THE TOWN HALL’S
LENA HORNE PRIZE
FOR ARTISTS CREATING SOCIAL IMPACT CELEBRATING
SOLANGE KNOWLES
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020 PRESENTED BY SALESFORCE
123 WEST 43RD ST NYC 10036 | THETOWNHALL.ORG
This year’s event is made possible by Salesforce, the global leader in customer relationship management and a company which believes in the power of business as the greatest platform for change. Salesforce’s ‘Make Change’ series elevates action leaders who reflect the company’s core values and use their platform to spark change, from equality to digital transformation. Tonight is your opportunity. Tweet using #MakeChange and share a story of someone who is using their platform to drive change. Together we can raise our voices, inspire others to do the same, and drive change in our communities.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020 THE TOWN HALL’S
LENA HORNE PRIZE FOR ARTISTS CREATING SOCIAL IMPACT CELEBRATING
SOLANGE KNOWLES FEATURING ALICE SMITH
LEON BRIDGES
ANDRA DAY
MARTIN LUTHER KING III
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO
MAIMOUNA YOUSSEF aka “MUMU FRESH”
BJ THE CHICAGO KID
RAPSODY
DOLORES HUERTA
TALIB KWELI
EVE L. EWING IFETAYO ALI-LANDING JON BATISTE
TAMRON HALL TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON URBAN BUSH WOMEN
AND MORE! PRESENTING SPONSOR SALESFORCE * ARTISTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
History Speaks… Music sheds light on injustice and invigorates social movements. Throughout history, artists have utilized their platforms to speak truth to power and to promote philanthropy and create social change. The Lena Horne Prize honors artists who use their platform to create social impact and inspire the next generation of change-makers. @TownHallNYC | 1
“I will never forget the impact of hearing the great Lena Horne singing the words ‘Believe in yourself’ from that remarkable moment in The Wiz. At the age of 12, I played this very role and it was then I learned about Lena’s dedicated activism and fearless integrity as a woman and groundbreaking artist. I am honored to be receiving an award that bears her name and continues her legacy of using the arts to inspire reflection and evoke change.” ~ Solange Knowles 2 | @TownHallNYC
LETTER FROM GAIL LUMET BUCKLEY
My mother was actually several different people. Besides being Lena Horne, the star, she “was “mom” to me and “G’ma” to her grandchildren. She was also an artist and a celebrity. In private, she was funny and fun. In public, she was dignified and tasteful. She once told Bette Midler that she was tired of being tasteful. But she was of the generation that was expected to be a “credit to her race.” “Never forget that you are Lena Horne, Negro,” Paul Robeson had told her when she was very young. It was hard to forget because her amazing grandmother, a suffragist and an activist, had made her a lifetime member of the NAACP at the age of two. And she had grown up in the presence of family friends like W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Paul Robeson, Walter White, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Marian Anderson, whom she venerated, but did not know. Robeson also told her to never forget the people “down the line” (in other words, the regular people), so she was invariably gracious and patient with autograph seekers and fans. She came of age in a time when celebrities (especially black celebrities) had to be something like public servants. None of that is true today – young black artists are free to be whomever and however they want, which has both good and bad points. There was no such concept when my mother came of age as “Black Girl Magic” but she certainly had Black Woman Power – and it definitely had crossover appeal. It makes us want to be, not a credit to our race, but a credit to her. I will quote the choreographer Robert Sidney (from his book With Malice Towards Some): “The magic of Lena had to be seen. It was never captured on recording or on film. But when you were in the audience watching her, your emotions were raised to the highest level you had ever known. This woman was magic.”
~ Gail Lumet Buckley
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ABOUT LENA HORNE Lena Horne was a Legendary Brooklyn-born GRAMMY and TONY winning singer, dancer, activist, and actress who performed on stage, in film, and on TV from the time she emerged as a starlet in the 1930’s until her death in 2010. Starting as a singer in the Cotton Club, she went on to be a movie star and pin-up for Black soldiers during WWII. She became famous to a younger generation for her performance of Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz. A milestone in Horne’s career came in 1981 when Horne won a TONY Award for her one-woman play Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, some 50 years after her debut. Throughout her career, Lena fought for equality and justice. She sang at the first racially integrated night club, Café Society in New York City. During USO tours during WWII she refused to sing for a segregated audience. When officials wouldn’t move African-American soldiers from the back row forward, Horne walked off the stage and into the crowd to perform directly to the African American soldiers with her back to German POWs. In an industry that perpetuated racial stereotypes, Lena Horne told her own story. Lena would not accept a role or singing opportunity if it portrayed her as a stereotype based on race or gender; she said, “I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become.” Lena denied the stereotypical tropes and white-washing endemic in Hollywood, to portray stories that empowered her and those watching. She worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws and participated in the historic March on Washington. Lena was awarded several honorary degrees, including honorary doctorates from Yale and Howard Universities. She was also awarded the Spingarn Medal by NAACP, Kennedy Center Honors, and a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award.
