[excited cheering] - You got this girl.
- Announcer: Your queen is Miss Black...
Wisconsin.
[joyful scream and cheers]
- In that moment, life for TaKema Balentine
changed...
[thunderous applause]
...and in many ways stayed the same.
- I feel like I'm the same person.
I mean here in Wisconsin, I'm just TaKema or Kema,
you know what I mean?
- TaKema is Miss Black USA 2019,
has two part-time jobs, and is a full-time student
at Madison College pursuing a nursing career.
- It gets really busy at times.
Most days, I'm driving back and forth
from Watertown for skills, pharmacology, fundamentals.
Hi, Dolly, my name is TaKema.
I'll be your nurse today.
- Months after TaKema's coronation,
her classmates are hearing about the title
for the very first time.
- So, I won this pageant over the summer.
- What pageant? - Miss Black USA.
- Classmates: Whoo!
- Miss Black U-S-A? - Oh, my gosh.
- Sounds like kind of a big deal.
- For TaKema, it is a big deal for several reasons.
- Historically, Wisconsin tends not to produce beauty queens
and when they said my name,
I looked around the stage at all of the other contestants
because I was like,
not really, like, not me, really.
Wisconsin?
Wisconsin won the pageant?
- Wisconsin did win the pageant and with it came confidence.
- The motto of the pageant
is to empower Black women to be who they are,
to be the best version of themselves,
and to move forward and reach back for the next one.
They've provided me with a platform
and I try to make it obvious what I value.
[background chatter] - Good morning, Huegel Eagles!
- At Huegel Elementary in Madison,
TaKema puts her words into action.
- I didn't really apply myself in school.
I think I probably could have done a lot better
and I feel a lot of it had to do
with the responsibilities that I had at home.
- Yeah. - You live in a castle?
- No, I don't live in a castle.
I just live in a house.
I want other young girls
who may be in a similar circumstance
to know that those circumstances aren't permanent.
Following your lead, ladies.
I had a low teachers tell me, your only way out,
your only way to change the cycle
in whatever is going on in your family
is an education.
I think it means a lot to young girls in Wisconsin
to see a brown person in a crown
but also who has determination and goals.
Good morning.
For girls to see that I'm in nursing school.
That's a profession
that's all about caring for another person.
Well-being of the community, your society
because we have to lean on each other.
Like, nobody lives in this society alone.
I grew up with a famous father.
My name is Martin Luther King, the third.
One school at a time, one child at a time, one heart at a time,
that is how the world has changed
by reaching out to other people with kindness and compassion.
- Her message echoes beyond the classroom,
to the highest levels of Wisconsin government.
- TaKema is a Madison native
and she graduated
from Madison East High School right here.
The Wisconsin State Legislature is so excited
to honor TaKema Balentine
as Miss Black USA 2019.
[applause]
- Good afternoon and thank you for having me.
Today, I stand before you
finding it difficult to express in words
the gratitude and appreciation
I feel for our community.
It really does make me feel
like I have the support of my entire state behind me.
Sleep with this tonight, stick it under my pillow.
- On this day, TaKema goes from the classroom to the Capitol,
and now, on to an evening gala
with the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce.
Miss Black USA of America to TaKema Balentine.
- Whoo! [applause] - Yeah!
- TaKema Balentine.
- Wow, y'all look good out here.
Dang.
I have no experience in running a business,
but I know what it means to be a person of color,
wanting to make a difference,
wanting to leave a footprint,
and wanting to just be an example
for other brown children, other brown people.
Honestly, I just want to be the--
I wanna be the person to break the mold.
I want to be the person to be outside of the box.
And I don't know about y'all,
but I'm ready to eat so... [audience laughs]
- Helping her break the mold and the box
is her partner Megan.
- I wouldn't be here without her,
but I think just for people to see
that love comes in all different shapes and forms
is really important.
Jo, come here, Jojo.
- It's a life they share with a menagerie of pets.
- Bucky, the badger? - Yes.
The ball python was my reward to myself for winning the pageant.
They can get up to six feet.
- TaKema's pets and family
keep her grounded
and when she looks back at her journey,
this is what she sees.
- I've done something that I was afraid to do.
I've done something that was a big challenge for me to do.
I reached out of my comfort zone.
I had to learn to be assertive.
I had to learn to be tactical.
I had to learn to ask for help,
and so, it's taught me a lot about myself.
I don't feel that I live the life
of a typical pageant queen
and maybe that's just because
my life hasn't really changed that much
and so I just try to be the best person
that I know how to be.