"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech from July 5, 1852

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"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?":

James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’ Historic Speech:
 
VIDEO OF READING:

 
In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." He was addressing the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society. This is actor James Earl Jones reading the speech during a performance of historian Howard Zinn’s acclaimed book, "Voices of a People’s History of the United States." He was introduced by Zinn.

Transcript:

AMY GOODMAN: In this holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. This is James Earl Jones reading the historic address during a performance of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States. He was introduced by Howard Zinn.

HOWARD ZINN: Frederick Douglass, once a slave, became a brilliant and powerful leader of the anti-slavery movement. In 1852, he was asked to speak in celebration of the Fourth of July.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS: [read by James Earl Jones] Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

AMY GOODMAN: James Earl Jones reading Frederick Douglass’s famous 1852 Independence Day address in Rochester, New York. That was part of a performance of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON THE MEANING OF THE 4TH OF JULY TO BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
(1817-1895)

Excerpt from a speech given in Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852:
 
"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival..."

AFTER 54 YEARS U.S. GOVERNMENT FINALLY RESTORES DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH CUBA

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Thursday, July 3, 2015 

"A New Chapter": After Half a Century, U.S. and Cuba Unveil Reopening of Embassies & Restored Ties

 

After half a century, the United States and Cuba have announced they will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals and formally re-establish diplomatic relations. Secretary of State John Kerry said he will travel to Havana to open the U.S. Embassy there. In a statement, the Cuban government said relations with the United States cannot be considered normalized until trade sanctions are lifted, the naval base at Guantánamo Bay is returned, and U.S.-backed programs aimed at "subversion and internal destabilization" are halted. But in a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Cuban President Raúl Castro acknowledged much progress has already been made, and confirmed the openings of permanent diplomatic missions later this month. We are joined by Peter Kornbluh, author of "Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana."

Transcript:

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with the historic news announced on Wednesday by President Obama that after more than half a century, the United States and Cuba will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals and formally re-establish diplomatic relations.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: More than 54 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the United States closed its embassy in Havana. Today, I can announce that the United States has agreed to formally re-establish diplomatic relations with the republic of Cuba and reopen embassies in our respective countries. This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people, and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas.

AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, the Cuban government said relations with the United States cannot be considered normalized until trade sanctions are lifted, the naval base at Guantánamo Bay is returned, and U.S.-backed programs aimed at, quote, "subversion and internal destabilization" are halted. But in a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Cuba’s President Raúl Castro acknowledged much progress has already been made, and confirmed the openings of permanent diplomatic missions later this month.

PRESIDENT RAÚL CASTRO: [translated] It pleases me to confirm that the republic of Cuba has decided to re-establish diplomatic relations with the United States of America and open permanent diplomatic missions in our respective countries on the 20th of July, 2015. On Cuba’s part, we make this decision based on the reciprocal action to develop respectful and cooperative relations between our peoples and our governments.

AMY GOODMAN: Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday he’ll travel to Havana to open the U.S. Embassy there, while Cuban officials say Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez will lead a delegation of "distinguished representatives of Cuban society" at an official ceremony to reopen the Cuban Embassy in Washington. All of this follows the U.S. decision in May to remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terror. It was just in December that Obama first announced loosened travel and economic restrictions between the two nations.

For more, we are joined by Democracy Now! video stream by Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archives at George Washington University. He’s co-author of the book, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana. An updated edition comes out in September with a new epilogue that tells the story of how President Obama re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Well, Peter Kornbluh, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, your reaction to President Obama’s announcement?

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, thank you, Amy, for having me on the show, the first day of what Obama calls a new chapter in U.S.-Cuban relations. I don’t think that the true magnitude of Obama’s speech yesterday has quite sunk in, but this is a historic moment in bilateral relations. It’s a historic moment for Latin America as a whole. And it’s certainly an extraordinary kind of change of events in the whole history of U.S. foreign policy, which, as you know better than anybody and as your listeners know better than anybody and your audience knows better than anybody, has been a bitter history of imperial and imperialist intervention in Cuban affairs. And Barack Obama yesterday stepped forward, basically said we’re going to change the past and have a very different future. He actually said, "This is what change looks like." And it was very dramatic.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about what this change looks like. What has been agreed to at this point? Tell us about the Cuban mission in Washington and the U.S. mission in Cuba, in Havana, and how they’ll change.

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, you know, Jimmy Carter, back in the 1970s, 1977, initiated the first truly serious efforts of a president to normalize relations with Cuba. And he got as far as kind of reopening kind of mid-level diplomatic kind of representations called "interest sections." The United States would have an interest section in Havana; Cuba would have an interest section in Washington. They would not be headed by ambassadors. They would not have full embassy status. And today, President Obama and President Castro have now agreed that we are going to re-establish official diplomatic relations and kind of upgrade these interest sections to full embassies.

And this has a symbolic meaning. President Obama set out to accomplish this starting in 2013, when he directed his aides to find a way to change our policy towards Cuba and to arrive at this point where we have arrived today. That is what he could do as president without having to deal with the Congress on the issue of lifting the embargo.

And, you know, it’s a symbolic move in many ways, but it creates a kind of a new framework of our interaction and certainly is going to pave the way, I think, to an acceleration of ties—bilateral ties, cultural ties, economic ties, political ties—between the United States and Cuba. And I think it’s going to accelerate leaving the past in the past and creating a very different kind of ambiance and environment of the ties between the two countries, which really have a lot of common interests, which will now rise to the surface of the relationship.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us the history of the U.S. mission in Cuba? I remember when I was in Havana, there were sort of major billboards that the U.S. mission had to face, that the Cubans had put up. But the U.S. had done things with the U.S. mission that Fidel Castro wanted to cover, what, with a series of flags?

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, that was during the last Bush administration, where George Bush decided that he would kind of stick it to the Cubans by putting a ticker tape on the top of the building of the U.S. interest section that kind of, you know, broadcast news, like down there in Times Square, that was hostile to the Cuban government. And Fidel Castro’s response was to erect 119 flagpoles and put 119 black flags, kind of with a pirate-type sign on the top, to mask the ticker tape and to kind of make a statement of how evil the United States was.

Now, you can contrast kind of the animosity, the—what Henry Kissinger once called the perpetual hostility of that kind of interaction, with what’s going to happen today. And that visual contrast will be John Kerry, the highest-ranking U.S. official since the Cuban revolution to travel to Cuba, overseeing the hoisting of the American flag of the new U.S. Embassy on the Malecón there in Havana. The visuals will be rather dramatic and, I think, will appeal, quite frankly, to Cubans and to the American public here in the United States in a very dramatic way. And I think it’s going to help visually push the idea of a normal relationship forward in a big way.

AMY GOODMAN: The restoration of relations with Cuba is not sitting well with Republican presidential contender, Cuban-American Marco Rubio. He issued a statement that read, quote, "I intend to oppose the confirmation of an Ambassador to Cuba until these issues are addressed. It is time for our unilateral concessions to this odious regime to end." Peter Kornbluh, talk about Rubio’s attitude toward Cuba and his own history.

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, he distorted his own history for many years. He left the public impression, and even stated it specifically, that his parents had fled after Fidel Castro took power, that they were political refugees, when in fact they had left Cuba three years before the revolution, and they were simple economic refugees, just like anybody else, so many others who have come to the United States from Latin American countries or other Third World countries, seeking better economic situations for themselves and their families. So his parents and his family, he does not have a background of persecution during the Castro regime.

But, of course, he is beholden and a fixture in the dwindling community of hardline anti-Castro Cubans in Florida, and he is catering to them in his presidential bid. There are still a number of older Cuban Americans who have made a lot of money and who are going to be supportive financially of Rubio’s candidacy. But in terms of broad numbers, his position no longer reflects, in any way, shape or form, the majority view of Floridians and Cuban Americans in Florida.

Having said that, let me be clear that Cuba is obviously going to be a political hot potato, and Cuban policy is going to be a political hot potato, in the next presidential election. Hillary Clinton came out very early calling for an end to the embargo. She sees that there is financial support among the more moderate Cuban-American community in Florida. And she also, I think, sees that this is much in the interest, both international and domestic, of the United States of America to normalize fully relations with Cuba. On the other side, you have, you know, Republican candidates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, who, like Marco Rubio, is vying for the support of the anti-Castro Cuban community in Florida, who are obviously going to attack the president on this policy change.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, in Havana, Cubans welcomed news that U.S. and Cuba will open embassies in each other’s country.

CUBAN MAN: [translated] We’ve been in this situation for 56 years, and I think this will benefit the country in certain respects, and I think it benefits those of us who want to see our families, our children, who are in the U.S.