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C E L E B R AT I N G S O L A N G E K N O W L E S GRAMMY Award-winning singer/ songwriter and visual artist Solange Knowles has used her platform to advocate for representation and justice while providing constructive and empowering messages. With the release of her critically acclaimed albums, A Seat at the Table (2016) and When I Get Home (2019), Solange has navigated through themes of selfreflection and origin, empowerment, grief and healing that have resonated with millions of voices. This coupled with her performance art work has led to a defining career of music, visual art, and activism. Solange performed for President Obama at the White House as well as at the Kennedy Center and the legendary Sydney Opera House in Australia. Solange has conducted performance art shows across the globe including The Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2019), the Guggenheim Museum in NYC (2017), the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2017), and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in Germany (2019). She has exhibited video art installations at London’s Tate Modern and premiered the interdisciplinary video and dance performance piece, “Metatronia,” which featured Metatron’s Cube, 2018; a sculpture conceptualized and created by Solange, at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, Solange released her album and interdisciplinary art film entitled When I Get Home. The album asked the question how much of ourselves do we bring with us versus leave behind in our evolution. Solange returned to Third Ward Houston to answer this. Written, performed, and executive produced by Solange, the release resulted in her third Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200, a #1 on iTunes, and a global tour. Solange premiered an extended director’s cut of her film at museums and contemporary institutions including The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Los Angeles, The Brooklyn Museum, New York and V&A London. Solange’s work in music and the arts has led to her being named Harvard University’s Artist of the Year in 2018. She was honored by The New School as a pioneering figure in fashion and the arts at the 70th Annual Parsons Benefit. She has also been the recipient of Glamour’s Woman of the Year Award and Billboard’s Impact Award. photo: Max Hirschberger
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ABOUT PROJECT ROW HOUSES Solange’s $100,000 prize will be directed to Project Row Houses, a Houston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people and enriching communities through engagement, art and direct action. The organization, founded in 1993, is a catalyst for transforming community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture. Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities. Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as home base to a variety of community enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. PRH programs touch the lives of under resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others. Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.
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ABOUT THE TOWN HALL The Town Hall was built by a group of suffragists called the League for Political Education. They created the Hall as a space for all New Yorkers to gather and learn and discuss the issues of the day. When the founding mothers opened the doors of Town Hall in 1921, they welcomed everyone--there were no racial barriers, no gender barriers-everyone was welcome to The Town Hall. It is those founding principles of inclusiveness and equality that helped create The Town Hall’s landmark history. The hall holds an important place in American classical music history as one of the only spaces to welcome African American classical musicians. In the first few decades of the hall, over 500 concerts featured African American classical musicians including performances by Hazel Scott, Jessye Norman and Don Shirley, and the debuts of Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Dorothy Maynor and Leontyne Price. The great Paul Robeson held his first solo concert at The Town Hall, and performed at Town Hall over three decades. His groundbreaking concerts, which told the history of the civil rights struggle through song and story, are what inspired Coretta Scott King to create her Freedom Concerts, which she also debuted at Town Hall, in 1964. The Town Hall is where the legendary contralto, Marian Anderson, performed her first concert, some thirty years before she was finally invited to perform at many of the country’s renowned opera houses. The iconic songwriters Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Leonard Cohen performed their first concerts at The Town Hall. @TownHallNYC | 7
ABOUT THE TOWN HALL Town Hall is where Bird and Dizzy introduced bebop to the world in 1945. In 1921, Margaret Sanger was famously arrested on stage for speaking about birth control, an incident that helped launch a movement and catapulted her organization into the national spotlight, an organization later renamed Planned Parenthood. The Town Hall has been at the forefront of social progress and political movements, presenting events led by Paul Robeson, Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, Diego Rivera, Anais Nin, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Lorraine Hansbery and Arthur Miller. It was at The Town Hall that Pulitzer Prize winning Lorraine Hansberry rose out of her sick bed to make her last public appearance in an event titled “The Black Revolution and the White Backlash.” The day before she testified before the Democratic National Convention