The Swans of Harlem at Live Talks Los Angeles

Signed book available for purchase in the comments.
The Swans of Harlem: Lydia Abarca Mitchell, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Lynn Sells, Karlya Shelton-Benjamin & Karen Valby in conversation with Bonnie Boswell at Live Talks Los Angeles discussing Karen Valby’s book, "The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History." The event was on May 15, 2024.
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history-until now.
“This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!” -Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now.
Lydia Abarca Mitchell is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she danced lead roles in Agon, Bugaku, Swan Lake and many more. She has been featured on the covers of Dance and Essence and in print ads for Avon and Revlon. She performed in the movie The Wiz, and in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ on Broadway. She has been the rehearsal director at Atlanta’s Ballethnic for over 20 years.
Sheila Rohan is a founding member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she was a soloist in Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla, Arthur Mitchell’s Rhythmetron, and more. She was soloist and ballet mistress for the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre and toured China and Korea with the Myung Sook Chun Dance Company. She performed the role of Rosa Parks in Gordon Parks’s televised ballet Martin and, as a choreographer, assisted legends such as Louis Johnson, and Walter Rutledge among others.
Marcia Lynn Sells began her life in the arts as a ballerina at Dance Theatre of Harlem and, before that, in the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2021, she became the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Metropolitan Opera. Previously, she held positions in the private and public sectors including Reuters America, the National Basketball Association, Columbia University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
Karlya Shelton-Benjamin began dancing at age 4 with the Colorado Concert Ballet (currently Colorado Ballet). At 17, she became the first person of color to represent the United States in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland. She performed around the world with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is a founding member of Peridance, has taught and coached at Oakland Ballet and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance.
Karen Valby is a writer living in Austin, Texas. She’s the author of the books The Swans of Harlem and Welcome to Utopia. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, where she is a frequent contributor, as well as in The New York Times, O Magazine, Glamour, Fast Company, and EW, where she spent fifteen years writing about culture.
Bonnie Boswell is an award-winning producer/reporter, talk show host, broadcast commentator, writer, speaker, and moderator. Bonnie is currently the executive producer/reporter of Bonnie Boswell Reports, a feature news series leading into PBS NewsHour on PBS SoCal, and Bonnie Boswell Presents, a documentary series producing programs such as A Conversation with Pastor James Lawson and Attorney Bryan Stevenson and Saving Moms broadcasting on PBS stations nationwide and streaming on PBS.org.

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The book, The Swans of Harlem, with signed book plate can be purchased in the link below:
livetalksla.square.site/product/swans/688