AMY GOODMAN: And I want to read a comment made by Elián González. He was the boy at the center of a bitter international custody battle in 2000 that highlighted the poor relations between the United States and Cuba. In a 2015 interview with Granma, he said, quote—Granma is the Cuban newspaper—"Sometimes we young people think that if we stop being a socialist country, and give way to capitalism, we will become a developed country like the United States, France, Italy ... But it must be understood that if Cuba stops being socialist, it won’t be like the U.S., it would be a colony, it would be Haiti, a poor country, a lot poorer than it is now, and everything that has been achieved would be lost. It is true that we could have accomplished more, but we can never forget the most important historic question: we have been a country besieged by a blockade." And, of course, for people who don’t quite remember who Elián González is, he was made famous with the standoff with his relatives in Florida and his father, who was trying to take him home to Cuba. He had come in a boat, and his mother had died on the boat. And the image of the U.S. military with a gun at his head as the U.S. government took him away from his Miami family to reunite him with his father and brother. Your comment, Peter Kornbluh?

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, Elián González raises an important point that a number of Cubans feel, which is that they don’t want to lose all the vestiges of the revolution. And Raúl Castro himself has said, "We want to have an economic model that allows us to have sustainable socialism." The problem for Cuba is that they can’t sustain the advances of the Cuban revolution in education and health unless their economy changes and they are able to be a productive society generating the resources to do these social programs in the future. And that is why, in a opening of the economy, the economy is—under Raúl Castro, is evolving away from a strict communist model to a much more kind of—more social democratic model, eventually, and perhaps like Vietnam, perhaps like China. It’s hard to know where it will end up. But it is evolving steadily towards that new model of the economy, and it’s up to the Cuban government, of course, to decide what kind of interaction they’re going to have with American economic interests. We can no more tell them what to do now than we can—than we could before the normalization of diplomatic relations. But they know what’s in their interests, and I’m sure that they are going to act accordingly.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Peter Kornbluh, talk about what has to happen now. And what does Congress have to do, which President Obama alluded to as he spoke yesterday? And how could a change of a presidential administration, or even the current Congress, stop anything—or could they—from moving forward?

PETER KORNBLUH: I think what President Obama has done in normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba is irreversible. And Congress can certainly stand in the way—the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dominated by Republicans like Marco Rubio, can thwart kind of a naming of a new ambassador. They can hold up any ambassador—ambassadorial nomination that President Obama gives them. But I think what he is going to do is simply assign the diplomat that is there, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who’s head of the interest section and who already is an ambassador, in the sense that he was ambassador previous to his posting in Cuba, with the kind of interim status. So, 'til the end of the Obama administration, I believe that he's not going to pick a fight with Congress over this nomination.

You know, Obama has two years left. He’s going to move quickly and with all the power that he has as president to kind of consolidate this change in policy. He has normalized diplomatic relations. To normalize overall relations, of course, we do have to lift the embargo. The United States does have to address Cuba’s interest in the return of the Guantánamo military base. And these regime change programs that USAID has been running for all these years, kind of in a kind of bureaucratic imperative mandated by Congress, do have to be reconfigured to some kind of more educational-oriented or economic sharing, as opposed to an effort to roll back the Cuban revolution. Those things are down the road. I think Obama wants to create an ambiance, a very new ambiance, a very new framework of relations, and then have the countries negotiate accordingly.

A new president could certainly create a much more hostile policy towards Cuba. A new Congress with Democrats could actually vote to lift the embargo and lift the travel ban that prevents people like you and I from freely going on vacation in Varadero Beach, to Cuba, at this point. But I think that Obama’s strategy is simply to create constituencies in the business community, among American citizens, as well as support in Cuba for going forward with this relationship, to the point where it will be very difficult for a Republican president, like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, to reverse this process.

AMY GOODMAN: The issue of trade, Peter, what exactly is going to happen now? I mean, many Republican and Democratic governors, for example, not to mention CEOs, have been going back and forth to Cuba. What happens next?

PETER KORNBLUH: You’ve had the president of Google going. You’ve had the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce going to Cuba. There are all sorts of businessmen who have been there. And President Obama has kind of looked at the embargo like a dam, and he’s used his executive powers to poke holes in it, with the hope that as the kind of economic waters pour through the holes that he has created in the embargo, the dam weakens and eventually collapses. I think that’s his strategy, and it’s being supported by the business community and by the advocacy community. There’s a new organization out there called Cuba Engage, which is trying to organize business and advocates to lift the travel ban—very important to support that. And I think that that’s his idea.

And Obama, using executive orders, has created all sorts of clauses in the—for the business community. The United States can now import goods from Cuba from private businesses in Cuba. We can sell them more food. Internet companies of the United States of America are now going to Cuba and are going to work with Cubans to build a Internet network there. So there’s a loosening of the restrictions on trade. You still are not going to see, you know, Hilton Hotels building hotels in Cuba. You’re not going to see a McDonald’s or a Wal-Mart or major U.S. mining companies arriving in Cuba and investing in Cuba, unless Congress lifts the trade embargo on Cuba. But you are going to see quite a bit more economic activity in the years to come.

AMY GOODMAN: And the visits—President Obama says he personally will go next year, and the pope, before he comes to the United States, will be going to Cuba first. Is that right, Peter Kornbluh? And the pope’s role in the negotiation that has opened up the relationship between Cuba and the United States?

PETER KORNBLUH: Well, the next edition, the paperback edition, of the book that I did with William LeoGrande, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana, is going to have a whole new 50-page epilogue that tells the story of how the pope got involved with the secret talks to improve relations between the United States and Cuba. And certainly, when the pope goes to Cuba in mid-September, he is going to raise the issue of the embargo. He’s going to come to the United States afterwards, and I’m sure the issue will actually come up.

The pope will be following John Kerry, who is going to be going to Cuba later this month. That is going to receive quite a bit of media attention. And, of course, there’s going to be a parade of celebrities, businessmen, political figures continuing to go to Cuba 'til the end of the year. Obama—certainly the White House has said that Obama would relish his own trip to Cuba in 2016. That would be history making. That would be Obama's Nixon-in-China moment, and he would go down in history as the president who ended the Cold War in the Caribbean once and for all, and actually took steps to set foot on the island of Cuba while the Cuban existence—while a Castro was still in power. I think that will go a long way to normalizing simply the kind of people-to-people relationship between this country, and I hope we all live to see the day that a president of the United States sets foot on the island of Cuba in the near future.

AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kornbluh, I want to thank you for being with us. He directs the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, which is at George Washington University in D.C., co-author of the book, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana. Updated edition with that epilogue that tells the story of President Obama, the pope and President Castro are all in that book. This is Democracy Now! Back in a minute.

Interview with Bree Newsome, Who Climbed Flagpole & Took Down SC Confederate Flag on Democracy Now

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Thursday, July 2, 2015

Exclusive: Extended Interview with Bree Newsome, Who Climbed Flagpole & Took Down SC Confederate Flag

BREE NEWSOME  INTERVIEW:

In this exclusive, extended interview, we speak with Bree Newsome, who scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina state Capitol on Saturday and brought down the Confederate flag. We also speak with James Tyson, who helped her. The pair were immediately arrested and could face up to three years in prison. Their action came 10 days after Dylann Roof, who embraced the Confederate flag, allegedly massacred nine African-American churchgoers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

From atop the flagpole, Bree Newsome said, "You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!" Newsome explained her choice of words. "In one of those nights where I was pondering, 'Have I completely lost my mind in doing this?' I read the story of David and Goliath, and David says to Goliath, 'You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, and I come against you in the name of the Lord,' and that, for me as a black woman in America, that’s what that moment felt like, because I come from a historically completely disempowered place," Newsome said. "And so I think that’s why it was so powerful to a lot of people, especially to black women, to see me up there holding that flag in that way."

Tune in Monday, July 6, for the full interview with Bree Newsome and James Tyson. There is much more to come, including plenty of surprises!

Transcript:

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Democracy Now! recently returned from South Carolina, where the massacre of nine African-Americans by a racist alleged shooter who embraced the Confederate flag has renewed protests to remove the flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. Last Tuesday, South Carolina state lawmakers agreed to debate removing the flag later this summer. By early Saturday morning, a 30-year-old African-American woman named Bree Newsome, equipped with a helmet and climbing gear, scaled the 30-foot flagpole and unhooked the Confederate flag.

BREE NEWSOME: You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!

AMY GOODMAN: Bree Newsome recited Psalm 27 and the Lord’s Prayer as she brought the flag down. As soon as she reached the ground, she was arrested, along with James Tyson, who had stood at the bottom of the pole as she climbed.

