Professional dancer and Rahway’s Own Daphne Lee will be competing nationally for the title of Miss Black USA. She will be representing her home state of New Jersey as Miss Black New Jersey USA. The pageant, a week-long event starting on the 16th of August and running through finals night on Sunday, August 20th, will be live streamed as 50 contestants vie for the title and a substantial cash prize in the form of a scholarship. Winning would assist in meeting costs including scholarships to her graduate school of Hollins University and pageant expenses. Donate to Daphne via www.gofundme.com/leedaphne to help with her expenses to nationals in a few weeks or Vote for her People’s Choice Award at www.missblackusa.org/finalist16
Biography of Daphne Lee (New Jersey) Collage Dance Collective (Memphis, TN) 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 New Jersey 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)
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)
MISSION STATEMENT: To provide a national stage for its participants to showcase their unique talents and beauty and win scholarship opportunities.
For press tickets and further inquiries please contact Daphne Lee at 732.977.5534 or email at missblacknewjersey17@gmail.com.
(above) Rahway’s Own Daphne Lee is the reigning Miss Black New Jersey USA.
Photo by Ziggy Mack.