and changed the course of voting rights history, Fannie Lou Hamer filled the hall with her story of the brutal beatings she endured trying to register black voters. Lena Horne herself served as Mistress of Ceremonies for “Stars of Tomorrow”, a showcase for young AfricanAmerican performers, an event cosponsored by the Urban League, an organization to which Cora Calhoun Horne, Horne’s grandmother and primary caretaker, belonged. Over the last 100 years, The Town Hall has been home to countless cultural and musical milestones and continues to be a forum for the people—a welcome home of expression, education and exploration, for all. 8 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Alice Smith | The NYC-bred singer/ songwriter/producer, known for her 4-octave vocal range and stunning stage presence, made a name for herself with her critically-acclaimed 2006 debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, released on BBE Records. At the time, her artful blend of bluesy, soulful vocals and mid-tempo grooves garnered a passionate following that packed venues like NYC’s Mercury Lounge and Joe’s Pub, while Vibe Magazine gushed that her sound “evoke[s] Fiona Apple’s finest material.” Her single “Dream” was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Urban/Alternative category. Today, Alice looks forward to finally giving her fans a hotly anticipated dose of new music. The new collection reveals the same passions of the “country at heart” singer, raised between Washington DC and Augusta, Georgia. Surrounded by everything from go-go, to gospel, to pop, she crafted her own stories blending elements from her favorite genres. By the time Lovers debuted in ’06, Alice was known for a unique approach to soul, tempered by a heady dose of rock and her own personal take on matters of the heart. It’s the same appeal that she brings to her new material. With notes of ‘60s pop, Burt Bacharach-style melodies and that intoxicating element of attitude, Alice’s upcoming collection has something for die-hard followers and new fans alike. Her sound has evolved, adding lush, orchestral arrangements and multi-hued melodies. Though she has always been an artist at heart, Alice is now a mother, and she’s been through some powerful experiences over the past few years. She emerges with new insights to realize through song. Still singing, of course, but today, stepping out independently, she has all the more reason to give ‘em something they can feel. Andra Day | Carried by enough conviction to incite cultural change, Andra Day’s fulllength debut Cheers to the Fall [Buskin Records / Warner Records] garnered a 2016 GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best R&B Album,” while its anthemic Platinum lead single “Rise Up” achieved a nod for “Best R&B Performance.” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ellen, Dancing with the Stars, The View, Jimmy Kimmel, White House National Christmas Tree Lighting, Hallmark’s Home for the Holiday’s, Audience TV, the CMA Country Christmas, and the America’s Got Talent—just to name a few. @TownHallNYC | 9
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Quietly recognized amongst some of music’s most legendary names, the singer paid tribute to Ray Charles at The Smithsonian and shared the stage for performances with everyone from Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang, Bonnie Raitt, and Stevie Wonder to Ellie Goulding, Alicia Keys, and John Legend. Her voice abounded throughout the halls of the historic 2016 Democratic National Convention as well as launch of Michelle Obama’s We Will Rise documentary in partnership with Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto on “International Day of the Girl” event at The White House. Along the way, she covered Essence Magazine and achieved the prestigious “Powerhouse Award” at the Billboard Women in Music event. 2017 kicked off with two show-stopping performances by the chanteuse at the 48th Annual NAACP Image Awards and a knockout Bee Gees tribute during the 59th Annual GRAMMYs®. Hyatt welcomed Andra as the voice of its “For A World Of Understanding” campaign, breathing new life into the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic, “What The World Needs Now Is Love.” Moreover, she voiced Sweet Tea in the summer blockbuster Cars 3, covering Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” during a standout sequence. Closing out 2017, Andra released the moving anthem “Stand Up For Something” [feat. Common] from the Marshall official soundtrack album and film. The song received an Academy Award nomination for “Best Original Song.” And Andra and Common performed on the 2018 Annual Academy Awards. Kicking off 2019, Andra performed “You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman)” as part of the Aretha Franklin Tribute at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards (her fourth consecutive Grammy Awards Show performance) alongside Yolanda Adams and Fantasia. She was also a featured performer at CBS’s “Aretha! A GRAMMY Celebration for the Queen of Soul,” a one-of-a-kind tribute concert in remembrance of Aretha Franklin. Andra is currently filming her starring role in the Lee Daniels-directed Billie Holiday biopic and is putting the finishing touches on her highly-anticipated sophomore album due out in 2020. Angélique Kidjo | Time Magazine has called her “Africa’s premier diva”. The BBC has included her in its list of the continent’s 50 most iconic figures, and in 2011 The Guardian listed her as one of their Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World. Forbes Magazine has ranked Angelique as the first woman in their list of the Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa. She is the