US Student Celebrates her Ancestor

5/24/2012
Ninth grader Liza Mickens is the great, great granddaughter of Maggie L. Walker.

     Ninth grader Liza Mickens stood proudly in front of the soldout audience at the Arthur Ashe Center and told the story of her great, great grandmother.
     With poise and maturity, Mickens relayed the great accomplishments of her ancestor Maggie L. Walker. 
     Mickens presented the story at the Richmond Ballet's Minds in Motion performance earlier this month. She received the script just two weeks before the two performances and delivered it flawlessly, without a missing word.
     “I'm so proud of what (my great, great grandmother) did for her community, gender, race and family,” Mickens said. “In the production I talk about how much she encouraged her community to notice individuality in all. This lesson will remain with me always and have such a great impact on my life.”
     And while the life of Walker, our country’s first African-American woman to charter a bank, is impressive in its own right, Mickens did a lot of impressing that day as well.
     "She did an exceptional job,” said interim Head of School Sue Baldwin, who attended one of the performances. “She was as poised and articulate as any ninth grader could be.  Her performance suggested that she is poised beyond her years, a quick study and a rising star in the field of theatre, radio and TV."