About This Item

  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0244-accs
  • Summary(0:23) Raised in Bed-stuy, started dancing at three years old -- (1:35) Childhood activities, growing up on Green Avenue -- (2:09) Going to dance classes -- (2:55) Realizing she had talent -- (3:35) Being able to see different parts of New York through dance -- (4:05) The African Street Festival Talent contest -- (4:58) Being compared to Judith Jamison -- (5:49) Going to University in North Carolina, the importance to travel -- (7:19) Taping money around her body to prevent it from being stolen -- (8:23) The importance of education -- (9:23) Wanting to show that people from Brooklyn can succeed -- (11:16) Going to Albany American Dance Theatre -- (12:13) Nelson Mandela visiting Brooklyn, going to South Africa -- (13:36) Traveling around the world -- (14:48) Feeling grateful, wanting to give back to the community -- (17:23) Why and how she opened the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center -- (21:49) Having served over 10 000 children -- (23:09) The importance of being humble -- (24:16) The importance of embracing the community.
  • Date2019-01-09
  • Physical Description1 sound file (28 min.) : digital, MP3
  • CreatorSmallwood, Dwana
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on January 9, 2019, by Taina Evans at the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
  • SubjectSmallwood, Dwana ; Dancers--New York (State) ; Pratt Institute ; Girl Scouts ; Payne, Amaniyea ; Emmanuel Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.) ; Broadway Theatre (New York, N.Y. : 485 Broadway) ; Ballet ; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ; Dance Theatre of Harlem ; Apollo Theatre (New York, N.Y.) ; Jamison, Judith ; University of North Carolina School of the Arts ; Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013 ; Obesity ; Mental Health ; Unemployment ; Homelessness ; Gangs ; Crime ; Art ; Libraries ; Winfrey, Oprah ; Block parties ; Youth development
  • PlaceBedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Dwana Smallwood on 2019 January 9.