In Search of My Mothers Garden, I Found My Own.
In Search of My Mother's Garden,
I Found My Own.
Dancer. Founder, The Stars of New York Dance
Author. Publisher. TV + Podcast Host
Actress. Artist. Activist. Mother. Wife.
Dancer. Founder, The Stars of New York Dance
At age 30 with two bad knees, Cheryl felt the need to move, physically, to be fulfilled.
So, she joined the dance ministry at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East New York, and it changed her life. As Cheryl danced, she became more confident and creative and started winning awards at work. She realized that if dance could do this for her, it could help children reach their full potential.
With a leap of faith, she resigned from her corporate job, and became a personal trainer to begin her calling of marketing movement, and healing herself and others. She founded the Jewel & Rock Fitness dance program at St. Paul, and in 1999, joined the Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn as marketing director in exchange for professional dance lessons.
In 2001, she made her professional dance debut in Creative Outlet’s “Best of Seven” dance concert at BAM, performed with Tony Award-winning choreographer George Faison in his “Tribute to the Amistad” at Riverbank Park, danced for Isaac Hayes’ Birthday Bash at the Copacabana, and with her Jewel & Rock Fitness dancers, was a semifinalist in the McDonald’s Gospelfest.
In 2002, Cheryl experienced the unimaginable. Along with 20 dancers from Jewel & Rock Fitness, Cheryl performed for Michael Jackson’s 30 Years of Magic Fan Celebration at Webster Hall. Michael Jackson shared with the crowd, "I like the Jewels!”
In 2006, one chance viewing of Dancing with the Stars confirmed Cheryl’s calling, and 2010, The Stars of New York Dance was born in Brooklyn. Winners receive a $10,000 Dance Access Award for their Dance Partner’s dance organization to provide 10 or more children with a full-year of free, innovative and high-quality dance education. Now in its 10th year, Stars of New York Dance has raised nearly $350,000 for dance and the arts and
provided more than 8,500 days of free dance education and training to New York City children while transforming children's lives.
Dignitaries such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Chirlane McCray were special guest dancers along with Cheryl’s mentors Susan L. Taylor, Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood, and Terrie M. Williams.
Cheryl is the mother of one teenage son/sun, Zion.
Ki Note: It was because of Cheryl's gentle encouragement, patient teaching and fun spirit that I, at level 37, danced formally and publicly for the first time. I'll never forget the feeling of freedom; what it felt like to worship with my whole self. Thank you "Granny".
"At age 50 I'm about to steam, stand back."
When I happened up this article on turning 50 and disrupting aging, I shouted. Deneen articulated what I've felt and spoken about since I turned 50-- the erasure and disregard for and of women over 50.
"I’m 100 percent intelligent black child equal parts clever and smart and down-to-earth and wit, with a smidge of snob (used only in case of emergency). The rest of the time I’m all sour apple Blow Pops and Super Nova stars. You should know, too, that I’m a lover of my people. We’re colorful. Hella funny. Overcomers. Creators. Herculean. Soldiers. Every last one of us when we put our minds to it. And I’m proud to be counted among us. I’ve staked my name, my career on it. It’s in my DNA. All up in my bones. I’m sure of my talent, know my worth. What I do with words is pure energy a gift from God. I understand the game. I love it strong. Who am I to waste this?"
Author of 32 books, she also is the founder and editor of the black parenting website My Brown Baby. She is the editor of Denene Millner Books, her new children’s book imprint that won a Newbery and Caldecott honor in its debut year. Millner also is a co-host of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s "A Seat at the Table," a show that highlights issues affecting black women. She also hosts the GPB podcast, "Speakeasy with Denene." She frequently contributes as an entertainment writer and essayist for various national publications and her extensive broadcast experience includes appearances on "The Today Show", HLN, MSNBC, and NPR.
“Spanning 30 years in the art world, creating and exhibiting art, Lorna Simpson champions the freedom of identity: race, sexuality, and gender. Much like Prince, one may wonder if there isn’t an art medium that she cannot master. Photographer, Collagist, Painter, Filmmaker, Illustrator, and yes the list goes on.”
Born in Brooklyn, Lorna Simpson came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Simpson’s early work raised questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race, and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today.
“At the time of making Waterbearer, I was thinking about photography in terms of how we take so much for granted—the way we read photographs and what we want from them and how we are supposed to infer something about the person who’s pictured with some kind of clarity, narrative, or truth. In some ways, I wanted to question all of the ways in which we look at photography and look for meaning and replace it with something else.”
