New York City Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker’ Casts Charlotte Nebres as First Black Marie

Misty Copeland is an inspiration to the youth! According to The New York Times, the New York City Ballet has cast their very first black ballerina to play the character of Marie.

Eleven-year-old Charlotte Nebres is the first black girl to star in this year’s rendition of “The Nutcracker,” which has been ongoing since 1954. Nebres, whose mother’s family is from Trinidad and her father’s family is from the Philippines, attends the School of American Ballet.

In addition to Nebres securing a lead role in the ballet, the other young leads are Tanner Quirk (her Prince), who is half-Chinese; Sophia Thomopoulos (Marie), who is half-Korean, half-Greek; and Kai Misra-Stone (Sophia’s Prince), who is half-South Asian.

When Nebres was asked why ballet is important to her, she responded, “To me, it just feels like when I dance I feel free and I feel empowered. I feel like I can do anything when I dance. It makes me happy, and I’m going to do what makes me happy. You don’t need to think about anything else.”

NYC Ballet announced The New York Times story about the children cast on its Instagram account, “IN THE NEWS // The four children who alternate the roles of Marie and the Nutcracker Prince were recently profiled in The New York Times by Gia Kourlas. She sat down with them to discuss the rehearsal process, their lives off-stage, and their roles in the ballet.⁠”⠀

Misty Copeland became the first female African American principal at American Ballet Theater when Nebres was 6 and she remembers. “I saw her perform and she was just so inspiring and so beautiful,” she said. “When I saw someone who looked like me on stage, I thought, that’s amazing. She was representing me and all the people like me.”

School of American Ballet, which is the official school of New York City Ballet, is changing with the makeup of students attending. Over the past seven years, 62 S.A.B. students have become City Ballet apprentices; of those, 21 identify as nonwhite or mixed; and of those, 12 refer to themselves as black; four of them are women.

 George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® is one of the most complex theatrical, staged ballets in the Company’s active repertory. The popularity of the ballet is immense and it provides an unforgettable spark to everyone’s holiday season.

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According to Smartphone Data, Black Voters Wait Longer to Vote

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, black Americans waited longer at the polls compared to their non-black counterparts who waited an average of 19 minutes.

This particular study on the racial disparities in wait times is notable for its dependence on cell phone data while earlier studies relied on surveys. The researchers of this study avoid the common issue of inaccuracy by relying on data from smartphones using the location data provided by SafeGraph. This is Quartz’s description of SafeGraph’s technology, “aggregates data from various apps to which users share their location, giving the researchers granular, time-based location data for 10 million US smartphones.”

Related: Kamala Harris Ends Her Historic Bid For 2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination

The study also found that neighborhoods that had a major population of black Americans had wait times about five minutes longer than neighborhoods that are predominantly white. In addition, there is a more likely chance that these black neighborhoods would have to wait more than 30 minutes to vote.

In other words, this data ushers in a clear and accurate way of following wait times. The researchers also made sure that the people they were focused on were actually waiting to vote through dividing them from the people who were simply close to the polling station.

The reason for the disparity was also examined. Researchers of this study found that the differing waiting times were not solely explained by predominantly black neighborhoods that had lower income or black voters showing up at various times due to their work schedules. The analysis shows that the difference in wait times was greatest at polling sites with the most voters. According to Quartz, an economist, Keith Chen, who is one of the authors of the study, suggests that polls in predominantly white neighborhoods are given more resources than polls in predominantly black areas.

Related: Dems Score Big Victories in 2019 Election As Civil Rights Groups Prepare Black Voters For 2020

All in all, according to these studies, it’s clear that the disadvantages of black voters are the factors that tend to discourage them to vote. The solution lies in making polls in predominantly black neighborhoods more accessible.

 

 

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