Bree Newsome’s action went viral, was seen around the world. Her bail fund has raised over $120,000. Ava DuVernay, director of the Oscar-nominated film Selma, was among the many to hail her, writing on Twitter, quote, "I hope I get the call to direct the motion picture about a black superhero I admire. Her name is @BreeNewsome."

But within about an hour, workers had raised a new Confederate flag at the Capitol. On Saturday, as funeral services began for Cynthia Hurd, a 54-year-old librarian killed in the Charleston massacre by the suspect, Dylann Roof, Confederate flag supporters rallied in front of the newly replaced flag on the Capitol grounds in Columbia. Anti-racist counter-protesters also attended, asking passing drivers to "honk the flag down."

Down the road, at 2:00 p.m., at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia, a bond hearing was held for Bree Newsome and James Tyson. They were charged with defacing state property, which can carry three years in prison and a $5,000 fine. About a dozen supporters waited in the lobby of the jail for their release. I spoke to some of them. I asked Tamika Lewis to talk about what Bree Newsome’s action meant to her.

TAMIKA LEWIS: As you can see my glee, it was one of the most liberating and beautiful moments that I have known in all my 25 years of life, besides my daughter being born. To see that flag actually come down and all of the things that it represents being taken down by a strong black woman was one of the greatest symbols—symbolic images that one person could ever witness, I feel, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you tell us your name?

KARIL TINAE PARKER: Hi. I’m Karil Parker.

AMY GOODMAN: And you came out here on your own to the detention center?

KARIL TINAE PARKER: I did. I came out here to show my support for Bree, that this is just—this is not her battle alone, that we stand with her. She did what many people have not had the courage to do, and that we are proud of her, that we support her. Whatever she needs, we are here for her. And I wanted her to know that, and that’s why I came. But it doesn’t matter how you feel about whether she should or should not have done it. She did it. It’s done. And it needs to come down. And she has done what our governor hasn’t had the courage to do, what our General Assembly hasn’t had the courage to do. She went up there and did what had to be done, when it needed to be done.

AMY GOODMAN: Karil Parker and Tamika Lewis, speaking outside the jail in Columbia, South Carolina. Bree Newsome and James Tyson were both released Saturday afternoon after supporters posted the requisite $300 of their $3,000 bond each. I’m joined right now in New York by Bree Newsome and Jimmy Tyson.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!

BREE NEWSOME: Thank you.

JAMES TYSON: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: So, well, why don’t we begin at the beginning? Bree, can you talk about why you decided to do what you did and, you know, where you come from, the groups you’re involved with and how you’ve been organizing?

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, I come from the South, like a lot of people, especially a lot of African Americans. My ancestors came through Charleston, a slave market. And so, the Confederate flag is a symbol of, you know, folks trying to kind of hold us into the place of bondage that we had been before and our struggle the past 150 years of trying to come out of that place. And so, it was—I’m sure I was like a lot of people, sitting at home, looking at the flag flying, I mean, wished I could just take that down, you know, but had no idea if it was possible and how possible it would be. I had even contemplated just on my own just attempting to climb it, knowing full well that I wouldn’t make it up the pole, and just let them arrest me, just to make that statement. I mean, that’s how strongly I felt about it. And so, then, when I ended up connecting with other activists there in North Carolina and found out that, you know, there were people who actually did know how to plan for how we could possibly scale the pole—and, you know, there were many roles to fill in the plan, and one of course included needing someone to actually climb up. And, of course, that was a high risk of arrest, we knew. And so, after some prayer and really thinking about it, I decided to volunteer.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re from Charlotte, North Carolina?

BREE NEWSOME: Yes

AMY GOODMAN: So, I mean, it’s more than risking arrest.

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, there are these Confederate flag rallies—

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —a lot of guns in South Carolina. Were you fearful? Both people who are not law enforcement and people who are?

BREE NEWSOME: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, the retaliation piece was much scarier to me than arrest. You know, I was even thinking about the possibility of being up on the flagpole, and you never know who might walk by, quite frankly. You know, you could get shot. You just really don’t know, especially when you’re up there and harnessed to the pole. I mean, you’re in a highly vulnerable position. And so, I really did have to, you know, pray on it quite a bit.

But part of why it was so important to me to do that was because, to me, that flag also represents just fear. You know, it’s racial intimidation. It’s fear. These are the same things that they would fly when people were marching for integration. They would be flying that flag, because it’s a sign of intimidation, which is undergirded by violence, and has been undergirded by violence ever since the failure of Reconstruction. And so, you know, that’s part of what Tamika was speaking to: To have a black woman climb up there, whether it was me or someone else, to climb up there and take that down was a strong sign of, you know, we refuse to be ruled by this fear.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Jimmy Tyson, how did you get involved?

JAMES TYSON: Well, I guess I was approached about a week beforehand. And a friend came up to me, and he said, "Hey, I’ve got this scouting report. I think we’re going to do something big." And I was like, "Let me take a look at it." And I was like, "Oh, man." I realized real rapidly. I was like, "Oh, man, this is going to be—this is going to be trouble." You know. But I was like so—I was so game for it. I was like, "Yeah, let’s do this. This is ridiculous." I’m so—like Bree was talking to, like I’m so sick of not only the fear and intimidation that white supremacy brings to our culture, you know, but also just that they didn’t—they wouldn’t even take it down for the funeral. They wouldn’t even lower it to half-mast, you know? is my interpretation. So I was like, "That’s completely unacceptable."

And when given an unjust law like that, it’s really important that we stand up for what’s right, you know, especially being a white person, you know, that maybe has their eyes open. And like, I’m not going to—I’m not going to—I’m going to try to do everything I possibly can, you know, to make sure that justice and equality are served in our country, but also, you know, just in my locality. You know? It’s critically important. It’s critically important that white people actually put some skin in the game, you know, because racism—racism is unacceptable. White supremacy is unacceptable. Hate crimes are unacceptable. You know, we can’t live in this culture anymore.

AMY GOODMAN: So, were you going to climb the flagpole also?

JAMES TYSON: No, no. I was willing to, but I think that the messaging behind having a black woman take it, and a white person, you know, take it from her and hold it, is almost speaking to, first of all, you know, we need more black heroes in our culture. But also, simultaneously, white people need to step up. We need to step up, and we actually have to be a part of making the change, because, guess what, white supremacy and racism is perpetuated by white people, right? So, it’s our responsibility, as well, to play a role, as well, in dismantling racism.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you from North Carolina?

JAMES TYSON: I am. I’m from Charlotte, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: So, we’re going to talk more about where you come from, but I want to take us—you to take us to that morning. It’s Saturday morning. The funeral for Reverend and State Senator Clementa Pinckney had just taken place. Over 5,000 people were there in Charleston. Were you there, Bree?

BREE NEWSOME: No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t. I did watch the eulogy the night before. In fact, somebody, you know, who knew that I was about to do this, they’re like, "You have to watch this. You have to watch this and, you know, really think on it." And it was just—I was hoping that somehow they would have the dignity to take the flag down before, you know, his casket passed by. But that day just—all the events of that day just further confirmed for me that we had to do this.

AMY GOODMAN: The Alabama governor did, the Republican governor of Alabama—

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —without ceremony, without saying anything beforehand. The workers came and took the flags down off the Capitol grounds.

BREE NEWSOME: And I feel that’s how it should be done, quite frankly. I don’t think that that symbol deserves the dignity of debate. It doesn’t deserve that. It’s a flag of treason, and it’s a flag of hatred.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to President Obama delivering the eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney at the College of Charleston on Friday.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Removing the flag from this state’s Capitol would not be an act of political correctness. It would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought—the cause of slavery—was wrong. The imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people, was wrong. It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history, a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds. It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better, because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races striving to form a more perfect union. By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace.

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama on Friday giving the eulogy for Reverend Pinckney, who was the pastor of Mother Emanuel, of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where nine parishioners, nine churchgoers, were gunned down on June 17th, as the alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, said he wanted to kill black people, according to survivors. And then we saw the manifesto—it’s believed it was written by him—online as he further explained. Bree Newsome, listening to President Obama there, your thoughts, and as you did on Friday before you started your climb?