Her works have been exhibited at and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Haus der Kunst; Munich amongst others. Ms. Simpson can be reached on her website and on Instagram.
Monica Britton. Level 53
is a dual-entrepreneur serving as the Managing Director, Community Engagement at the Women of Color Network, LLC (WOCN), and helps African-American girls and their families go from being confused & unsure to confident, empowered & clear on their first-gen college student journey through her business Black Girl On Campus (BGOC).
“I vividly remember navigating the road from high school to college as a first-generation student. While my parents were supportive, not having the personal experience as a college student meant they couldn't help me as much as they wanted to. That's why I do BGOC, to help young Black girls & their families navigate the path to college and not make the same mistakes I did.”
WOCN [woncllc.com] gives you access to a robust community of like-minded women committed to advancing by embracing the motto, #wearelimitless. How do we do this? By providing access to professional, personal, and civic engagement opportunities designed to develop skills essential to ensuring progress.
For more information go to:
Making The Journey To College Easier for #FirstGen College Students,
Black Girl On Campus™ | monicabritton.com/bgoc
Monica Britton-West, President & CEO (she/her/hers)
w. MonicaBritton.com
.
Lisa Bonet. Level 52.
Since her breakout role in The Cosby Show back in the ’80s, Lisa Bonet’s singular elegance and individuality have firmly set her apart from the Hollywood crowd.
When I first saw her character, Denise, I saw a kindred spirit. Her electric style of dressing was how I WANTED to dress, but had neither the courage or style sense. I kept up with her, admiring her advocacy work and her friendship with her Different World co-star Cree Summer who is her soul mate/best friend/spirit sister. "You too can have sister-friends," says Lisa aka Lilakoi Moon, her adopted name. "It's a clear-cut desire that you put out into the universe and I don't think she'll let us down. I think the goddess will send you somebody if you're honest enough about your wishes."
Bonet has always carved her own path. It’s part of her aloof, bohemian cool. She appears occasionally on our screens, most recently in the crime drama Ray Donovan, but her acting has seldom been the key to her cultural presence. Lisa is a "classic feminine archetype of the strong beauty and nurturing mother, but also the fiercely independent hippie, who will always, defiantly, go her own way." Living in the canyons outside of Los Angeles, her life she says is “quiet, tranquil and yes, a bit reclusive. But that’s my Scorpio nature. I already have that loner personality.”
I've also admired her passionate mothering and, like a classic Scorpio, she carefully chooses when to emerge or submerge. She continues to live life on her own terms. She has a daughter, the actress Zoë Kravitz, with the musician Lenny Kravitz, and a daughter, Lola and a son, Nakoa-Wolf, 7, with husband, actor Jason Momoa. Many are amazed at the friendship she has cultivated with former husband Lenny, creating the Bonet-Kravitz-Mamoa clan, an evolved family unit. Still an enigma, still private, Lisa doesn't have a website or social media presence. She continues to look ageless with these beauty rituals.
Bernice Mcfadden. Level 54.
"I write to breathe life back into memory."
Although I have never met Bernice, we are separated by 3 degrees. Having three friends in common, her name would periodically come up in conversations. I began following her on Facebook around the time she was also documenting the writing of her next book, The Book of Harlan. When it was released, I devoured it in two days. Since then I've read most of the McFadden catalog, each book a delight. I was most intrigued that she'd close her Facebook posts with the hashtag #lifeafter. At the time I was experiencing my own #lifeafter situation. Her version of Life After is now a model for my own.
Bernice L. McFadden was born September 26, 1965, is an American novelist and Professor of Practice in Creative Writing at Tulane University in New Orleans. McFadden was awarded an MFA from The Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, NY in 2016.
Her works are often centered on historical events, such as the murder of Emmet Till in “Gathering of Waters,” and the Harlem Renaissance in “Glorious.” In “The Book of Harlan,” which received an NAACP Black Image award and is currently optioned for film rights, she told the story of an African-American musician who found himself interned in Buchenwald. (Source: The Advocate)
In addition, Ms. McFadden has authored eight other critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Gathering of Waters. Her novel Glorious was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. A four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, she has received praise from many esteemed authors, including Toni Morrison. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel. You can catch up with her on her website and on Instagram.
"I want to inspire others, and I want to be inspired."
You can't sit around and wait for someone to say who you are; you need to write it, paint it, and do it. That's where
art comes from"
Faith Ringgold: Artist, and Author, invented the game Quiltduko at Level 83. Let her tell you her story here and
in the video below.