Special Guests
Barbara Billups - Ms Barbara Billups was the third runner up at the Harvest Moon Ball held in Madison Square Garden 1958 and partnered thereafter with Mr. Sonny Allen’s (champion 1958).
Together with Ms Sugar Sullivan, Ms Barbara was one of the four young ladies of “Sonny Allen and The Rockets” fame.
The Rockets, a song & dance revue, grew out of the dancing at New York’s Savoy Ballroom. They traveled across The United States and Canada, entertaining packed audiences in hotels and nightclubs everywhere.
Join us to listen to Ms Barbara discuss her life and career!
Latika Bilups - Talking Tea with Tika talk show started with an idea birthed in Latika’s head. Her idea initially was to interview a close friend about an upcoming event that he was hosting. From that interview, the show was born.
Since its birth, she has interviewed top Chicago steppers, personal trainers, educators, and fashion gurus!
Talking Tea with Tika focuses on the mind, the body and the soul.
The Mind = Topics that allows the viewers to perhaps look at a difficult life situations clearer.
The Body = Topics that focus on health and wellness with the understanding that without the ability to think clearly, the body will suffer.
The Soul = Topics that address the underline issues that affect us all such as being single, past hurts, major trust issues and living beyond rumors.
Talking Tea with Tika uses social media to transform people’s lives, to make viewers see themselves differently and to bring happiness and a sense of fulfillment into every home.
Tika’s Talk Show allows her to reach out to her fans on a weekly basis on social media and internet radio. She features a lot of thought-provoking topics that deal with community building, social and political injustices, finances, personal love of the dance. In addition, discusses women’s issues such as health, weight, fitness, relationships, and spiritual development.
Denise Minns-Harris – Lifelong Grassroots Activist, Sister, Teacher, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Dancer, Buddhist and professional Fundraiser for a wide variety of national and local political, educational, progressive non-profit and advocacy organizations.
Denise was born in NYC. Her father, a black man named Al Minns married her Jewish mother, Audrey Sands in 1949 when their marriage was illegal in most of the United States. They had 4 children. Denise grew up with her dad traveling across the US and the world as a was a renowned Jazz dancer. Whenever he would return home from touring, he would hypnotize her with stories of the countries he’d performed in and how people in countries like Brazil and Nigeria lived.
At 14, she became a youth member of the Black Panther party, and at 16 years old – a 10th grade HS student - she talked her way into being accepted at the State University of New York - College at Old Westbury – majoring in dance and education, where her revolutionary leaning became even more informed and polished.
Following college, she moved to Los Angeles with her Jazz shoes, married Will Harris and had 3 sons. Jason, an investment trader, Kevin, an international award-winning choreographer with a dance studio in Dallas, Tx., and Wayne, who danced in the Tony nominated Broadway show, “The Prom.” While raising her children, her passion and talent for fundraising emerged and when Kevin was a young teen, he joined the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and Debbie invited her to be one of the Directors. Wayne later joined DADA as well. Denise worked side by side with Debbie for 15 years raising the Academy to the level of international renown it now enjoys. But after 15 years, Denise returned to her equal love of fundraising for advocacy organizations.
Her parents’ example of courage taught her to never acquiesce to the status quo and be willing to fight for what you believe in…especially your dreams. This has been the touchstone of her life and one she has strived to pass on to the youth.