Women of Color in the arts have told their stories through dance, song, art, literature and film. They broke barriers to prove their talents are valid. The arts are a celebration of life through a thousand mediums. It makes people question and create more artwork. These are a few women of color who are in the arts that are inspirational to me.
Misty CopelandImage: Elle Magazine
At the age of thirteen, she had first discovered ballet while living in a motel room with her five siblings. Copeland learned pointe after the first three months of ballet. Then began to perform professionally after a year. In 2015, she became the first African-American principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre.
This amazing Filipino songbird was one of the first Asian women to play both Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables. She is widely known for the singing voices of Disney’s Mulan and Princess Jasmine from Aladdin.
Mingjue Helen ChenImage: Instagram
Chen is an artist behind the scenes of hit Disney flicks such as Big Hero 6. She is an art director for different animation projects. Her digital paintings feature women of different fashions. Chen is also a cover artist for a Marvel comic called Silk that’s about an Asian-American woman who has powers similar to Spider-Man. Her instagram is here to check out more of her work.
Amandla StenbergImage: Teen Vogue
This talented woman is only 18 years old and has accomplished too many things. She’s in Beyonce’s Visual-Album Lemonade and her breakout role was in The Hunger Games as Rue. Her future’s very bright! Stenberg has many projects coming up. Such as starring in a movie adaptation for a best selling book inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement called The Hate U Give.
Marjane SatrapiImage: Satrapi’s Herstory
Satrapi drew a comic book about her childhood during the Iranian revolution. Soon, Persepolis became a women’s literary classic. Emma Watson has recently placed this book somewhere in the UK for someone to find. It is an amazing book about womanhood. Satrapi has also directed a movie called The Voices.
Image: Instagram