Leslie Carter's

African Queens
Leslie Carter hails from Brooklyn, New York. Leslies family moved to the
Bay Area 43 years ago; she fell in love with the area and made it her home.
As the second of four siblings, at a very early age Leslie demonstrated an
interest in dance and working with young people. After graduating from the
San Francisco public school system, she attended San Francisco State
University.
While at San Francisco State University, she discovered dance to be her
life and concentrated on AFRICAN dance classes and classes focusing
on: posture, figure control, yoga, and human biology and movement and
art for children. Later, in Oakland, California she attended Merritt College
and studied African-American dance and modern dance.

In 1988, after teaching dance in Oakland for 9 years, Leslie founded
the African Queens dance troupe. The mission of African Queens is to
empower girls to become productive and responsible members of their
communities. The African Queens program employs Pan African dance
training as the primary tool for helping to build self-esteem, cultural
awareness, social responsibility, and leadership skills among girls
7 to 18 years old. The dance troupe is designed to provide a positive
vehicle for the expression of their creative talents. Beyond the discipline
it engenders greater self-esteem, self-confidence, appreciation, and
respect for themselves and other members in the company; and it
strengthens their ability to work individually and collectively.
Leslie believes dance to be the positive alternative around which these
young ladies can organize their energy to counter the lure of the street.
She dances every day; she says dance is her religion.

As the Director of the African Queens, Leslies goal is for each of the African Queens to graduate from high
school and college. To date, all the young women who have remained with the troupe through high school
have gone to college or to other successful endeavors. The dance troupe was nominated for the coveted Izzy
Award. In 2002 and 2007, at the invitation of the Organizing Committee for the Beijing International Cultural
Tourism Festival and the Organizing Committee of the Wuhan International Tourism Festival Committee, the
African Queens traveled to China to perform.

The African Queens is a non-profit organization registered with the California Secretary of States office. If
you would like to make a donation, checks should be sent to: African Queens, c/o Leslie Carter, 360 Grand
Ave, Oakland, CA 94610, or electronic payments can be made at: Pay Pal tax account # 01-060715.

Testimony of Kayra Hopkins, former African Queen and Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at
Michigan State University: Ms. Carters vision for African Queens dancers has always been more than just dancing.
Interwoven in the dance steps and West African rhythms are lessons of confidence, respect (for yourself and for
others), discipline and pride. Ms. Carter often says, Once a Queen, always a Queen, reflecting that the values and
lessons you learn while dancing with African Queens are life skills that you take with you everywhere you go; life skills
that will help you achieve your goals and be successful in all that you do. Ms. Carters philosophies, demonstrated
through dance, has positively impacted the lives of many young women, including mine.