Queen Sakkara
Sakkara (Ingrid Thomas) was inspired to read and write about African royal history after being crowned the first Miss Black Beauty of Long Beach, California as a student at Poly High School (Home of Scholars and Champions). Through her art she shares stories about African Queens and Kings (leaders) and helps students understand what life was like for her ancestors before coming to America.
In 19XX, Ms. Thomas founded Queens Historical Society, a non-profit 501 c3 organization, dedicated to the preservation on classical African history and culture. The Society's signature stage performance
A fashion designer by trade, Sakkara created her first couture in the sixth grade, a Nile blue, box-pleated skirt. She was influence as a seamstresses at this early age by her mother, a college graduate and social worker, who aided her in the pleating of this initial outfit, though a stroke would soon leave her mother disabled during much of Sakkara's early childhood. Sakkara enrolled at Woodbury University to pursue a career in fashion design following after graduatiion from high school. Conversations on couture and culture with her first Fashion Professor, Ms. Sophie Sallah, an Egyptian native, inspired Sakkara's first high fashion line of clothing, appropriately titled the Egyptian Goddess Collection. Fueled by these initial conversations, Sakkara continued her research into the visual styles of Africa's royal families which has evolved into her signature fashion exhibition on African female leaders.
Profile
State of Birth: Detroit, Michigan
Career: Fashion Designer / Curator
School: Woodberry College, Los Angeles
Interesting Fact: First Miss Black Beauty of Long Beach, California
Influence: Mary McLeod Bethune
Family: Married, 3 Children, 5 Grandchildren