When you walk into Lavender Blues, a music and movement enrichment program for children, you step into a time capsule that hugs your inner child.
There are colorful paintings on the wall and diverse books and instruments for children and guardians to play with. For almost five years, Alex Louis-Jacques, known as Lady B, has been taking hundreds of young students, aged 0-3, on a magical music ride in Bedford Stuyvesant.
But now, Lady B is asking for help from the community she has helped to foster.
Running the program by herself, Lady B said her problems started earlier this year when she suddenly fell ill and was unable to open her studio to serve her bunnies, or how she affectionately calls her students, leaving her in a deficit. As rent continues to climb on her studio space at 175 Malcolm X. Blvd and enrollment for classes continues to drop, Lady B said she may have to cease teaching at the current location.
Lady B said she was hesitant about asking for help from her community of families. But as friends and studio members urged her to do so, she started a GoFundMe page and so far has raised enough funds to keep her studio open for the rest of the year.
"I used all my savings to pay for everything while I was sick," explained Lady B. "Everything about Lavender Blues, from my home to the studio to everything I do, I do it all by myself. So it just got to a point where I was like, 'This is a really hard struggle.'"
Lady B has been working with children for as long as she can remember. As a nanny, she spent most of her time around infants and toddlers and noticed that the instruction they often received didn’t center their needs.
“When I created Lavender Blues, I jam-packed it full of early learning,” she said.“From hello to goodbye and everything in between, all the inflections I do are all for children's development and for babies and toddlers. I feel like I do this because I understand babies."
Her 40-minute classes take place from Tuesday to Saturday and involve parents and guardians. The class if filled singing songs, movement and parachute play.
Before she got her brick-and-mortar space, Lady B taught classes in different neighborhoods. But in 2020, she realized that settling down would be the best way to grow and nurture her clientele.
“Everybody meets their people here,” she happily admitted. “Then once they leave here, they're still connected beyond me. And like, that was the dream, right? So I feel like I'm living the dream right now.”
Beyond the musical impact from her classes, Lady B hopes that her bunnies gain the love, support and confidence needed to take on the world.
“I want every bunny to start their life with me, Lady B and Lavender Blues,” she said. “This early enrichment program is designed to fill them with confidence, love, self-esteem, to make them strut into Pre-K in their next program.”
