Brooklyn teen close to becoming first female African-American Chess Master
ABOVE PHOTO: Rochelle Ballantyne plays Eli Bush as Patrick, another star of the film, looks on at the SoHo House.
(via Brooklyn Castle)
Weissman Report
NEW YORK — Rochelle Ballentyne, 17, is just a few wins away from becoming the first female African-American chess master. The Brooklyn native is featured in the documentary Brooklyn Castle, which chronicles the lives of teen chess players in Brooklyn, NY.
Ballentyne, who was raised in a single-parent home in East Flatbush, was introduced to chess by her grandmother. In an interview with Teen Vogue magazine, Ballentyne recalled her grandmother's influence: "My grandmother.
When I first started playing, she introduced to me the idea of being the first African-American female chess master. I didn't think about it much because for me it seemed like an impossible feat, and I didn't think it could happen. I wasn't as focused and dedicated as I am now.
I didn't think I was a good chess player—people told me I was, but it wasn't my mentality at that moment. But then after she died, that really affected me, because she was the one person that always had confidence in me. She never pushed me, and she always respected me for who I was. I have to reach that goal for her."
The precocious teen says she has applied to college: "I really want to go to the University of Pennsylvania or Stanford. I applied through QuestBridge, which is a scholarship program that has a partnership with those schools."
Ballentyne will be participating in the 2012 World Youth Chess Championships to be held in Maribor, Slovenia from November 7 – 19, according to The United States Chess Federation.
+ Top Story
If there is one thing that defines the Morehouse man more than any other, it is that we dare to be eagles. When one reflects upon the behavior and ability of the more than 10,000 species of birds, one has to conclude that there is none like the eagle.
The graduation season is here and it’s off to a brand new life and career for students all over the country. Some will be nostalgic remembering their first day of their college journey and being away from their parents for the first time…well, some were left by their parents.
Urban Roundup Entertainment presents the Faith Against Cancer Gospel Concert, June 8 in Philadelphia
Urban Roundup Entertainment presents the first ever Faith Against Cancer Gospel Concert. This inspirational event is more than just an ordinary concert, as it will be an uplifting night of encouragement, entertainment and Faith for those affected directly and indirectly by this devastating disease.
At the same time that Black Romans controlled the world religiously with Victor and Tetullian, the Black Romans gained control of the world politically and militarily in 193 AD, when the Black Roman Israelite Septimius Severus became the Roman Emperor. He remembered his roots...
Last week, Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building materials company, in partnership with YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, kicked off the sustainable renovation of two eyesore properties located at 2006 and 2007 Wingohocking Street in Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood.
“When it comes to death and funerals, African-American people, we have our own way,” Isaiah Owens says in the new documentary “Homegoings.” “It has worked for us throughout the ages; it has kept us balanced, sane. And everybody know[s] that it’s going to be a sad, good time.”
A child of a Holocaust survivor and a US Army officer, Aviva Kempner was born in Berlin after World War II. She was inspired by her heritage to produce and co-write “Partisans of Vilna,” a documentary on Jewish resistance against the Nazis.
The 1960s and early ‘70s, Contemporary Christian Music drew largely from Top 40 pop music, a genre fixated on the awakenings--especially the romantic awakenings--of adolescence. “I think we’re alone now,” “we’ll be together forever,” “I miss you so much” are nearly universal tropes, regardless of decade.