Left: Taliah “Tweety” Taylor and Mickey Mouse at the Walt Disney World Resort on her first day. Below: Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom where Taliah works
Photo by Katie Rommel-Esham
LANSING, MI — Taliah Imani “Tweety” Taylor was born February 23, 1993. She is affectionately addressed by most as Tweety.
She has been a strong willed fighter from the beginning of her life. Taliah was born 3 months prematurely and weighed only 2 lbs and 6 oz at birth. She never let her small stature or her delayed maturity hold her back. On the contrary, by the 3rd grade Taliah advanced academically beyond her class and was moved one year ahead of her classmates. She continued this educational pace and graduated early in June of 2010 with a G.P.A. of 3.6 and was the Vice President of the Waverly High School Black Student Union.
Taliah has always shown talent in the areas of poetry, African dancing, singing, piano, leadership and mentoring.
Young Taliah’s writing and leadership abilities blossomed while she attended Sankofa Shule. It was there that she received several accolades for writing essays for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission and the Young Publisher’s Program. She graduated from Sankofa as the 8th grade president.
In high school, Taliah’s musical talents flourished and she was in choir, played piano and performed in plays. She was a part of the Waverly High School concert choir under the leadership of Benjamin Knapp for 4 years. She became a part of the all female choir called Vision’s, the elite vocal group Reflection’s, The Advanced Chorale and various other singing groups.
In addition, Taliah performed in high school plays such as “Fiddler on the Roof” and had a lead role in Waverly’s version of the “WIZ”. She performed in several local talent shows including Michigan State University and Power 96.5’s “I’m a Star”, the National Council on Alcoholism’s “Tri-County Got Talent”, and the I.B.P.O.E. local beauty and talent contest where her talent was singing. In this competition, she advanced by winning the Regional and State level, ending with performing in the National’s in Kansas City, MO where she won Miss Congeniality. She repeated this entry 2010 and won the local beauty and talent contest again and came in 2nd place in the oratorical essay writing competition.
Currently Taliah attends Lansing Community College and majors in Music. She recently obtained an internship at Walt Disney World Resort located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. She is working at Cinderella’s Castle while also taking online classes.
Taliah said, “Taking classes and working is challenging but I love working at Disney World. The weather is beautiful and I have made some great friends.”
Taliah is taking classes at Disney University as well. Her internship will give her an opportunity to seek new skills while using the ones she acquired while growing up in Lansing.
This was printed in the March 11, 2012 – March 24, 2012 Edition
