Lil' Miss Story Hour

Apart from spending her first nine years in Landstuhl, Germany, Vanessa is a Colorado Springs native.  Her love for the arts began when she taught herself to draw and play the piano at the tender age of four.  She grew up singing and playing piano in church. 

In 2004, she moved to Washington DC for 11 years, and became involved with the arts, choreographing dance pieces for Black History Month for her 1st grade and kindergarten classrooms and performing with Glade Dance Collective in Northeast DC.  In 2009, a 40-foot rock climbing fall limited her mobility temporarily.  Sadly, because of doctor negligence, she now requires the use of intermittent portable oxygen to support the management of her current illness, pulmonary hypertension. Despite the challenges, Vanessa remained and remains active in the arts community… ushering, collaborating, and participating in workshops and performances for Dance Place DC, Contradiction Dance DC, Ormao Dance Company, and DC choreographer, Sylvana Christopher. 

Over the past several years and since moving back to Colorado Springs from Washington DC, she has revived her love for singing and performs at many open mics in the Colorado Springs area and has even performed at some open mics in Washington State and Washington DC.  Venues in Colorado Springs include, Pikes Peak Market, Spice Island Grill Open mics, Poetry719’s: Black Voices Matter, Hear Here Poetry, The Shop Open Mic at The Perk Downtown, and Oskar Blues.  She also sung at TESSA’s 2018 fundraising gala at the Broadmoor Hall, the 2019 Multicultural Black History Program with Tony Exum Jr. at the Stargazers Theatre, the Gold Room in downtown Colorado Springs in 2019, and In 2020, she gave a solo performance at Gold Camp Brewing Co. and choreographed and danced in Offrenda for Artomatic Washington DC and Enigma for Ormao Open Arts in Colorado Springs.  Additionally, she performed for the internationally live streamed event, "Play Music On the Porch."

In addition to activity in the arts, Vanessa is passionate about education, youth outreach, and self-care/alternative medicine.  She is on the marketing committee for AAYLC (the African American Youth Leadership Conference), is an active volunteer for Poetry719, volunteers for CPCD Head Start Colorado Springs, is on the Colorado Springs Community Acupuncture (SCA) board as the secretary, supports the non profit Fostering Families, and volunteers with the African American Historical and Genealogical Society of Colorado Springs. She is extremely patient with people because she knows that everyone has a silent story … a silent song in their soul.  She is also very passionate about equity, inclusion, and representation for all humans. 

Art is healing, and music specifically has always been a source of healing and emotional release as well as activism for Vanessa.  Vanessa sings and dances with her heart and from the depths of her soul.  Many people who have heard Vanessa sing have commented that they can feel the emotion in her singing.  Vanessa’s story times have been coined as intergenerational, as they reach humans in all stages of life.  She has also been unofficially nicknamed “A Modern Day Mr. Rogers.”  Vanessa’s hope is to bring more awareness to disabilities, racism, ageism, and sexism, and help heal hearts by bringing them together through her singing, her poetry and writing, her dance, and especially her story time events.  Her desire is for little ones specifically to see themselves in print, know that they are capable of doing anything, and hopefully grow up to tell and write the stories of their ancestors as a legacy for generations to come.