Anniversary Edition

7 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION MARCH/APRIL 2021 MEET OUR PAST COVER STARS & MODELS TO WATCH

ART DIRECTOR: TEMPESTT HARRIS CREATIVE DIRECTOR: MICHAEL LOPEZ-BOND PHOTOGRAPHER: ANTOINNE DUANE JONES HAIR: TERRENCE DAVIDSON MUA: MARQUIS GURTHRIE WARDROBE: FIVE13 STUDIO STYLIST: JERRY THOMPSON NAILS: NAILZ BY REDD

Looking over the reel of Claudette Ortiz, it?s easy to understand why she is making her mark on the entertainment industry. With her bright smile and incredible talents, she maneuvers the world between songstress and actress with ease. Riding the ups and downs of the road of life, to arrive at a destination of joy and peace with her life and career.

From her early years as a teen pop star with the group City High, to her current roles on TV, the road to becoming the star Claudette Ortiz has been paved with its share of struggles and strife. However, it was in fact these moments of challenge and pain that shaped Claudette into the strong woman that graces the screen today. Level21 sat down with Claudette Ortiz to learn how she turned tragedy into triumph while redefining her own version of fame.

-Level21- Desiree Helm

BLU APRIL 24th 2021 - Studio 229 O n Brevard Charlotte NC -Tickets O n Eventbrite www.carolinafashionawards.com

UE CFA2021

The show's theme for 2021 is "How will you do blue?" So many ideas in this edition. Enjoy and feel inspired to show up runway ready on the BLUE carpet!

BLUE

Why Fashion

Fashion is too often seen as a frivolous, vain and ephemeral industry. Many people fail to appreciate just how important and wide-reaching it really is. Globally, the industry is valued at $3 trillion. It's the second biggest worldwide economic activity for intensity of trade ? employing over 57 million workers in developing countries, 80 per cent of whom are women.

Despite its faults, one of the things fashion can do is spread an idea around very powerfully, coherently, and with the all-important 'cool' factor. One example is Professor Helen Storey MBE and chemistry Professor Tony Ryan's project Catalytic Clothing, which explored how textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air. They designed and created the catalytic dress 'Herself', which is impregnated with a photocatalyst that uses light to break down air-borne pollution into harmless chemicals.

www.CarolinaFashionAwards.com

BarbaraPalvin

Model W atch : Victoria Ng Photographer: Laurence Logan

Cou r t esy At las M agazin e

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Since 2014, Nick Kosir has been known as Charlotte?s meteorologist featured on FOX 46 whose dance moves and style impressionist?s ?Drip Chronicles? has garnered him over 1.2 million Instagram followers and a cameo appearance on the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. This Cleveland native is proving that the weather reporting does not have to be boring. It can be informative, entertaining, and socially interactive In 2017, Charlotte?s FOX 46 encouraged its on-air personalities to increase their media presence by using their social media platforms. Therefore, Kosir needed new content for his followers to ?like? and ?share?. One day, he was inspired to personally choreograph and perform his version for the song ?Slide Like This Krewlibs, Pt. 2? by Mr. Hotspot, as part of the dance challenge. Kosir stated, ?I saw that ?Slide Like This challenge?pop up in an ad for TikTok (an app for creating and sharing short videos), and I could not stop watching it? I was just like, ?This is unbelievable.?And I go, ?I can do this.?Or at least, I thought, I wouldn?t be terrible at it.?

Kosir made his dance video and posted it for the entire world to see. People were fascinated to see a local weatherman killing the viral dance challenge. In fact, World Star Hip Hop and The Shade Room has reposted his performance of the ?Slide Like This? challenge on their social media pages and shared it with its millions of followers.

Level21-Marage Blakeney

N EW YEA R N EW BL U E

Nat alia By An n e Bar ge

2020 MISSNORTH CAROLINA COSMOS

Beyond the glitz and the glamour, to some, pageantry can feel like an inaccessible practice in which the genetically gifted compete for the approval of others. While plenty glamorous, Shelby Brown has dominated the North Carolina pageant scene, and has done so with the intention of challenging stereotypes toward pageantry as well as our society?s relationship with the concept of beauty.

Shelby Brown has more titles and crowns that she can name, but her drive does not end when the pageant does. Brown has had a lifetime of experiences in which her ambitions and achievements were undervalued, with many making assumptions of how she acquired all that she has. Brown noticed a problem that was affecting her community and understood she had the power to start a dialogue. Brown started the movement, ?Beyond the Pretty Face,? to empower young girls with outer beauty to discover their inner power.

Level21- Cecilie Bree Wilkins

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Model W atch :Courtney Samuels @classwithcourt Photographer: Laurence Logan

The mark of a great architect is not in the volume of what he?s built, but in the impact his creation has on its surroundings. The same can be said for musical architects, and producers are the architects of the soundtracks of our lives. The best ones not only have extensive resumes, but they also forever impact whoever hears their songs. Bryan-Michael Cox is the epitome of such a producer. What Mozart was to classical music, Bryan-Michael Cox is to R&B and pop music.

Raised in Houston, Texas, Cox knew Beyoncé in high school, and even if his first demo tape was with her, Cox?s career truly began as so many do? with an internship for the then Georgia-based Noontime Records. Cox has said of moving from Houston to Georgia, ?Back then, there were three choices if you wanted to be in the music industry. Live in New York, live in L.A., or live in Atlanta.?

