Ice Skating and Art Galleries, an Evening in Red Hook

If you follow me on Instagram (if not, check me out!), or know me in real life, you know I have a teenage daughter that skates in Figure Skating In Harlem (FSH). She’s been a member of the non-profit after-school program for eight years. It’s been a blessing in many ways, cultivating young, poised confident girls of color. Over the past season my daughter decided to join “Harlem Ice,” FSH’s competitive synchronized skating teams. It meant a lot more commitment, but turned out to be an exciting season of sisterhood with these teams.

To our surprise, last January, Flo Ngala, an alumni of Figure Skating in Harlem, and a very accomplished celebrity photographer, did a New York Times front page spread, accompanying an article on the after-school program. Her stunning black and white photos focused on the 3 synchronized skating teams of the 2018-2019 skating season during rehearsals and competitions. Flo’s story is exceptional. Here’s a young woman who worked her way through FSH’s program, cultivated her gifts to become an accomplished photographer of stars like Cardi B., works with well known brands like Nike, and landed her work in a front page New York Times article. She’s is inspiring to say the very least.

Last week, we had the absolute pleasure of riding out to Compere’ Collective in Red Hook Brooklyn, to attend the opening night of, “Harlem Ice: The Selects Folder“. It’s an exhibit of a beautifully curated body of work featuring some of the behind the scenes shots and featured pictures of The NY Times article. It was awesome to see my own daughter and her teammates featured in the collection. It was actually a pinch-me, moment. We hardly see any black and brown girls at skating competitions, or even associated with the sport of figure skating. Here’s confirmation that you can do whatever you set your mind to no matter what obstacles you face. In fact you can do it and, you can excel at it. A whole lot of Black girl magic and girl power to go around!

The exhibit is running to the last weekend in October, however there are plans to bring it to Harlem and other areas. For more information, visit flongala.com/harlem-ice. While you’re at it, check out the original New York Times article “When I Skate It Just Feels Free”, and a recent awesome Essence magazine spotlight “Meet the Artist Capturing The Beauty of Young Black Ice Skaters.” Support the artist Florence Ngala and support Figure Skating In Harlem. Programs like this are a huge part of the villages that are sculpting our future superstars.