Post-Beychella, Beyoncé Is Empowering Young Female Figure Skaters in Harlem With Ivy Park

Brooke Bobb
Updated

Ivy Park Figure Skating

<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Park

After becoming the first black woman to headline (and subsequently shut down) Coachella over the weekend, Beyoncé decided to give back some love. Yesterday, she announced that she would be donating $100,000 in scholarship funds to four historically black colleges and universities, including Xavier University, Wilberforce University, Tuskegee University, and Bethune-Cookman University. Continuing her inspiring streak of philanthropy this week, Bey has gone one step further and will release a special video today on her sportswear label Ivy Park’s social media platforms. She hopes to bring visibility to and empower an organization called Figure Skating in Harlem, a local project founded by Sharon Cohen in 1997 to give young girls in the community a safe place to practice their sport. Through the discipline required of skating competitions, as well as off-the-ice tutoring and counseling opportunities, Cohen hoped the girls would pick up the tools needed in order to do well in school and pursue a college education. In fact, 100 percent of the graduating seniors involved with Figure Skating in Harlem have gone on to colleges like Georgetown, Howard, and Barnard.

“We believe that, given access to artistic sports like figure skating, girls will soar in all areas of their lives and be better equipped to accomplish their dreams,” Cohen says. As founder and CEO, she is thrilled for her girls to partner with Ivy Park and, of course, Queen Bey, too. As she explains, “Beyoncé is a fierce, authentically powerful woman of color. She inspires young women and girls globally who look just like her to do the exact same—to be fearless, free, and proud of themselves.” When Cohen told the team members that they would be modeling clothes from Ivy Park’s Spring 2018 collection, the girls were unsurprisingly “in shock and over-the-top excited,” she says. “They idolize her, and she sees them.”

Here is a first look at the Harlem figure skaters hitting the ice and wearing Ivy Park with pride.