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah, just absolutely spot on. And I think that’s why it was so moving to people. I mean, you know, one of the things that was so tough about the immediate aftermath of the massacre was not just the violence itself, but the apparent, like, obfuscation about what had actually just happened, that it was a terrorist attack. You know, there were a lot of things being thrown out. Yes, it’s an issue of gun violence. You know, yes, it’s an issue of, you know, the church being targeted. But it’s specifically a black church. And I think it’s important that we not remove it from the historical context, like really understand what that means. This exists in a long line of terrorist attacks against African Americans in this country. That’s what domestic terrorism looks like in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: You tweeted something very interesting more recently now with the black churches that are burning—

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —since the Charleston massacre, and you made a comparison to the burning of the CVS in Baltimore.

BREE NEWSOME: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’ve seen like when there was, you know, an uprising in Baltimore and a CVS burned, or a QuikTrip burned in Ferguson, I see tons of outrage of, you know, "How can you do this?" and "It’s horrible that they did that." But then we have like this series—

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we see the building at every single angle as it burned.

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, every single angle, you know. But then all these black churches can burn, and it completely kind of goes under radar. Well, why is that? You know what I mean? But so often these events happen, and we remove them from any kind of context. And so, you know, if—maybe the CVS burning does look like a, you know, really horrible thing, but you’re not considering that this is a business that exists within an oppressed neighborhood where the people own nothing. They don’t really benefit a whole lot from this economic situation. They’ve been protesting for a long time, and they’ve gone unheard. And then you have all these black churches that are historically targeted because they are centers of black organization, and that’s important to understand.

AMY GOODMAN: So, President Obama says, "By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace." So, take us to Saturday, June 27th, about 15 hours after President Obama gave that eulogy.

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so not everybody that came together to do this action is coming from that Christian perspective. But, for me personally, absolutely 100 percent, I mean, I do believe that all men are created equal, with inalienable rights endowed by our creator, absolutely. And that flag is an affront to that value. And for people who, you know, think that there’s some kind of confusion about that, you can go back and read what was written by the people who created the Confederacy. They make it very clear that they seceded because they disagreed with that precept behind the Constitution. They don’t believe that all people are created equal.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you come up on the Columbia state Capitol grounds. What time was it in the morning?

BREE NEWSOME: It was about 5:30 that we were ready to go. And then we had some folks—

AMY GOODMAN: Were there any guards around the flag?

BREE NEWSOME: Yes, there were guards—yeah, there were guards around in the morning, and so we had some people, you know, looking out to kind of give us the clear. And it was probably about 6:00 by the time we got the clear and we were able to deploy.

AMY GOODMAN: And there were no guards there.

BREE NEWSOME: No, not at the moment that we made it over.

AMY GOODMAN: You hopped the fence?

BREE NEWSOME: Yes, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you have to go inside the fence grounds also?

JAMES TYSON: Oh, yeah, yeah. I helped her over the fence, and then I climbed over. And then I helped her get her gear onto the pole.

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah.

JAMES TYSON: And, you know, basically what I was doing at that point, we knew that we needed to get her high enough above the ground before the guards would come out, that she wouldn’t be able to just be pulled right off. And so that was the primary focus at that point.

BREE NEWSOME: Yeah.

JAMES TYSON: And once she was up, I just started scanning and waiting for the cops, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: How long did it take, Bree?

BREE NEWSOME: To scale all the way to the top?

AMY GOODMAN: Yeah.

BREE NEWSOME: I think about 10 minutes.

AMY GOODMAN: And how long did the guard—take for the guards to notice?

BREE NEWSOME: Maybe within five minutes.

JAMES TYSON: Three to five.

BREE NEWSOME: Maybe less than that, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: So, had you ever climbed a flagpole before?

BREE NEWSOME: No, I had never climbed a flagpole until two days before.

AMY GOODMAN: Was it hard?

BREE NEWSOME: The very first attempt was hard. By the time I was going, and probably helped with adrenaline, it didn’t seem hard.

AMY GOODMAN: So you practiced two days before.

BREE NEWSOME: Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So this is 30 feet high, this flagpole.

BREE NEWSOME: Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You made your way to the top. And what did you do then?

BREE NEWSOME: First of all, I was just relieved at how simple it was to just unhook it, because our intention was not to cause property damage. We were really trying to do as little disturbance, beyond, you know, simply removing the flag, as possible, and so I was just so glad to see that all I had to do was just unhook it. From there, it was just, you know, amazing.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I’m going to play the clip, as you’re coming down.

BREE NEWSOME: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: The police officers are telling you to get down. This is Bree Newsome on the flagpole, taking down the Confederate flag that has flown on the flagpole, either there, from 2000, or on the top of the state Capitol, from 1961, I think it was.

BREE NEWSOME: You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today!

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what it is you were saying as you were holding the Confederate flag on your way down.

BREE NEWSOME: Well, I was kind of having a bit of a back-and-forth with the police officer, who was basically just scolding me for having broken the law and, you know, for having done the wrong thing. And, you know, in the long history of social justice, freedom fighters were always blamed for stirring the trouble up, because, you know, the problem’s not there until we acknowledge it. And, you know, I was just having the conversation with him that, yeah, you know, I came prepared to be arrested. I mainly just wanted to let them know that there wasn’t going to be any escalation. I didn’t want to escalate the situation at all.

AMY GOODMAN: Had they taken you by now?

JAMES TYSON: No, they actually—I told them—I told them that I was not—first, I said, "I’m not going to leave until Bree is safely off the pole. The safest way to get her off the pole is to allow her to descend via her own volition." And so, it wasn’t until after she was down that I was actually placed in cuffs. They had enough respect to allow me to help her.

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you say as you were coming down? What was the prayer that you cited?

BREE NEWSOME: Well, there was one point at which the officer told me that, you know, I was doing the wrong thing. And so, you know, I quoted from Isaiah: "What kind of fast have I chosen? Is it not to break the yoke of oppression?" So, I felt in no way that I was doing the wrong thing. Yes, I broke the law, but laws can also be unjust. And I feel that the law that protects that symbol of hate is an unjust law. The fact that, you know, the people who are elected in office who want to take it down are obligated by law to debate over whether or not they can take it down is unjust. And so, I was just being very clear about that. And I was also just praying a prayer of protection over myself. Fortunately, the police were very professional with me. But, you know, that was something else to consider, that there was some danger.

AMY GOODMAN: You said, as we try to make it out, as you came down, in the film, "You come against me with hatred"?

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you repeat what you said?

BREE NEWSOME: Yes. I said, "You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God." And that was—in one of those nights where I was pondering, "Have I completely lost my mind in doing this?" I read the story of David and Goliath. And David says to Goliath, you know, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, and I come against you in the name of the lord." And that, for me, as a black woman in America, I mean, that’s what that moment—that’s what that moment felt like, because I come from a historically completely disempowered place. And so, I think that’s why it was so powerful to a lot of people, especially to black women, to see me up there holding that flag in that way.

AMY GOODMAN: You said, "I come against you in the name of God."

BREE NEWSOME: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And then?

BREE NEWSOME: "This flag comes down today."

AMY GOODMAN: And how did that feel to say that?

BREE NEWSOME: Amazing. Just amazing on a personal level at that point, and then, just in the aftermath, to see what it meant to so many people, because I think a moment like that, it’s not just about that Confederate flag, it’s really about like every person who has been oppressed, you know, kind of like taking a stand against any kind of symbol of oppression.

Misty Copeland Defies Her Detractors And Becomes the First Black Principal Dancer in the history of the American Ballet Theatre

All,

CONGRATULATIONS MISTY! You thoroughly earned and deserved this honor and now it's yours FOREVER. Let any and all clueless/jealous/envious/hateful naysayers chew on that!  YES...

Kofi

BREAKING NEWS

 
Misty Copeland Named First Black Principal Ballerina at American Ballet Theater
Tuesday, June 30, 2015

New York Times

Misty Copeland, whose openness about race in ballet helped to make her one of the most famous ballerinas in the United States, was promoted on Tuesday by American Ballet Theater, becoming the first African-American female principal dancer in the company’s 75-year history.
Her promotion — after more than 14 years with the company, nearly eight as a soloist — came as Ms. Copeland’s fame spread far beyond traditional dance circles.

She made the cover of Time magazine this year, was profiled by “60 Minutes” and presented a Tony Award on this year’s telecast. She has written a memoir and a children’s book, and has more than a half-million followers on Instagram. An online ad she made for Under Armour has been viewed more than 8 million times, and she is the subject of a documentary screened this year at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Over the past year, whenever Ms. Copeland, 32, danced leading roles with Ballet Theater, her performances became events, drawing large, diverse, enthusiastic crowds to cheer her on at the Metropolitan Opera house, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. After she starred in “Swan Lake” with Ballet Theater last week — becoming the first African-American to do so with the company at the Met — the crowd of autograph seekers was so large that people had to be moved away from the cramped stage door area.

