MELBA TOLLIVER

Melba Tolliver is a distinguished journalist, writer and journalism teacher. In April, 1967, when on-air personnel at the three broadcast networks went on strike, ABC News executives tapped Tolliver to substitute for Marlene Sanders, anchor of “News With The Woman’s Touch.” Thus, Tolliver became the first Black person ever to anchor a network news program.

For nearly three decades, Tolliver reported and/or anchored news at WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel, in addition to writing for USA Today, Good Housekeeping, Black Sports and other magazines and newspapers. Her assignments have included special reporter for  the groundbreaking Women’s Conference in Houston, the first breast cancer conference at the White House and the Academy Awards the year Princess Shasheen Little Feather, a native American,  stepped up to accept the Oscar for Marlon Brando.

She was also host and reporter for  the ABC Network series, “Americans All,” the WABC Eyewitness News series “Profiles,” “People, Places and Things” and “Consciousness Rising,” and  writer/producer of “Gordon Parks: Man For All Seasons” for the WABC public affairs program, “Like It Is.” At WNBC, Tolliver created and hosted the public affairs program “Meet The People.”

Tolliver’s contribution to broadcasting includes a morning show, news and entertainment specials, feature and public affairs programs, sports, political conventions, elections, town hall meetings, celebrity and interesting people profiles and documentaries. Her academic work includes writer-in residence at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; adjunct instructor in journalism at the College of Old Westbury, Long Island, NY; and Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tolliver holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Empire State College of the State University of New York and a nursing diploma from New York University-Bellevue, NYC.

An honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Molloy College, Long Island, NY; a political reporting award from Lincoln University; a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists, the John B. Russwurm Award from the New York City Urban League, the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, and a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship to the University of Michigan are among her many honors.

Tolliver has served on the boards of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in New York, the Empire State College Foundation, and the Institute for Student Achievement advisory board. A longtime resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Tolliver moved to Lower Mt. Bethel Township, PA in 1994 and is currently at work on her memoir, “Accidental Anchorwoman: Chance, Choice and Change.”

For more info on Melba Tolliver visit her site: http://www.melbatolliver.com

ANU PRESTONIA

Anu Prestonia is an acclaimed beauty industry innovator specializing in Black hair care and credited with helping to popularize African-inspired styling in the United States and abroad. She has trained and mentored hundreds of young women from the time she began earning her living as a braider in 1977 and she has taught African-derived hair styling at the university level. Her inspired and meticulous work earned Anu an invaluable reputation and in 1989 she opened the famous Khamit Kinks natural hair-care salon in a Brooklyn brownstone. It quickly became one of the most popular and most referenced Black beauty destinations on the East coast and, in 1996, relocated to Manhattan’s TriBeCa area.

A dedicated licensed cosmetologist, Anu was among those who took a stand for the developing of professional standards for the braiding craft.

She perfected several braiding techniques and created the names of several styles now worn proudly around the world, including “Casamas Braids,” “Senegalese Twists,” “Cherokee” and “Trini Braids.” She also named and popularized the Goddess Braids, which became known as Queen Latifah’s signature style. She’s worked, over the years, with Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett, Q-Tip and Terry McMillan, among many others, and has helped women and men from all walks of life to look and feel their unique best.

Khamit Kinks has been featured numerous times on the cover and in the pages of Essence magazine and listed in Essence Magazine’s August 2008 as one of the top 10 Natural Hair Care  Salon’s in the country. The June 1992 issue, showcasing Anu’s groundbreaking styling, prompted the highest number of information requests ever received by the publication’s Fashion and Beauty department. Anu’s work was also the subject of a New York Times front-page article and Khamit Kinks has been reported on in many national and industry publications. The salon was featured on “The View,” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and on ABC, NY1, CNN, FOX 5 and TV Japan.

Anu has enjoyed working as a stylist for print media and for feature-length films, including Spike Lee’s “Crooklyn.” She’s also served as contributor or consultant to several book projects, including Mikki Taylor's Self-Seduction: Your Ultimate Path to Inner and Outer Beauty, The International Hairstyle Index, celebrity makeup artist's Sam Fine's Fine Beauty: Beauty Basics and Beyond for African-American Women and Daring Dos: A History of Extraordinary Hair, and Diane Da Costa’s Textured Tresses: The Ultimate Guild to Maintaining and Styling Natural Hair.

Anu helps women in the beauty, fashion and accessories industries to gain exposure through shows at her salon. Khamit Kinks has hosted self-esteem and domestic violence awareness workshops and, as a certified Hatha Yoga Instructor, Anu has taught free community-based classes. After ten years in Manhattan, Khamit Kinks recently relocated back to Brooklyn. It proudly opened the doors to a beautiful new home at 327 Gold Street in the downtown Metrotech area and celebrated with a lively and joyous grand opening in December of 2006.

For more info on Anu Prestonia visit her salon's site: http://www.khamitkinks.com

MAITEFA ANGAZA

Maitefa Angaza (Judith Halsey) is the editor of African Voices, an acclaimed nationally distributed Black literary and visual arts quarterly magazine. She is the author of “Kwanzaa: From Holiday to Every Day,” (Dafina Books, 2007), which climbed to #1 on the amazon.com “Holiday Books” page a few months after its publication. She is the proud former executive editor of the award-winning, now defunct newspaper, The City Sun and also worked as an editor at The Daily Challenge, both New York City publications.

As an independent editor she provides a wide range of services for clients. She has worked on fiction and non-fiction book projects and both print-related and web-based content. Her writing experience includes published and contracted work in publicity, public relations, business, entertainment, health, spirituality, advertising and electoral campaigns.

Many of her profiles, features, investigative news articles and arts reviews have been published in Essence, Black Issues Book Review, The Network Journal, The Amsterdam News, Our Time Press, Dance Attitude and other magazines and newspapers. She has been interviewed on cable television and many times on radio.

Ms. Angaza sits on the board of the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, which showcases the work of women of color filmmakers from around the world through an annual weekend conference and a few small events at other the times of the year. She also serves as a member of the board of African Voices Communications.

For more info on Maitefa Angaza visit her site: http://www.maitefaangaza.com