ON THE SCENE n EVENTS
Ladies of Destiny
By Carmel Lafayette
G
rowing up as a young
Caribbean American living
in Brooklyn New York, my
exposure to extra curricular
activities was limited. It was during my
youth, though, that I experienced
some young women who forever
changed the course of my life. Girls
from a neighboring high school would
teach us steps that they learned while
performing shows. I fell in love with the
art of stepping and vowed to always
have it incorporated into my life.
Everything changed when I met Dr.
Shanta Barton-Stubbs and the young
ladies of the New Image Youth Center
(NIYC). My company, Ipose Media, was
hired in 2015 to cover videography at
an event for a charity called the Princess
Ball which is an annual daddy daughter
dance. When we arrived, I noticed a group
of beautiful African American Girls, about
10 of them sitting at a table. For 10 years
they’d been selected to receive free tick-
ets to the ball. It was easy to spot them
as they were the only girls of color in the
room. I was immediately drawn to them
and was curious to know who they were.
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IBA Success Magazine
n
VOL 4, Issue 2
At the end of the ball every year, the DJ
plays a sweet daddy daughter song and
all of the little girls in attendance danced
with their fathers. The NIYC girls stood on
the edge of the dance floor as they did
not have enough chaperones for every
individual girl and watched the others