Ms. Copeland, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was unusually outspoken about her ambition of becoming the first black woman named a principal dancer by Ballet Theater, one of the nation’s most prestigious companies, which is known for its international roster of stars and for staging full-length classical story ballets.

Read more »

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/arts/dance/misty-copeland-is-promoted-to-principal-dancer-at-american-ballet-theater.html

Dance

Misty Copeland Is Promoted to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theater

By MICHAEL COOPER

JUNE 30, 2015

New York Times

Misty Copeland and James Whiteside in “Swan Lake.” Credit Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times

Misty Copeland was fast becoming the most famous ballerina in the United States — making the cover of Time magazine, being profiled by “60 Minutes,” growing into a social media sensation and dancing ballet’s biggest roles on some of its grandest stages. But another role eluded her: She was still not a principal dancer.

Until Tuesday, when Ms. Copeland became the first African-American woman to be named a principal in the 75-year history of American Ballet Theater.

Related Coverage

• ArtsBeat: Social Media Reaction to Misty Copeland’s Historic Promotion 

  JUNE 30, 2015

Even as her promotion was celebrated by her many fans, it raised all-too-familiar questions about why African-American dancers, particularly women, remain so underrepresented at top ballet companies in the 21st century, despite the work of pioneering black dancers who broke racial barriers in the past. And it showed how media and communications have changed in dance, with Ms. Copeland deftly using modern tools — an online ad she made for Under Armour has been viewed more than 8 million times — to spread her fame far beyond traditional dance circles, drawing new audiences to ballet.

Fans of Ms. Copeland waiting at the stage entrance earlier this month. Credit Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times

“I had moments of doubting myself, and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know that there would be a future for an African-American woman to make it to this level,” Ms. Copeland said at a news conference at the Metropolitan Opera House on Tuesday afternoon. “At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through, to carry the next generation. So it’s not me up here — and I’m constantly saying that — it’s everyone that came before me that got me to this position.”

Fittingly, the moment of her promotion was captured on video and shared on Instagram. “Misty, take a bow,” Kevin McKenzie, Ballet Theater’s artistic director, could be seen saying, before colleagues congratulated Ms. Copeland, who seemed to be fighting back tears. Her promotion was lauded on social media by, among others, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Prince, who had featured her in a video.

Over the past year, whenever Ms. Copeland, 32, danced leading roles with Ballet Theater, her performances became events, drawing large, diverse, enthusiastic crowds to cheer her on at the Metropolitan Opera House, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. After she starred in “Swan Lake” with Ballet Theater last week — becoming the first African-American to do so with the company at the Met — the crowd of autograph-seekers was so large that it had to be moved away from the cramped area outside the stage door.

For Black Principal Dancers, Rarefied Air 

 

With her promotion at American Ballet Theater, Misty Copeland joins only a handful of African-Americans at major companies who became principals. Here’s a look at a few of them. 

In a break with ballet tradition, Ms. Copeland was unusually outspoken about her ambition of becoming the first black woman to be named a principal by Ballet Theater, one of the country’s most prestigious companies, which is known for its international roster of stars and for staging full-length classical story ballets. She wrote about her goals and struggles in a memoir published last year, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.”

Misty Copeland promoting her new Memoir 'LIFE IN MOTION: An Unlikey Ballerina’ 

A number of leading dance companies and schools, including Ballet Theater, have begun new efforts to increase diversity in classical ballet, but there is a long way to go. Jennifer Homans, the author of “Apollo’s Angels,” a history of ballet, said that ballet had fallen far behind other art forms, like theater, in that regard — making what she called the “phenomenon” of Ms. Copeland all the more important.

 

“What she has come to represent is so important in the dance world, and in the ballet world in particular,” said Ms. Homans, who is the director of the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. “I think it’s about time. But I don’t think it’s enough.”

Ms. Copeland was featured on one of the five different covers for Time magazine's “100 most influential people” issue.

This history made Ms. Copeland’s chances for promotion a much-discussed topic in the dance world, and put a rare public spotlight on Ballet Theater as it weighed the kind of personnel decision that, in the rarefied world of ballet, is seldom talked about openly. That race could still be such an issue in 2015 — and that African-Americans could remain so rarely seen in elite ballet companies — has been depressing to many dancegoers, and has led to impassioned discussions in the dance world and beyond about race, stereotypes and image.

The dearth of black women in top ballet companies has been attributed to a variety of factors, from the legacy of discrimination and lingering stereotypical concepts of what ballerinas should look like to the lack of exposure to ballet and training opportunities in many communities.

More than a half-century has passed since the pioneering black dancer Arthur Mitchell broke through the color barrier and became a principal dancer at New York City Ballet in 1962, and a generation has elapsed since Lauren Anderson became the first African-American principal at Houston Ballet, in 1990. But City Ballet has had only two black principal dancers, both men: Mr. Mitchell and Albert Evans, who died last week. Ballet Theater officials said that the company’s only African-American principal dancer before now was Desmond Richardson, who joined as a principal in 1997.

Ms. Copeland and Mr/ Whiteside in the world premiere of “With a Chance of Rain” in 2014 at the David H. Koch Theater. Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

In ballet, principals earn not only the respect of the dance world but are also paid more, dance bigger roles and see their photos in programs, as well as their names in larger type. Ms. Copeland last seemed on the verge of promotion in 2012 after a breakthrough performance in the title role of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” but she was sidelined by injury.

Ms. Copeland’s promotion was announced by Mr. McKenzie at a company meeting on Tuesday morning. Three other dancers, enormously respected in the dance world but far less famous outside of it, were also made principals. Stella Abrera, who has been a soloist with the company since 2001, was promoted, and two more principals were hired from outside: Maria Kochetkova, a principal with San Francisco Ballet, and Alban Lendorf, a principal with Royal Danish Ballet.

Skylar Brandt, Thomas Forster, Luciana Paris, Arron Scott and Cassandra Trenary were promoted to soloist, and Jeffrey Cirio, a principal with Boston Ballet, will join the company as a soloist.

While Ms. Copeland has earned many good reviews when she has danced big roles, including some calling for her promotion, other critics have suggested that she still has work to do to make some classical roles fully her own. When she danced the double role of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake” for the first time, in New York last week, she did not do some of the traditional bravura fouetté turns — which critics forgave, but noted. But she has also established herself outside traditional dance circles with her books (her memoir and “Firebird,” an illustrated children’s book), ads and public appearances, and has received help shaping her public image from her manager, Gilda Squire.

In last week’s “Swan Lake,” cheers for Ms. Copeland repeatedly stopped the show. Smartphones came out to record her curtain calls, and she was handed bouquets onstage by Ms. Anderson and Raven Wilkinson, who danced with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the late 1950s.

Afterward, little girls carried copies of “Firebird” to be signed, and several adults held copies of “Life in Motion,” the memoir Ms. Copeland wrote with Charisse Jones. The crowd cheered when she emerged from the theater. A man shouted: “Principal! Principal, Misty! Principal, dear!” A woman called out, “Congratulations, Misty!”

Before signing autographs and posing for pictures, Ms. Copeland addressed the crowd in a quiet voice choked with emotion. “Thank you so, so much for your support — it means so much to me to have you all here,” she said. “It’s such a special day for me, and for so many people who have come before me. So thank you for being here on this amazing day.”

A version of this article appears in print on July 1, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ballerina Is Taking a Step 75 Years in Coming . Order Reprints|

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/misty-copeland-principal-dancer_n_7697872.html

Misty Copeland Is Officially The First Black Female Principal Dancer In American Ballet Theatre History

The Huffington Post                                               
by    Priscilla Frank
06/30/2015

History was made in the ballet world this week when soloist Misty Copeland was promoted to principal dancer, thereby becoming the first black female principal in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theatre.

Copeland, now 32 years old, has been dancing with the American Ballet Theatre for over 14 years, nearly eight as a soloist. Most recently, she starred as Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake" at the Met, a role dance critic Alastair Macaulay called "the most epic role in world ballet."

"Two aspects of [Misty's] performance ... proved marvelous," Macaulay wrote in his review. "One: that it all happened successfully. Two: the curtain calls."

Copeland's name is known far beyond the traditional confines of the ballet world, in part due to her emphatic openness regarding the problematic relationship between race and ballet. As Elizabeth Blair explained on NPR: "It's hard for any ballet dancer to succeed, regardless of race, but a black dancer is up against a centuries-old aesthetic -- the idea, for example, that the swan must be feather-weight and snow white, and so does her prince."