So, Cox enrolled in Clark Atlanta University ?because I was just trying to get to Atlanta.? Since then, he?s reconnected with Beyoncé (he produced a track for Destiny?s Child) and has been mentored by So So Def ?s Jermaine Dupri, but Cox has carved out his own place behind the scenes of some of the industry?s most lucrative stars like Usher, Bow Wow, Justin Bieber, R. Kelly, and Drake? just to name a few.

-Level21-Kaitlin Booe

The Women?s Media Center ?s ?Divided 2017: The Media Gender Gap? report revealed that ?in the broadcast news sector alone, work by women anchors, field reporters and correspondents actually declined, falling to 25.2 percent of reports in 2016 from 32 percent when the WMC published its 2015 ?Divided? report?. However, Morgan is determined to shatter this harsh reality by creating awarding winning and thought-provoking stories. As of matter of fact, Morgan was named ?one of the 50 Most Influential Women by The Mecklenburg Times? in 2015 and received the ?Community Service Media Award by Keystone Substance Abuse Services for her two part-feature ?Gone Too Soon: Heroin Deaths in Charlotte? in 2017. Morgan?s journalistic skills has garnered her the esteemed recognition as ?favorite anchor ? and ?best TV anchor ? throughout her career as a news anchor on the Emmy award winning, ?WCCB News @ 10?.

Much of Morgan?s success is accredited to her personal dedication and the power of internships. She notes that although internships are often unpaid, ?the experience is priceless?. Morgan encourages individuals interested in the TV news industry that they, ?work alongside reporters and photographers and producers and assignment desk editors and production staff and everyone. Attend editorial meetings. I don't mean for a day or two. I mean an entire summer or a couple months during the winter. You'll learn in the internship whether you really want to do this work. It is not glamorous. Ask yourself how much you consume the news in your personal, daily life. If you don't have a voracious news appetite, this likely isn't the profession for you.

Level21-Marage Blakeney

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Angie (@angeline22_) & Lorianne Garcia (@loriiigee)

The ?Reverse Brothers? are much more than hip-hop dancers. Ayo and Teo have successfully translated their love for dance into a blooming rap career as they make moves across the entertainment industry. With over 2 million social media followers, they have Rollied their way into the hearts of music fans everywhere.

Born and raised in Michigan, the dynamic duo were stars way before their chart topping hit ?Rolex? began taking the internet by storm. The pair have been dancing for as long as they can remember, and it is their love for melody and movement that have launched them into stardom. The brothers have danced along side of Usher in his video for the song ?No Limit? and even graced the stage with him performing at the Barclay Center and the BET Awards. The two have also danced for Chris Brown in his video for ?Party? and in Gucci?s video for the song ?Icey Lilbeh?.

-Level21- Desiree Helm

?Who are you, in this moment, right now? Who is Shad Moss??

It?s quiet, save for the crinkle of food wrappings and a prolonged ?um? as he spends a split second deliberating. ?A young, thirty-year-old who is on a mission. That?s who I am right now.

I?m just a young, thirty-year-old with dreams,? he says.

If describing himself as ?a young thirty-year-old? isn?t an indication of the juxtaposition of boy and man present in Shad Moss?s (formerly Bow Wow, formerly, formerly Lil?Bow Wow) character, then let us explain.

There seems to be a curse surrounding Hollywood?s child stars. From substance abuse, to identity crises and premature deaths, the difference between those introduced to fame at a young age, and those who find it in adulthood does, indeed, seem to be a matter of maturity. A quick Google search will tell you Moss hasn?t had the same troubles that have befallen child stars like Lindsay Lohan, or fellow nineties kid rappers Shyheim and Chris Kelly (half of the Jermaine Dupri-helmed group, Kriss Kross.). That same, quick Google search will tell you, however, that there is a certain media hang-up regarding some of Moss?s antics over the years? the most recent of which involve a chase with fans that some believe he paid for, and a social media blunder that curated the Bow Wow Challenge.

-Level21-Kaitlin Booe

M odel Wat ch : Er is Headley

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Ph ot ogr aph er : Ar is Wells

Model Watch: Samuel posey Photographer: @Seanwick

From the Beyonce?we know today, even dating back to Destiny's Child and ?each girls?solo projects, Hunter has been responsible for ?all the videos, and all the carpets? everything. It was just me and Ms. Tina (Beyonce?s mom) for a while before Raquel came on.?

Now, after years of working together, Hunter and Smith have developed a really strong bond and share mutual admiration of each other. Both agree Ty is the more outgoing of the two while Raquel is more observationally shy, and they both enjoy each other ?s style. While Ty commends Raquel?s get-up-and-go attitude, Raquel says: ?What I like most about Ty?s style is that Ty is very creative, and he can put anything together. When it doesn?t look like it goes [together], he?ll make it go. Sometimes when we get ready to go to events, he?ll wait until the very last minute to get dressed. He?ll come out looking hot, trendy and edgy, and he always kills it.?

Level21-Kaitlin Booe

Model Watch: Pruette Photography: Natalie Elliot Photography

Model Watch: Diamonique @itsdiamoniquenajea Photographer: Laurence Logan

www.Level21Mag.com