Founder

A visionary and leader, Sonja’s artistry celebrates innovation, shares insight, and offers glorious opportunities to transform obstacles of adversity into empowering glimmers of optimism. Individualism and distinction mark Sonja’s portfolio.

No stranger to stage performance, Sonja has studied and performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Nashville Ballet.  Her latest projects include acting in three short films as well as hosting a music documentary Nashville Beat, Man on the Street, all produced by Clark Wester Productions.

In 2008, Sonja was named one of Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest Singles, featured in Whirl Magazine, reigned as Miss Pennsylvania United States 2008, and placed 2nd Runner-Up in the 2008 Miss Black USA National Pageant held in Las Vegas, NV. She has competed in a number of pageant systems including Miss America, Miss USA, Miss United States, Miss International, American Queen Pageants, U.S. Beauties, and Miss Black USA.

Currently, Sonja is in pre-production for a television, reality docu-series and documentary film featuring the elite art of ballet as well as producing and developing the first of it’s kind, the Miss Black United States Program.

Still I Rise

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou

Topics