Copeland's rise to fame, despite the centuries of tradition working against her, has served as an inspiration for young dancers who don't fit the mold around the world. During "Swan Lake," she repeatedly experienced cheers so intense they stopped the show, according to The New York Times. The ballerina is also the author of an illustrated children's book and a memoir, both elaborating on her journey overcoming the odds to pursue her passion.

Both because of her immense talent and candor regarding her personal hopes and struggles, Copeland has become a heroine to young dancers around the world. She has over 516,000 followers on Instagram and her breathtaking ad for Under Armour received over eight million views on YouTube.

"Something that my mother instilled in me, as a biracial woman herself, and me being biracial, was that the world was going to view me as a black woman, no matter what I decided to do," Copeland said at the Time 100 gala, where she was honored. "I had no idea that that was going to be my truth at some point in my life, when I moved to New York City at 17 years old and joined American Ballet Theatre and realized I was the only African American woman in a company of 80 dancers.

Copeland grew up in San Pedro, California, and took her first ballet classes for free at the Boys & Girls Club in the neighborhood. At the time, her family was living in a motel, part of a personal narrative that strays greatly from the traditional tale of a young ballerina. Copeland has said that she always hoped to rise to the level of principal, the highest status in a company. "My fears are that it could be another two decades before another black woman is in the position that I hold with an elite ballet company," she explains in her memoir. "That if I don’t rise to principal, people will feel I have failed them."

Arthur Mitchell was the first African-American dancer to become a principal dancer, breaking grounds at the New York City Ballet in 1962. Years later in 1990, Lauren Anderson became the first African-American principal at the Houston Ballet. Anderson, along with Raven Wilkinson, a dancer and mentor of Copeland's, handed her bouquets on stage following her recent "Swan" performance.

There has never before been a female black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, until now. "Seven amazing dancers from American Ballet Theatre were promoted today," Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director of the American Ballet Theatre explained in an email to the Huffington Post. "Each has demonstrated the talent and hard work needed to succeed in a highly competitive environment. I couldn't be prouder." We reached out to Misty Copeland for comment and have yet to hear back.

"I never saw a ballerina who looked like me before," Copeland has said. "And I’m here to be a vessel for all these brown ballerinas who have come before me."

Congratulations, Misty, on a historical accomplishment, one that is sure to shape the future of ballet's diversity in ways we can only imagine.  


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/misty-copeland-promoted-principal-dancer-abt-article-1.2276540 

American Ballet Theatre promotes Misty Copeland to principal dancer, making her the first black woman to hold position

by Chelsia Rose Marcius, Bill Hutchinson

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

In a historic move, the American Ballet Theatre promoted Misty Copeland to principal dancer on Tuesday, making her the first African-American woman to rise to the position in the company’s 75-year history.

Copeland, 32, said the promotion came after 14 years of “extremely hard work” at the prestigious New York City-based ballet company.

“I’m just so honored, so extremely honored to be a principal dancer, to be an African-American and to be in this position,” she said before Tuesday night’s American Ballet performance of La Bayadère at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.
Copeland’s elevation to principal dancer was announced by the company’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, during a morning rehearsal.

“Misty, take a bow,” said McKenzie, breaking the news to Copeland.

 

James Keivom/New York Daily News

'I’m just so honored, so extremely honored to be a principal dancer, to be an African-American and to be in this position,' Copeland said  during a news conference at the Metropolitan Opera House.

A cell phone video of the moment posted on Instagram captured Copeland bursting into a wide smile and then tears as she was smothered in hugs by a fellow dancer.
“I had moments of doubting myself, of wanting to quit, because I didn’t know there would be a future for an African-American woman to make it to this level,” Copeland said. “At the same time it made me so hungry to push through, to carry the next generation.”

Copeland has been with the prestigious group for 14 years, eight as a soloist. She was promoted to principal dancer along with Stella Abrera.

Two other dancers joining the ballet company — Maria Kochetkova from the San Francisco Ballet and Alban Lendorf from the Royal Danish Ballet — were also named Tuesday as principal dancers.

 
 Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images

Misty Copeland dances in the American Ballet Theatre's "Giselle" at the Metropolitan Opera House. The 32-year-old African-American woman was promoted on Tuesday to principal dancer, a first for the company.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Copeland and her six siblings grew up in poverty in Los Angeles and were raised by a single mother.
 
“We were pretty much homeless and were living in a motel, trying to scrape up enough money to go to the corner store to get (a) Cup O' Noodles soup to eat,” Copeland said in an ABC News interview last year. “It was probably the worst time in my childhood when ballet found me.”

Copeland’s achievement brought to fruition a dream she feared she would never realize.

“My fears are that it could be another two decades before another black woman is in the position that I hold with an elite ballet company. That if I don’t rise to principal, people will feel I have failed them,” she wrote in her 2014 memoir, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.”

By now, New Yorkers are familiar with the phenomenon of Copeland — who eight years ago became the first African-American in two decades to dance as a soloist for the American Ballet Theatre. Since then, she’s been seen in an Under Armour commercial, made the cover of Time magazine and besides penning a best-selling memoir, she’s written a children’s book.

In the Under Armour ad she revealed that at the age of 13 she was rejected from a ballet academy and told, “You have the wrong body for ballet.”

“Dear candidate,” says her rejection letter, read by a young girl in the ad. “Thank you for your application to our ballet academy. Unfortunately, you have not been accepted. You lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length, and bust.”

Copeland immediately set out to prove her critics wrong, beginning her training at the San Pedro City Ballet in California. She went on to be accepted to the San Francisco Ballet School and joined the American Ballet Theatre at the age of 18.

“So many young dancers of color stop dancing at an early age because they just don’t think there will be a career path for them,” an emotional Copeland said Tuesday.

“All the little girls that can see themselves through me, it's giving them a brighter future,” she said. “It's been a long journey but it’s just the beginning.”

She made it abundantly clear that it was her dancing and not the color of her skin that got her to the top of the rarefied world of ballet.

   

James Keivom/New York Daily News

 

'I had moments of doubting myself, of wanting to quit, because I didn’t know there would be a future for an African-American woman to make it to this level,' Copeland said.

“I just had to remember why I'm getting the attention I'm getting,” Copeland said. “It’s because of my dancing. It’s because I’m a ballerina, and no other reason.”

“Even with everything that’s happening, I go into ballet class every morning, I work my butt off eight hours a day because I know that I have to deliver,” she said. “I have to go out there and perform live every night and prove myself, maybe more so than other dancers.”

The historic announcement comes after Copeland starred in the American Ballet Theatre’s performance last week of “Swan Lake” — achieving another milestone as the first African-American to do so with the company at the Met.

Tuesday’s promotion triggered an avalanche of congratulatory posts on Copeland’s Twitter account, @mistyonpointe.

“Celebrating @mistyonpointe — a muse for so many and a reminder to dance towards our dreams,” the Oprah Winfrey Network tweeted.

Tony Award-winning Broadway superstar Audra McDonald, who is African-American, tweeted, “Congrats @mistyonpointe on making history!!!” 

http://izismile.com/2014/08/06/misty_copeland_is_one_hot_ballerina_30_pics.html 

Misty Copeland Is One Hot Ballerina (30 pics)

Posted in NSFW    

6 Aug 2014 

Misty, a ballet prodigy was also recently hired as the face of Under Armour and these gorgeous pics of her show why she is so in demand.

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MISTY COPELAND AND TONI MORRISON

68 COMMENTS BY NEW YORK TIMES READERS ON THE NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT MISTY CROPLAND BECOMING THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO BECOME A PRINCIPAL SOLOIST IN THE AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

All 68
Readers’ Picks 42
NYT Picks 3
Newest
Rick

New York 25 minutes ago
From the audience at the Met I never knew she was black until I read about it ... ad infintum.

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fhcgsps

midwest 25 minutes ago
no one was suggesting it wasn't. she's an amazing, hard-working dancer. a cultural gift to us.

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WHN

NY 16 minutes ago
I guess you missed the recent fracas at the NAACP?

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WHN

NY 15 minutes ago
Show me one dancer from now who is even close to Nuryev in any aspect of dancing. Your simile is incorrect.

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Jay Tandy

NYC 15 minutes ago

Alex, "there is no suggestion that there has ever been a 'barrier' to black women in the ballet"? Ever? I am always so surprised at the people who are so adamant about denying that racism exists or has ever existed. There is plenty of suggestion and evidence of race being a barrier. There are plenty of talented black dancers who could not advance in the U.S. and chose to go to Europe instead, for example. Sure the issue is complicated and not only racism, but to conclude that racism has never affected choices for who dances ballet in its 500 plus year history is intellectually dishonest at best but very likely delusional.

