Draft:Amber Starks

• Comment: Publications by the University of Oregon and the Urban League are primary sources and not independent so cannot be used to establish notability. Government documents likewise are primary sources and should only be used sparingly. Other sources are either brief mentions or based on what Stark says so not helpful for notability. See also WP:ONEEVENT. S0091 (talk) 16:10, 27 April 2025 (UTC)

Amber Starks is an American activist and artist. Starks is African-American and Native American, and is an advocate for Black and Indigenous rights.^[1] She is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Nation, and has Shwanee, Yuchi, Quapaw, and Cherokee heritage.^[2]

Starks is the owner of Conscious Coils, a hair studio in Portland, Oregon, which specializes in the styling of natural hair.^[3]

Starks was born in Watts, Los Angeles, California. Starks later moved to Portland, Oregon at the age of 10.^[4] She is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and identifies as Afro-Indigenous.^[5][6]

While attending Cleveland High School in Portland, she was a varsity cheerleader and competed in track. She also was the community service coordinator for the local NAACP Youth Council.^[7] She graduated from high school in 1999.^[8]

Starks then attended the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.^[9] She studied General Sciences, with an emphasis on anthropology and biology. She graduated in 2003.^[10]

After college, Starks got a job as a lab assistant back at the University of Oregon in the Neuroscience Institute.^[9] Her research focused on Fanconi anemia.^[9]

In 2011, Amber Starks participated in the Urban League’s Social Justice and Civic Leadership Academy, where she learned that black and indigenous children were disproportionately represented in the Foster Care System. Frustrated, Starks pursued a charitable donation of her skills in braiding hair for foster children. She said she had grown up braiding the hair of those around her, such as siblings, friends, and her own.^[11]

Prior to June 2013, the state of Oregon classified the profession of hair design as any work “done upon the human body for cosmetic purposes and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.”^[12] Even though she intended to donate her skills in braiding to foster children rather than work for profit, she learned this would still require a cosmetology license. After contacting the Oregon Department of Human Services, Starks said she was told that, “If you touch anyone’s hair that’s outside of your family, you need a license. Volunteering is not an exemption.”^[13]

The cost for a cosmetology license in Oregon was $17,000,^[14] and required about 1,700 hours of class time.^[15] Starks found this law limiting to her intentions of donating her skills and unfair to natural hair professionals, many of whom were African-American.^[14]

Internet searches about similar situations led Starks to Alan Durning, the author of an article highlighting laws pertaining to requirements for braiding in the northwest United States. Starks reached out to Durning, and the two composed a letter to state legislators.^[13] Durning later asserted, “...licensing rules in many states place tremendous and unnecessary burdens on would-be hair braiders. Oregon is one of those states.”^[16] Starks and Durning's letter led to a response from Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer and Senator Jackie Dingfelder. After meeting with them in the fall of 2011, they encouraged Starks to work with the cosmetology board and Oregon Health Licensing Agency, and prepare a bill for the next legislative session.^[13]

By 2013, the planned change in the cosmetology licensing law had secured the support of the cosmetology board and health licensing agency.^[13] The proposed bill, House Bill 3409 (HB309), defined natural hair care as a separate field of practice than barbering, esthetics, hair design, and nail technology.^[17] The bill clarified that, “‘Natural hair care’ does not include the use of scissors…penetrating chemical hair treatments, chemical hair coloring agents, chemical hair straightening agents, chemical hair joining agents, permanent wave styles or chemical hair bleaching agents.”^[18]

The bill passed unanimously in the Oregon House of Representatives.^[19] It passed 18-11 in the State Senate. On May 28, 2013, the house concurred with the Senate’s amendments and passed the bill. On June 4, 2013, following signatures by the Speaker of the House, Tina Kotek, the President of the Senate, Peter Courtney, and the Governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, the bill went into effect immediately.^[20] The Oregon State Legislature did not present any conflicts of interest or vote explanations relating to HB3409.^[21] The bill was found to have “no expenditure impact on state or local government,” and the Oregon Health Licensing Agency was the only affected government entity.^[22]

Starks said of HB3409, “I genuinely care about the way people in my community feel about themselves,” she said. "For me, this is bigger than money. This is about us having access and choice and being able to use our craft to make a living".^[13]

As of 2025, HB3409 remains in effect in Oregon.^[22]

In 2013, Starks founded Conscious Coils, which provides natural hair care services and styling products.^[3] The business is based in Portland. She managed Conscious Coils full time until October 2024, when she transitioned to a part time position at the business and also pursued modeling.^[23]

Nineteen years after graduating from the University of Oregon, Starks returned in residency with the Common Reading Program. The university said of her efforts, “She seeks to contribute to the groundwork and foundations for stronger relationships between faculty members, students, and staff."^[10]

In 2021, through the University of Oregon’s Common Reading Program, Starks organized “Unceded Kinship," a UO Global Justice Grant Initiative. According to the University of Oregon, “refusing the narratives of erasure, dehumanization, and subjugation, and envisioning a future rooted in Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty are the drives behind the Unceded Kinship initiative." The funding behind the grant money was provided by UO’s Savage Endowment for International Relations and Peace.^[24]

Of the projects organized by Stark and funded by the grant in her Unceded Kinship project, the University of Oregon chose to highlight The Air Water Land Symposium and Strides for Social Justice. The Air Water Land Symposium highlighted environmental justice and sustainable food systems in Indigenous and Black/Afro-descendant communities. Strides for Social Justice, an app created in partnership with the Eugene Marathon, was designed to be a "free, inclusive program that will engage and educate participants on the contributions, achievements and milestones of Black residents of Lane County, highlighting the injustices many have faced."^[24]

Starks also composed art pieces with various mediums; mixed media canvases, beads with string, metal, and other types of materials. Her racial identity is an influence of much of her work. She intends her art to discourage white supremacy and fight against settler colonialism.^[25]

Her art has been featured at multiple art exhibitions throughout the United States. Many of her pieces honor her Native American ancestry.^[26]

Starks has been featured in several articles by the University of Oregon. She discusses Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty in predominantly white spaces such as academia, as well as white supremacy.^[27][28]

On November 2, 2023, Starks gave a speech at Vassar College, titled "Envisioning Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty." In her speech, she speaks about “normalizing, affirming, and uplifting the multi dimensional identities of black and Native Peoples".^[29]

Stark's writing was featured in the Museum of the American Indian. In the article, titled “Black-Native identity and Futurity," she writes about how Americans with diverse racial backgrounds can combat this through their unique language and identities.^[30]