Brown Girls Do Ballet

“Photographs of brown girls of all ages, shapes, skin tones, and abilities are the star of this empowering ode to the grace and beauty of dancing brown bodies…. text and image(s) send the fierce message not just that ballet is for everyone, but that brown girls, too, have the right to move, to take up space, and to be seen. An ideal nonfiction companion text to Vashti Harrison’s Caldecott-winning Big, this is a joyful, hopeful celebration.”–School Library Journal, starred review

TaKiyah Wallace-McMillian is a photographer and the founder and executive director of Brown Girls Do Ballet, a philanthropic organization that works to increase the participation of underrepresented populations in ballet programs through organizing and arranging ballet performances, photo exhibitions, and providing resources and scholarships to assist young girls in their ballet development and training. TaKiyah’s photographs have been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPo, Pointe Magazine, Madame Noir and more. She is a former Gifted-Education teacher and television host, and she is the Owner/Photographer of Some Sweet Photography. She is the author of The Color of Dance and lives in Dallas, Texas with her family.

JaNay Brown-Wood, PhD is an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, scholar, and a former professor of Early Childhood Education and Child Development. Her first children’s book Imani’s Moon won the NAESP Children’s Book of the Year Award and her second book Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story! won the CELI Read Aloud Book Award. She also has several poems published in Highlights for Kids, Highlights High Five, and various poetry anthologies, and she has published over twenty books including the popular picture book series Where in the Garden, the New York Times Bestselling book Why Not You? (Penguin/Random House) which she collaborated with Ciara and Russell Wilson, and her chapter book series Love Puppies. JaNay lives in California with her husband Catrayel, her daughter Vivian, and their turtle, Theodora.

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