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gjdagis

New York 2 minutes ago
Does everything have to be about race when a Black person is involved? Celebrate PEOPLE and their accomplishments and stop being so divisive!

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Hallie

Chicago 15 minutes ago
Although I have mixed reactions to this promotion, it's important to realize that the dearth of black ballerinas likely stems from a lack of opportunity made available to young black people. So, yes, there are few qualified black ballet students at all, let alone talented enough to rise to ABT, and that's a symptom of  systemic racism. At the level of ABT, though, I don't believe race ever mattered.

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WHN

NY 6 minutes ago
This is the American Ballet Theater. More interested in drama and selling tickets than the actual ballet performance. It about the dance. Not your "position in society". If making Misty Copeland a principal was so grievously not done before, it might have been because she's not a "principal" in the true dance sense of the word. And ABT should call itself an entertainment group, not a ballet company. Prima donna is an opera term for the first lady, the main star. It is used in the vernacular as a pejorative term. Not used in ballet. The very first ballet dancer to use social media and "show" interviews with pop culture media to blackmail the ABT in to this move. Congratulations! And they get to dance in the Koch Hall. NYC is so about the money it's old. Really old. Art is dead in NY.

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dobes


6 minutes ago
Misty Copeland is mixed-race, not black. So are both her parents. If we really must mention people's races in articles about their skill and artistry - and it appears that in the NYT we must - then can't we at least begin to recognize how many people in our society are of mixed origin? When we fully recognize that, it might go a long way toward healing our alleged skin-based differences - or don't we want that after all?

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A

Philadelphia 6 minutes ago
Since we're talking about race, how strange is it that when a white woman twerks, there is outrage, but when a black woman dances ballet, there is applause. Is this not also a form of cultural appropriation?

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Robert Eller

. 6 minutes ago
And current article about Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, only the 63rd Black American woman to earn a Physics Ph.D., and currently a post-doc fellow at MIT, prompted me to search for articles about what is behind the underrepresentation of women and minorities in certain fields.

The NYT published a great piece in the Magazine a while back, focused on Physics Ph.D.s and how few women attain them. I think we can safely generalize, to some extent, about other fields, including ballet.

In a nutshell, how much people are encouraged by teachers, mentors, parents, is a big factor. Most of us depend greatly on the perceptions of others to help us succeed and exceed. All we need to do to discourage people from certain identity groups is to assume they won't or can't succeed, and most people in that group will live up, or down, to our perceptions. This is the ultimate poison of racism or sexism.

Want more Black women to succeed in ballet, for instance? Simple. Encourage and nurture more Black girls, who want to dance ballet, not only to dance ballet, but to not give up. The same way that White girls are encouraged. And you will get more Black ballerinas.

Wouldn't it be great to read an article titled "Misty Copeland Is Promoted to Principal Dancer At American Ballet Theater," period?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/chanda-prescod-weinstein_n_7574...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-wo...

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Charlie

NJ 6 minutes ago
I acknowledge ignorance but is this article suggesting past bias or is Misty simply the first female African American who is qualified?

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Mr. Robin P Little

Conway, SC 6 minutes ago

The relentless parade of identity politics promotions on the front page of the digital NY Times gets a little old after awhile. Ms. Copeland is certainly beautiful and talented. I am happy for her successes, and her promotion here by Mr. Cooper, but the Times own reviewer, Alastair Macaulay, debunks a lot of the firsts around Ms. Copeland's career as the first black dancer to do certain things in the field. He also calls her recent work in 'Swan Lake' dull: It is a surprisingly brutal review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/arts/misty-copeland-debuts-as-odette-o...

I am certain many others saw an entirely different 'Swan Lake' even though they attended the same performance as Mr. Macaulay. All of life is like the movie, 'Rashomon'. Everybody sees what they want to see, at least in the retelling of it they do.

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Lane

Austin, TX 6 minutes ago
Genuine applause for Miss Copeland on her promotion within the company, well deserved and inspiring. I am reminded of a certain evening in 1977 in Houston, Texas, and first saw Judith Jamison perform "Cry" with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company from NYC. Although caucasian, 17 years-old, and a senior in High School, I cried in my seat. After the show, I danced on the sidewalk. In college I studied Ballet, Modern, and Jazz. I went on to dance with the Austin Ballet Theatre for two seasons because of one woman's - an African American woman- amazing light, love, and talent. Brava and may you shine lighter than the Statue of Liberty!

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mdinmn

Minnesota 6 minutes ago
She is built like a gymnast and dances like a gymnast. Perhaps this is ballet's attempt to break from the sterotype. I will be happy to see her dance. I have seen young women with similar skills and body type of all ethic backgrounds passed over; it would be nice to think Ballet is moving beyond those stereotypes .

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DLP

Brooklyn, New York 6 minutes ago
What pleases me most about this promotion is not Misty Copeland's race, but her body, which is not the rail-thin dancer Balanchine revered, which has had such an enormous impact on girls and women ever since.

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Xoreograpg

Moscow 18 minutes ago
It is unfortunate for Misty that the Company was essentially publicly shamed into promoting her. She has had recent success in popular media which has elevated her profile, but not her accomplishments in Classical Ballet.

The Rank of Prima is not only a measure of an artists' popularity, but more importantly their level of Artistry. Misty's popularity is as a result of her visibility outside of the theatre and therefore should have no bearing on her rank in the ballet company . So the Bravo goes to her management team. This is New York; surely you folks have seen the Russian and European ballet companies. It has always saddened me that Amercan Ballet has seen fit to import their great artists from abroad, than to do the work necessary to educate and train our own Artists. Misty is a product of the age of Obama, which I have always supported, but this promotion doesn't benefit ballet, it only perpetuates the idea that publicity is more valuable than content; that popularity is more important than the TRUTH. The truth is, Misty is perhaps a good public figure, but she is a very substandard dancer without the slightest concept of placement or Artistry. But alas, she's not alone, this is the case with all American trained ballet dancers. - cheers

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j. von hettlingen

is a trusted commenter switzerland 39 minutes ago
I have watched Misty Copeland on YouTube. Her relentless energy is outstanding.
As a lover of classical ballet, I still prefer the Russian dance ensembles!
But I still would love to see Misty Copeland dance Camille Saint Saëns "Dying Swan", a short act which had been immortalised by the late Maya Plisetskaya!

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Conchetta Sanders

New Milford, NJ 57 minutes ago
Awesome talent! Misty-fying presence! Congratulations ABT for the broader audiences, new fans, electrifying shows, increased advertising revenue and uncountable benefits and nuances that will accompany the star power and presence of Misty Copeland.

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Alan

Mass. 57 minutes ago
I hate to be the buzzkill here, but enough Misty Copeland already. She's become the most over-promoted, over-exposed ballet dancer in history. I fantasize about her fellow dancers seething every time they encounter her for the zillionth time on NPR, or at the Tony awards, or in yet another article in the Times. I'd love to hear about some of the other dancers, please!

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Conchetta Sanders

New Milford NJ 6 minutes ago
A lot of people and players resented Michael Jordan too, but he made fans out of all of them. In the former-player ranks, all of his detractors now sing his praises. Misty has the x-factor that helps to step-up her game and make fans out of her detractors as well.

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LAC

Washington, DC 6 minutes ago
Then don't be one - sorry that this bores you and your imaginary fellow dancer friends.

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Historic Home Plans

Oregon 57 minutes ago
It's about time ABT got with the program. There have been so many excellent African-American ballet dancers with well established companies across the USA, going back, at least, to Arthur Mitchell at NY City Ballet, back in the late 1950s.

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Tyler

NY 58 minutes ago
Very happy for Misty Copeland. She is stunningly beautiful and sells txts like hot dogs. God Bless America. ABT needs you and there you have it. Prima Donna you become. Now is time to work on those fouttes ( there should be 32 ) and probably some aspects of artistry as well. Congratulations and Good luck!

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mn

los angeles 58 minutes ago
Misty Copeland is everything a dancer should be: talented, compelling, beautiful, singular. But it seems to me what put her over the top is a social-networking and public following that ABT quite literally couldn't afford to ignore. She's going to make the company a heap of money. People of color (and I am one) take note: this is a capitalist country. When you're making money, they don't care what color you are or whom you cast. Just ask Shonda Rhimes.

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DonL

Earth 58 minutes ago
Outstanding!
She is not only creative in her interpretations, sharing in her partnership with her troupe (I only say that as a spectator, not as someone on the inside of that crazy classical ballet scene and business) but she is a model of well-nourished feminine beauty. She is indeed HOT!
Congratulations to Miss Copeland, and to the officials of her troupe for making such a terrific appointment.

