“Well, you’ll have school to fall back on.” 

I heard those words again and again as a young person after explaining to others my desire to attend college after spending most of my childhood acting and singing. Yet why did everyone see my favorite pursuits—the performing arts and my education—as opposed, rather than complementary? 

Since then, experience has taught me that the arts enhance experimentation, and that research deepens creative expression. In my career, I’ve sought to harmonize the creative and the intellectual, feelings and ideas—and to show our Black and Brown children that this path exists for them, too. 

As an actor, I rely on external and internal observation. I observe and try to understand other people’s behavior, and I also pay attention to my own. My body and my feelings are the canvas that I work with; the way I feel, what makes me happy, what makes me angry, what makes me sad or scared, what makes me laugh, what makes me bounce around, and what keeps me still. I have to notice the way I walk, como una “negra tiene tumbao,” how it sounds when I talk, rapidamente para no olvidarme de mis pensamientos, y entonces, I have to take all of those parts of me and adjust them to the character I have imagined. 

No less than my individual creative process, collaboration is essential for an actor. Collaborating with other artists—the writer, director, actors, lighting technicians, costume designers, and set designers—I experiment with the way my character moves, sounds, thinks, and feels. 

Together, we practice and play daily until we find just the right formula to make the characters and the imaginary world we’re creating feel real. To me, this interdependence shows how the discovery of knowledge is always a communal process, not simply the product of an individual. 

A profound responsibility comes with this freedom to play. As an actor, I have had to turn down roles that were unacceptable to me because they only added to the devaluing images of Black and Brown girls and women. 

My education cultivated the discernment to say, “no.” If my creativity wields the power to create worlds, pull them apart, and rearrange them, then why would I misuse it so? All children should learn about the transformative power of their creativity.

This is why I am so honored to be a mentor for the Rising Voices Collection. These books tell the tales of Black and Brown sheroes and demystify the processes involved in art and science, how similar they are in skill sets, and how much one depends on the other. 

The Rising Voices Library shatters misconceptions about girls and women as leaders in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math. Explore and shop the materials that build a strong classroom community and enable deep discussions about social justice, inclusivity, and empathy for others.

Our duty is to meet children where their dreams begin. Instead of asking them to “fall back” into categories that make us feel comfortable, let’s share with them what it looks like to “rise up” into the fullness of their being.

About Tatyana Ali

Tatyana Ali is an actress, singer, producer, and writer. After childhood apprenticeships in the dramatic arts in NYC and LA, she received her BA in Government from Harvard University. She has won five NAACP Image Awards. She was born to immigrant parents from Panama and Trinidad and Tobago, and her resume includes the series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Pulitzer Prize Broadway production of Fences, Sesame Street, The Young and the Restless, and Disney’s Glory Road.

Her discography includes the gold record Kiss the Sky, “Precious Wings” on the Grammy Award–winning children’s album Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, the EP Hello, and “Ghost Town,” a song for the United Nations for victims of human trafficking. For Tatyana, being an artist is being a humanitarian. She speaks at schools across the country, is involved in Black Girls Rock!, and serves as a celebrity council advocate for March of Dimes.

Tatyana’s favorite roles are wife and mother of two amazing boys.