Crown Anyone?
TPB | Monday, July 27, 2009 at 11:42PM It was summer on 1976. My mother set off with her girls to yet another public cultural event in New York City. There, a woman by the name of Joyce Owens stood by a small table signing up yo
1st Harlem Mini Miss Pageantung girls, ages 10 – 13, for the 1st Harlem Mini Miss Pageant to be sponsored by the Performing Arts Department at the Harlem YMCA.
I was never one for intentionally putting myself on “display” and still today, I don’t have a competitive bone in my body, yet, somehow I ended up registered for this pageant, based on talent, no less. Me, in a talent contest?!
During the weeks of preparation for the pageant, Ms Owens helped us choose songs, poems, etc. for our decided talent. She had a dancer teach us a dance routine and prepped us for poise and speaking with the emcee in front of the audience. Ms. Owens selected a monologue from the Two-Act play “In White America” by historian and playwright Martin Duberman for me to recite.
At age 11, I was crowned Harlem Mini Miss. And guess what. I’m still the reigning Harlem Mini Miss as there has not been another pageant at the YMCA (in 33 years)! You can stop laughing now.
I won wonderful prizes though: a scholarship to Ophelia DeVore School of Charm, US Savings Bond, jewelry, fabric, albums, and loads of other stuff from local Harlem merchants. We met Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee who were the guest performers and honorees of the event, and I was an invited guest at the Sesame Beauty Pageant (shmancy) and best of all I got to sit atop a convertible Cadillac and wave to the crowd at the African-American Day Parade, September 12, 1976!
The moral of the story is --contrary to the criticisms of pageants and the issues I discussed in Banking on Beauty, it DID help my self-esteem, it taught me that I actually had talent and it was very fun at 11 years old. But now that I think about it, I don’t know how the young ladies who didn’t win felt after that experience. Hmmm.
Still feel like I should give this crown away to another young lady… then again, maybe I have already :).
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