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New Yorker

NYC 1 hour ago
Fly. Misty. Fly as High as you can go!

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Debrah Ross

Chicago 1 hour ago
I'm ashamed to say that even though I love ballet as an art form, I'm not very familiar with those having notoriety. Misty Copeland's name was familiar, but this article is the most I've ever even heard about her. I have yet to see a picture of her, let alone see her dance. Maybe I can find something on You-Tube.

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Flyingoffthehandle

World Headquarters 57 minutes ago
yeah, you can find lots of info on youtube!

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MK

Tenafly, NJ 1 hour ago
Good for her.
but I don't understand how she is considered African American when she is also German and Italian American...Not that it matters, right?

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MJ

NY 57 minutes ago
Ms. Copeland has stated numerous times that she identifies as an African-American woman.

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Kathryn

brooklyn 6 minutes ago
She's mixed race, regardless. The article and others do not make much light of that fact. People identify with whomever they want when it suits them--and, in this case, why not? It's boosting her career. Racial mixing is a true reality for almost every human that currently exists on our planet, and that's a good thing. Unfortunately, we aren't getting much good, honest discussion about this fact in the race-obsessed media of late.

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ms_SYD

louisiana 1 hour ago
congratulations to a wonderful dancer!!!

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BeeRock

Miami, FL 1 hour ago
Funny we're still talking like this in 2015. Instead of celebrating Ms. Copeland's amazing personal achievement, we are directed to celebrate the ABT's promotion of the first African-American female principal. Although Ms. Copeland is at least as much European-American, of course. Some day...

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MJ

NY 57 minutes ago
In 75 years there has NEVER been an African-American principal at ABT. That's why her race matters. She has inspired a generation of young women of color who didn't have someone similar to look up to. Also Ms. Copeland has stated numerous times that she identifies as an African-American woman.

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Jim

NY, NY 6 minutes ago
Based on the following quote, it seems the focus is on her race because she has focused the public in that direction: “My fears are that it could be another two decades before another black woman is in the position that I hold with an elite ballet company,” she wrote in her memoir, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina,” published last year. “That if I don’t rise to principal, people will feel I have failed them.”

In light of such statements, one has to wonder how free ABT felt as to whether or not to appoint her as principal dancer.

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pshawhan1

Delmar, NY 1 hour ago
Brava to Ms. Copeland! May she have a long and rewarding career. This is clearly a well-justified promotion, a good decision by and for the American Ballet Theater, and a good thing for ballet and the arts.

Ballet and classical music have, for too long, lagged behind the rest of the arts world in recognizing and accepting the abilities of individual performers without regard to race. Barriers have largely fallen in modern dance, jazz, popular music, theater, movies and television. Ballet and classical music may have  originated in a European context, but America today is not Europe in the 18th or 19th century. Spurious claims of artistic values can never justify racial bigotry, and it's long past time for such barriers to fall.

For those who claim that discrimination is in the past, it is worth pointing out that there are many African American artists alive today who, despite graduating from top-ranked conservatories and demonstrating the ability to perform at world-class levels, were denied the opportunity to pursue careers in ballet or classical music, ended up having to build careers in other arts from scratch, and despite their success and in some cases worldwide fame in those careers, still live with sorrow and bitterness over how they were denied the opportunity to pursue their original choices. It would be wrong to reopen old wounds by naming artists who lived through this, but examples come far too readily to mind. Let us hope such things are ending.

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SD

Rochester 6 minutes ago
I agree, although it's worth noting that most major orchestras now audition performers behind screens to try and remove hiring bias. Things are at least moving in the right direction there (slowly).

It's puzzling to me that there are so few prominent African-Americans in opera right now, though. It seems like things are actually moving backwards, compared to the '80s when I was growing up (when singers like Grace Bumbry, Kathleen Battle, Denyce Graves, et al., were household names). I find it impossible to believe that the talent isn't out there.

One of the big problems in classical music now is that many young people just don't have any exposure to it, or they don't have the opportunity to take instrument or voice lessons (due to arts and music cutbacks in public schools, etc.) I'm sure there are plenty of kids out there who could be talented performers, but sadly don't get the chance to start. And having a dearth of role models who look like them doesn't help, either.

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Richard Marcley

Albany NY 1 hour ago
Hopefully, in the not too distant future, stories like these will focus on artistic ability, not race!
Congratulations, Ms. Copeland and may you have a long and brilliant career!

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peterdc

washington dc 1 hour ago
A well deserved promotion fitting for a brilliant dancer

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Alex

Manhattan 1 hour ago
There is no suggestion that there has ever been a "barrier" to black women in the ballet. A barrier exists when there is persistent evidence of qualified dancers being declined where the common element is their race (or religion -- where are the articles about the lack of Jewish and Asian dancers?).

Ballet is hardly an inner city sport or even sparsely pursued in black communities, so she didn't cross a barrier, she simply evolved into an exceptional dancer and was readily accepted. The latter should have been the headline, not the knee jerk assumption of discrimination.

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Michael Feldman

St. johnsbury Vt 1 hour ago
The original NYT headline with the use of the word "promotion" evoked a chuckle since the gifted young woman was the subject of a much admired commercial this spring, which certainly did not negatively effect her most recent "promotion."

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Jwrtr 68

New York City 1 hour ago
This was long overdue since Misty has always been a standout dancer from her inception into ABT. Her exceptional qualities as an artist, a sublime physical vessel of expression and musical drama, coupled with a marvelous facility always placed her above the fray even in a company as prestigious as Ballet Theater. That in itself was worthy of a couple of books but the right thing has finally been done by Director Kevin McKenzie so kudos to him in welcoming a new era in American ballet. This is monumental in the dance world and it is a further evolution in the industry that seemed so stifled by tradition but just looking at ballet, it could not be avoided! It's like comparing premier dancers of the 50s and 60s with today's exceptional artists and you'll clearly see the evolution of the prowess of dancers over time in not only what they can do but HOW they can do it. Congratulations miss Copeland, the world is smiling with you baby!!

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S B Lewis

Lewis Family Farm, Essex, New York 1 hour ago
May she enliven the field. Fresh air.

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Rachel

NYC 1 hour ago
seems very much based on merit - a wonderful story

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Hope

Saratoga Springs 1 hour ago
In the day we live in, the vitality, publicity and interest Misty Copeland brings to sometimes stodgy ballet is worth its weight in gold; and certainly worth Ms. Copeland's promotion. I am happy about this news, and it's been spreading in unlikely circles all over social media. Ballet needed a shot in the arm and to appeal to a new generation, and with Copeland's promotion, it is well on its way to doing so.

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LeRoy Martin

Los Angeles. 1 hour ago
Wonderful Madame Misty Copeland...
Well Deserved .....Bravo !!!!

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jd

New Jersey 1 hour ago
Congrats! What a triumph. Misty Copeland is a true inspiration.

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Isisara Bey

New York City 2 hours ago
I'm so pleased for Misty, and for the world of European classical dance. However, am I noting the all-too-familiar refrain of "she's not as good as..." sounded when African-ancestored people achieve a new level of prominence?
If its just a matter of her growing toward making some classical roles her own, then we are in for a treat watching this dynamic and talented young woman reach new heights in her powers.

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Allan

Austin 1 hour ago
A beautiful dancer and a beautiful young woman. What great news!

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NYT Pick

WhatThe

Pacific Island Hawaii 2 hours ago
she's looks to be mixed , like most of us….our DNA speaks volumes and color is only a color … she is not black in my eyes… how sad to be considered a color instead of a fantastic female dancer who excelled in her life … good for her and sad for americans who are stuck on color

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Lianna

Potomac, MD 1 hour ago
Misty is a great ambassador for ballet! Countless girls have been turned away from ballet because they're not thin enough. Misty is strong, muscular, and healthy as she inches closer to perfection with every performance. Her story proves that your background, your height, or your weight are characteristics that pale in comparison to your passion and dedication to the craft. Misty is a great model for all young women and this promotion is much deserved!

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Julie

Houston 2 hours ago
BRAVO!!!!

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Minnue

New York 2 hours ago
Another joyful and wondrous milestone for her spectacular Life in Motion...congratulations, Ms. Copeland!

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Georgette Mayo

Charleston, SC 2 hours ago
Brava, Ms. Copeland, Brava! So proud of you and your accomplishments.

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GHHBCAST

CT 2 hours ago
It is wonderful to read this good news! An uplifting moment for all Americans. This young woman is a role model for young and old, black and white. A standing ovation for America! I have never been to the American Ballet Theater but I am proud of Misty Copeland and of those responsible for this recognition. Bravo!