the subjects. In the illustrations, little brown girls wear halos of cotton over pomade greased scalps and single plated name chains around their necks. Their faces bring me back to the days of summertime block parties where copper skin glistened in between the ropes of double-dutch games.

In the quiet and carpeted rooms of the gallery the dark brown eyes in the portraits look down on the viewers as if asking for help. Yet they are not pitiful. The girls give off an air of agency and self-assurance.

It is Bowland’s belief that “sorrow allows beauty to cast a shadow.” That notion is evident in the vibration of the collection. Yet, I couldn’t disagree more with the artist’s statement. When I was in the gallery with my Nike Dunks stuck to the floor, mouth slightly ajar and my mind completely enthralled I was struck by the correlations between the portraits and Willow Smith’s new single, “21^st Century Girl.”

Smith is a contemporary example of how a little brown girl’s life experience does not have to be steeped in sorrow for beauty to shine through.

One can only hope that the visages of somber Black girls become more apparent in the artistic world as long as the triumphant voices like Lil miss Smith’s continue to resonate.