’29 Rooms’ By Refinery29 Exhibit Review: Go See It To Avoid FOMO

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Being jobless really isn’t that bad. Ok, it does suck, but I’m looking at the bright side here.

One of the “perks,” if you will, is all the freedom you get to enjoy during those long, working daytime hours. Today’s adventure transported me to Brooklyn with fellow #32Crew tribe member, Imani, for Refinery29’s 29 Rooms exhibit.

Wow, it just hit me — this is the first time I’ve avoided FOMO in like 100 years. Mom life can mean no life outside of the Disney Channel and toy cars, but I digress.

Every year during #NYFW this is the event to show face, and somehow every year I miss it. But not this time. We copped our tickets three weeks ago — for the mid-range price of $43.18 — and I do believe that there are still some tickets available. Hop to it, friends.

We hoofed it from Jersey to Downtown Brooklyn in 250-degree weather (yes, it was hot as hell) to soak up the creative art of our culture for the first 3-hour showing.

R29 recommends showing up at least 15 minutes early to be able to see the full exhibit and I agree. We arrived about an hour behind schedule and were only able to immerse ourselves in around 23.5 rooms. There are short-ish lines outside each room and you’ll need time to snap all the selfies you can before moving on to the next.

Each space offered something different. There were powerful messages that resonated such as Yara Shahidi’s room on empowering the younger generation to vote and Reebok’s gripping installation that drove messages like “Women Supporting Women.”

The highly anticipated room — and my hands-down favorite — was R29Unbothered, which was all things blackity-black-black-black. There was a beautiful memorial painting of Nia Wilson, a golden doo-rag with a long train that was emblazoned with the names of epic black icons, and a bamboo earring structure. It was everything. I really lived.

We left at 2 p.m. (because the staff made us) and grabbed some grub from the tasty food trucks outside. We splurged on a delectable mac-n-cheese dish for $5 and it was, so-so-so worth it. (Yes, I said splurge because I’m on a budget. lol).

Lastly, the final bonus was the clean Porta-potties. They say cleanliness is next to Godliness and Refinery 29 made me feel downright holy.

Thank you, Refinery 29. The experience was indeed worth it. Check out the pictures below.

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