On Sunday, August 20, 2017, professional ballerina, dancer and Rahway’s Own Daphne Lee won the title of Miss Black USA. She represented her home state of New Jersey as Miss Black New Jersey USA. The pageant, a week-long event started on the 16th of August and running through finals night on Sunday August 20th, was live streamed as contestants vied for the title and a substantial cash prize in the form of a scholarship. Lee won scholarships that would assist in meeting costs for her graduate school of Hollins University and other pageant prizes. Lee is the first winner from the state of New Jersey to be crowned Miss Black USA in its 30-year history. Criteria for the pageant included onstage question and answer, fitness, talent, and evening wear. Lee even received the Trailblazer award for promoting diversity through the arts.
Biography of Daphne Lee (Miss Black USA 2017)
Daphne Lee (Rahway, NJ) began her dance training at the Rahway Dance Theatre under the direction of Ms. Jay Skeete-Lee. She graduated with honors from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in dance and is a recipient of the Denise Jefferson Scholarship award. She is currently receiving her MFA in Dance at Hollins University. Ms. Lee received scholarships to Jacob’s Pillow, Boston Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem and is a regional gold medal recipient in dance for the NAACP ACT-SO competition. Ms. Lee was also featured in the opening video for the Mrs. Carter World Tour for Beyonce and was featured in a short film, “Life of An Actress” directed by Paul Chau. Daphne performed works by Robert Battle, Benoit Swan- Pouffer and Amy Seiwart among others and was an assistant choreographer to the Milwaukee production of the musical The Color Purple. She even judged the NAACP ACT-SO competition. She was a former member of Ailey II, Zest Collective, and the Oakland Ballet Company, and a back-up dancer for UK artist Sydney Jo Jackson. This is her third season with Memphis based company Collage Dance Collective and she is the current reigning Miss Black USA. During her reign, Lee has assisted in raising over $5,000 in scholarship money to help young women of color study dance through the Brown Girls Do Ballet organization. Her platform, Multiple Myeloma, gave Lee the opportunity to attend the Laughs for Life Event in New York City, which raised over $150,000 for medical research. (www.daphnemlee.com) She will now take on the Heart Truth campaign promoting a healthy lifestyle to stop heart disease, and is a Goodwill Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone.
About Miss Black USA
The Miss Black USA Organization empowers women to own their power and celebrates their unique talents, traits and beauty. Miss Black USA defines her own standard of beauty and celebrates the whole woman, mind, body and spirit, all shades of brown, hair texture and size. Miss Black USA is a non-profit corporation headquartered in the state of Maryland. (www.missblackusa.org)
