Last year, singer Ciara celebrated the 20th anniversary of her debut album “Goodies” and performed two shows in Atlanta with Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes as part of their joint Out of This World Tour.
During the first performance, she received plaques for selling millions of copies of “Goodies,” which spawned several hot songs.The following night, July 28, was declared Ciara Day in Atlanta by City Council member Michael Julian Bond.
Exactly a year later, Ciara returned the love to the city where she spent much of her childhood. On Monday, she opened the first Why Not You Center in Atlanta — fittingly, a renovated dance studio at the John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club in the West End.
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“I was a little girl who didn’t have much,” the singer, donning thick, curly black tresses and an Atlanta Braves cap, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the event. “But the power of believing is real, so to fast forward to starting from not having much but then being in a space to give as much as I can is a blessing.”
The center is a product of the Why Not You Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Ciara and her NFL player husband Russell Wilson in 2014. Why Not You combats poverty by providing disadvantagedyouth with educational and personal development resources. The Atlanta site is the foundation’s second center — the first was launched at a Boys & Girls Club in Pittsburgh last year…