#ALICIA KEYS FAMILY PICTURES HOW TO#
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Keys explained that she is grateful for growing up where she did as it prepared her for the parallels in the music industry, particularly as she was a teenager starting out she could maintain a particular focus and not derail herself. She became very wary, emotionally guarded, and she began wearing gender-neutral clothing and what would become her trademark cornrows. Her experiences in the streets had led her to carry a homemade knife for protection. Keys recalled feeling fearful early on of the 'animal instinct' she witnessed, and eventually feeling 'high' due to recurrent harassment. I think it makes you realise right away what you want and what you don't want', Keys said. 'I saw a variety of people growing up, and lifestyles, lows and highs. Living in the rough neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, she was, from an early age, regularly exposed to street violence, drugs, prostitution, and subjected to sexual propositions in the sex trade- and crime-riddled area. So growing up around this big dichotomy definitely influenced my music.' -Keys From a young age, Alicia struggled with self-esteem issues, 'hiding' little by little when her differences made her vulnerable to judgement, and later uninvited sexual attention. I really saw everything: every negative I could possibly see from the time I could walk until now and also every positive, every bright future, every dream that I could possibly see. I feel like the concrete alone just gave me a certain drive. As hard as, I always felt very blessed about being able to recognize different cultures and styles, people and places. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone, that was what I did.The city had a huge influence on me because it's such a diverse place.

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Her mother often worked three jobs to provide for Keys, who 'learned how to survive' from her mother's example of tenacity and self-reliance. Probably, it was better for me this way.' Keys and her mother lived in a one-room apartment. But it helped show me what a strong woman my mother was, and made me want to be strong like her. Although she did not like to speak about her father in order to not feed stereotypes, Keys remarked in 2001: 'I'm not in contact with him.

Keys said her parents never had a relationship, and her father was not in her life. Keys' father left when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen. Named after her Puerto Rican godmother, Keys expressed that she was comfortable with her multiracial heritage because she felt she was able to 'relate to different cultures'. Keys states she also has some Scottish or Irish ancestry. Keys' father is of Jamaican descent and her mother is of Italian descent her maternal grandparents came from Sciacca in Sicily. She is the only child of Teresa (Augello), who was a paralegal and part-time actress, and one of three children of Craig Cook, who was a flight attendant. She graduated in four years as valedictorian at the age of 16.Р”Р„licia Augello Cook was born on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City's Manhattan borough.

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Keys enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14. She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music of composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin. Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother. In 1985, Keys made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode 'Slumber Party'. Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. Keys' father is African American Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to 'relate to different cultures'. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City.

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