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Harlem Stage Presented its
2018 Annual Gala
Honoring Tamara Tunie, S. Epatha Merkerson
and Matthew Whitaker
Featured Performances Led by Terri Lyne
Carrington
Event Raised Over $385,000
Monday, May 21, 2018 at 6:00pm at Harlem
Stage Gatehouse
WHO: Party
guests included honorees Tamara
Tunie (Law
and Order: Special Victims Unit, Blue Bloods),S.
Epatha Merkerson (Chicago Med, Law and Order) and
piano prodigy Matthew Whitaker, musical performances
led by GRAMMY award-winning drummer, composer and bandleader Terri
Lyne Carrington. Appearances by TONY, Emmy, TV,
film and stage actor Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams,
The Love Guru, My Fair Lady), TV actor Vondie
Curtis-Hall (For The People, Daredevil), Vocalist
and songwriter Somi; Jazz, Soul and R&B singer Charenee
Wade. Guests included TONY nominated and Olivier Award
Winner Noma Dumezweni (A Raisin in the Sun, Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child), TV and film actress Denise
Burse (Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Black Mirror), Obie
Award winning actor, director and writer Roger Guenveur
Smith (Rodney King), Actress Lynn
Whitfield, Singer and Activist Nona Hendryx, Playwright Lynn
Nottage, Host of Deadline Crime Tamron Hall,
MSNBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid, President
and CEO Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce Lloyd
Williams, Manhattan Bureau President Gale Brewer, Commissioner
of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Mitchell
Silver, Councilmember Mark Levine, Head
of Global Sports and Entertainment at Morgan Stanley Wealth
Management Drew
Hawkins, Chairman/CEO of SESAC John Josephson,
Vice President at Time Warner INC. Yrthya
Dinzey-Flores, Laura Flanders host of The
Laura Flanders show, fashion
designer B Michael, Harlem Stage Executive Director Patricia
Cruz and Director of Programming Monique Martin and
Gala Co-Chairs Angela Glover Blackwell and Richard
E. Feldman.
Other guests
included: Al Williams, Carolina Zapf, Courtney and Marcus
Lee-Mitchell, David Ludwigson, Gerri Warren-Merrick, Greg
and Katie Williamson, Jason Reid, Jenette Kahn, JoAnn Chase,
Karen Pearl, Kasi Lemmons, Laura Packer, Marva Hicks,
Patricia Blanchet, Paula Cooper, Ron Simons, Scott Metzner,
Simon and Stefany Bergson, Steven Greener, Theresa and James
Bruno, Tony Gerber, Voza Rivers, Wé McDonald
WHAT: Harlem
Stage hosted its annual spring Gala. Guests enjoyed musical
performances in the historic and stunning Gatehouse, a New
York City landmark built in 1890 which once served as a
pivotal facility in the Croton Aqueduct system and was
revitalized to serve as a state-of-the-art performance
space. The theme of this year’s event was #Disrupters
and paid tribute to artists as activists, creators and
catalysts, and celebrated Harlem Stage’s 35th year as an
institution known for commissioning and presenting new,
innovative work that reflects and responds to the complex
conditions that shape the lives of our audiences, artists
and communities.
This year the
event honored three individuals for their artistic
contributions: Tamara Tunie, who also serves as Board
President at Harlem Stage, S.
Epatha Merkerson and
piano prodigy Matthew Whitaker.
Proceeds
from the gala will help support Harlem Stage's critical
mission to exclusively commission and present works by
visionary artists of color and the thousands of New York
City schoolchildren Harlem Stage serves each year through
the Frances Davis/Harlem Stage Arts Education Program.
Patricia
Cruz, Executive Director, Harlem Stage said “Our
#Disrupters Gala enables Harlem Stage and our artists to
join together with our audiences, community and supporters
in the contemporary struggle to realize a just, equitable
and truly democratic society”
WHERE:
Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue (at West 135th Street)
WHEN:
Monday, May 21, 2018
ABOUT
HARLEM STAGE
Harlem Stage is
the performing arts center that bridges Harlem’s cultural
legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide
the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas. For
over 35 years Harlem Stage has been one of the nation’s
leading arts organizations, achieving this distinction
through its work with artists of color and by facilitating a
productive engagement with the communities it serves through
the performing arts. With a long-standing tradition of
supporting artists and organizations around the corner and
across the globe, Harlem Stage boasts such legendary artists
as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Sekou Sundiata, Abbey
Lincoln, Sonia Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, Maya Angelou and
Tito Puente, as well as contemporary artists like Bill T.
Jones, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Tamar-kali, Vijay Iyer,
Mike Ladd, Stew, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, José
James, Nona Hendryx and more. Its education program each
year provides over 1,000 New York City children with
introduction and access to the rich diversity, excitement
and inspiration of the performing arts. In 2006, Harlem
Stage opened the landmarked, award-winning Harlem Stage
Gatehouse. This once abandoned space, originally a pivotal
source for distributing fresh water to New York City, is now
a vital source of creativity, ideas and culture. Harlem
Stage is a winner of the William Dawson Award for
Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in
Programming (Association of Performing Arts Presenters).
For more
information on Harlem Stage, visit:
www.harlemstage.org
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