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Nurturing Young Prodigies News & Notes profiles a tap dance prodigy with a unique approach combining dance with music, a classical flute player and an athlete who's also a student leader.
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Special Series

Young, Gifted and Black

News & Notes profiles young men and women leading a new generation of African Americans.

Nurturing Young Prodigies

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By 

Roy Hurst

Nurturing Young Prodigies

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Classical flute player Nathalie Joachim Roy Hurst, NPR hide caption

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Roy Hurst, NPR

Web Extra: Joachim performs 'Movin' On' by Rhonda Larson

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Tap dance prodigy Maurice Chestnut performs with his band. Maurice Chestnut hide caption

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Maurice Chestnut

It was playwright Lorraine Hansberry who coined the phrase "young, gifted and black." Speaking to a group of young writers in 1964, Hansberry said, "Though it be a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted, in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic, to be young gifted and black."

The phrase reverberated out of the civil rights movement. In honor of students nationwide during these weeks of graduation ceremonies, News & Notes is using the theme to spotlight a few people to watch.

On Thursday, we spotlight the importance of nurturing talent early in an artist's life, with profiles of three up-and-coming talents: tap dancer Maurice Chestnut, flutist Nathalie Joachim and athlete and student leader Myia Jones.

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