Women’s basketball coloring book inspired by today’s WNBA

Malena Amusa is getting her “flowers” for the creation of “Dribble and Dream,” a women’s basketball-inspired coloring book created to empower young girls with literacy skills, exercises, creativity, and self-confidence.

The recognition is deserved but her road to this moment is but a pitstop along a unique career complete with chapters as a journalist, renowned African dancer and even a performer with one of the world’s most prominent African circuses.

She’s pleased with the reception of the coloring book she created in large part for her daughters, Mazi and Imah (ages six and two). But her real joy, she said, is knowing beyond a doubt that she had the “audacity to honor” who she was born to be.

Amusa is the youngest child of Wale A. Amusa, a former staffer in the administration of Freeman Bosley, Jr., St. Louis’ first Black mayor.

Malena Amusa, 40, said most of her African influence didn’t come from her father, a Nigerian native, but from her mother, a former nurse with Homer G. Phillips Hospital.

“My dad was preoccupied with democratic reformism,” Amusa recalled.

“He instilled leadership in me while my mom introduced me to Afrocentric culture through African dance class. So, mostly, I learned about Africa through African Americans.”

Amusa, the youngest of five children, attended Metro high school. She described herself as a “studious kid” who was the “senior debater” of the school’s debate team. She viewed journalism as a way to express her opinionated view and “change the world.”

But in high school Amusa was introduced to local “master teachers,” such as DeBorah Ahmed, Moustapha Bangoura, Sandella Malloy and Diadie Bathily who she credits with helping her explore and define her artistry and “fiery Nigerian roots.”

After graduating from Metro, Amusa went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. where she pursued her bachelor’s degree in journalism then she went on to New York’s Columbia University for her master’s.

Amusa completed journalism internships with the Afro-American newspaper in Washington D.C., the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Globe and South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper. Not only did she attend dance classes and perform in all the cities where she interned, Amusa found time to tour the world with Cirque Zuma Zuma, the world’s largest African circus. Through dance and cultural activities she performed in 45 U.S. states, on 3 continents, and for hundreds of thousands of people.

Although Amusa said she “planned to live in New York forever,” her mother’s cancer diagnosis and a fractured personal relationship eventually convinced her to come home in 2016 where she engaged in the recuperation process both for her mother and herself.

In St. Louis, Amusa continued journalism as a freelancer. But seeking more money, she entered the world of corporate communications, while simultaneously starting her own dance company, “Add Life! World.”

After meeting and marrying in 2017, Amusa found that-as she started a family-her professional interests leaned more in the direction of education. She published her first book “Colors of Africa,” designed, she said, “to teach children how to identify, read and say colors based on all the colors one can find in African culture.”

Adding more, Amusa said, “They can find how the Nile (River) has a blue reflection or how gold comes from the Ashanti Empire. It gives them knowledge and history with an (Afrocentric) skill set.”

She later founded her own educational resource company, Jaifunde, and published “Fro, 2, 3, 4!”, a math activity book for ages 3 and up, inspired, she said, by the “geometric formations of black hair.”

Amusa said she wanted African American children to know that math was not only in their heads but on their heads. Math, she insists, is in the radius of a fade or in the context of a parabular (a U-shaped curve that appears often in mathematics). The Gateway Arch is an example of parabular math, Amusa says…a formula a child with cornrows on his/her head can use to comprehend math.

Amusa, who found success in the educational book realm, said she never dreamed of doing a basketball-related book. That was before the breakout careers of basketball players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

“When Angel won the LSU championship (in 2023), I had never seen anything like that,” Amusa recalled. “It blew my mind how much swag she brought to the court.”

Her admiration of Reese led to an addiction to women’s college basketball, “which spiraled me into watching the WNBA,” Amusa said. “And then the whole rivalry between Reese and Caitlin (Clark) …”

She said her daughters started noticing how their mom was consumed with hours and hours of basketball and wondered, ‘what’s going on?’

“Then they began watching the games with me and asking questions like ‘what does a point range mean?’…they made it into an educational experience,” Amusa said.

The real “spark” that led to producing the coloring book, Amusa admitted, was the WNBA game in May where Reese was choke-slammed to the floor by Connecticut Sun’s player Alyssa Thomas during the 86-82 win over Reese’s team, the Chicago Sky.

“Everyone was going to run away with their own narratives.They’re going to call these players ‘brutes,’ or ‘angry Black women’ and all these derogatory things.

“For my girls, I wanted to define that moment for us,” Amusa continued. “So, I decided we were going to launch our love for basketball into a platform for our own self-confidence. We’re going to use it to lift each other and ourselves up.”

Her daughter’s response to the coloring book further emboldened Amusa.

“I’ve created books like a Black farmer math book where kids can count seeds and crop lines and my girls were like, ‘OK, (we’re) over it,’” Amusa laughed. “But when I gave them Dribble Dream…they’ve asked for it every night…they’re just so engrossed in it.”

Amusa said Mazi and Imah are especially attracted to the “design challenge” pages in the book where kids can design their own championship jerseys, shoes, and trophies.

“When you ask kids to not just color within the lines but when you ask them to impose their own design vision, it opens a different register in their brains, to imagine a world that reflects what they love.”

Explaining further, Amusa said: “There are coloring pages, vocabulary pages, a writing prompt where they write their dreams and the design challenges. It’s taking the learning from reception to creativity and design to independence.  

Updates are planned for the coloring book. Amusa wants to add Incarnate Word High School graduate Napheesa Collier, a WNBA star with the Minnesota Lynx.

“It’s so important for girls to know her (Collier) story,” Amusa beamed. “She’s been selected for the all-star Olympic basketball team. She’s like the Lisa Leslie (former Los Angeles Sparks player) of Missouri… she represents us.”  

In response to friends who called Amusa to say, ‘wait a minute, I have boys…’ she plans to do a Dribble & Dream book for boys as well.

When asked if she’s happy with her life now, Amusa’s answer was a nuanced reflection of her gifts, life experiences and self-discovery.

“I’m happy, but not because I have ease, comfort, wealth or even freedom all the time. God gave me incredible vision, dreams, color-coded ideas and the confidence to make those dreams come true. I can’t be anything but a creative, African-dancing, storytelling, educating, inspiring, caring mom.

“The fact that I had the audacity to honor who I am and create a lane for myself…well, that brings me joy.”

Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.

To purchase, download or print “Dribble and Dream” go to Jaifunde.com