As the founder of Celebrate Your History, social scientist Bianka Emerson has worked diligently — and quietly — to organize a yearly award ceremony and soul-food dinner that recognize Denver’s forgotten heroes.
The spotlight was turned, though, when the Denver section of the National Council of Negro Women included Emerson as one of the seven Living Portraits of African American Women for 2011.
The others were Denver Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley; historian Jacqueline Benton; community engagement specialist Leslie Juniel; social justice advocate Gladys Brown Jones; educator Wanda Beauman; and Smoky Hill High School sophomore Salina Trahan.
Their accomplishments were celebrated at a reception chaired by Joyce Cheatham and Annie Howard at Denver’s Central Library. Dr. Alice Langley was mistress of ceremonies, and moderator Dani Newsum helped each honoree describe the challenges, triumphs and unique experiences that led them to the prominence they enjoy today.
Jones, for example, draws on strength gained from surviving domestic violence, physical disabilities and single parenthood to counsel students at the Phoenix Center on the Auraria campus. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver last fall and traveled to England to complete a fellowship in an international leadership training program for generational students. Her future plans include entering law school at the University of Denver.
Benton specializes in the cultures of Africa, in particular, the Geechee culture from the Gullah Sea Islands that line the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to northern Florida. She developed a course at Metropolitan State College of Denver that has made five trips to the area, enabling students and others to experience the culture of the Gullah/Geechee people, a distinctive group of African-Americans who have maintained their cultural link to Africa.
Trahan, who at 16 is the youngest inductee, maintains a 3.0 cumulative grade point average at Smoky Hill, where she is a member of the tennis team, art club and math cafe club. She creates and sells greeting cards and bookmarks through a company that she founded, Sassy to Classy Designs and has been invited by the Stars Friends First organization to take part in a Washington, D.C., youth conference sponsored by the National Abstinence Education Association.
I have more information about each honoree in my Seen First blog: .
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
