Richardine Bartee
Aside from making history again by being noted as the highest paid entertainer of African-American descent, being mother to Blue Ivy and wife to Rapper JAY Z, and just being Beyoncé, the 32-year-old businesswoman, is involved in many side projects near and dear to her heart; The Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at the Phoenix House in Brooklyn, New York is one of them.
As MTV.com reported three years ago, the mother-daughter team (Beyoncé and Tina Knowles) opened a “seven-month cosmetology training course for adult men and women” at the Phoenix House in Brooklyn, New York located in Brooklyn’s historic DUMBO neighbourhood (50 Jay Street). After finishing her work on the movie “Cadillac Records”, in which she portrayed the late great matriarch of R&B Etta James, who was once addicted to heroin, Beyoncé donated her entire salary to Phoenix House. What an absolutely brilliant woman with a brilliant soul.
If you’re not familiar with Phoenix House, here’s a brief history:
The Phoenix House, formed in 1967, is a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization operating in ten states with 150 programs, and each program serves individuals, families, and communities affected by substance abuse and dependency. It was started by six heroin addicts who met at a detoxification program in a New York hospital who wanted to stay clean.
In hopes of doing so, they all moved into a brownstone on Manhattan’s West Side and lived together as a sober community. In addition, Phoenix House played a major role in creating our country’s first correctional treatment unit, a model now widely replicated in prisons throughout the world. Phoenix House was also an early provider of treatment as an alternative to prison.
Getting back to Beyoncé and her contributions to the vocational school, L’Oreal holds exclusivity as the only brand to donate all the products to be used at the center, “and their spokeswoman Beyoncé, along with her mother have pledged to donate $100,000 annually,” MTV reports.
“I saw that a salon was a place for women to socialize, share stories, cry, laugh and get advice, she continued about her experiences growing up around a beauty parlour. She was close to tears as she added, “Most importantly, I saw the joy it brought my mother, knowing she was a part of their transformation.”
For more information about the cosmetology training and other courses, please visit the Phoenix House website.
Now, watch this video that features the students at the Phoenix House:
*Special thanks to Karen at the Phoenix House.