recent recipient of the prestigious 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the 2016 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. As a performer, her striking voice, stage presence and fluency in multiple cultures and languages have won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders. Kidjo has cross-pollinated the West African traditions 10 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America. Her star-studded album DJIN won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Album in 2008, and her album OYO was nominated for the same award in 2011. In January 2014 Angélique’s first book, a memoir titled Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (Harper Collins) and her twelfth album, EVE (Savoy/429 Records), were released to critical acclaim. EVE later went on to win the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2015, and her historic, orchestral album Sings with the Orchestre Philharmonique Du Luxembourg (Savoy/429 Records) won a Grammy for Best World Music Album in 2016. Angelique has gone on to perform this genre-bending work with several international orchestras and symphonies including the Bruckner Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Philharmonie de Paris. Angelique continues to tour globally performing the high-energy concert she’s become famous for with her four-piece band. BJ The Chicago Kid | Born to a pair of Chicago choir directors and their family of musicians in the mid-1980’s, BJ The Chicago Kid began learning his craft at an early age. His God-given gifts—that otherworldly voice and unmatched ear—paired with his nonstop energy and passion for the music made him something of a prodigy, and soon BJ began to make a name for himself. BJ released a series of mixtapes and a breakthrough selfreleased album, the critically-acclaimed Pineapple Now-Laters, in 2012. His major label debut, 2016’s In My Mind, was nominated for three Grammy Awards and helped gain him recognition as one of R&B’s major players. Since the release of In My Mind, he has performed at President Barack Obama’s 2017 farewell address, released an original EP and accompanying short film (2018’s The Opening Ceremony), and appeared on myriad cover songs and collaborations, from H.E.R.’s “Could’ve Been” remix to the sole feature on the remastered anniversary edition of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On title track alongside Gaye’s original vocal itself. BJ has worked with industry icons like Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder, and Warren G and collaborated with current pop heroes like Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, H.E.R., Anderson.Paak, and more. Now gathering upwards of a million global streams per week, BJ has cemented that status by keeping in constant motion, whether by playing shows around the world, appearing as a guest on other artists’ records, or consistently dropping his own projects. With his second major label full-length 2x GRAMMY Nominated album, 1123, BJ The Chicago Kid is already establishing his legacy as a multitalented singer and hyper-creative artist who is excelling in multiple lanes while evoking a diverse range of emotions and connecting to a wide audience. @TownHallNYC | 11
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Dolores Huerta | Legendary civil rights activist and social justice leader Dolores Huerta is President and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers of America. Dolores has worked as a labor leader and community organizer for over 50 years. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as vice-president and played a critical key role in the union’s extraordinary accomplishments for four decades. In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF). DHF is connecting groundbreaking community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; advocate for education reform; bring about infrastructure improvements in low-income communities; advocate for greater equality for the LGBT community; and create strong leadership development. She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998. In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Dr. Eve L. Ewing | Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection 1919 and the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side. Her first book, the poetry collection Electric Arches, received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America and was named one of the year’s best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She also currently writes the Champions series for Marvel Comics and previously wrote the acclaimed Ironheart series, as well as other projects. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. She is also an instructor for the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, a visual arts and humanities project that connects teaching artists and scholars to men at Stateville Maximum Security Prison through classes, workshops and guest lectures. She serves on the Board of Directors of MassLEAP, a non-profit organization dedicated to building and supporting spaces for youth, artist-educators, and organizers to foster positive youth development through spoken word poetry forums throughout Massachusetts. 12 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Ifetayo Ali-Landing | Ifetayo Ali-Landing began her musical studies on the violin and switched to cello at the age of 4. The 17-year-old’s teachers and coaches have included Lucinda Ali-Landing, Megan Lauterbach, and Martine Benmann at the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute in Chicago, as well as Tahirah Whittington, Oleksa Mycyk, and Hans Jørgen Jensen. Additionally, she has attended the summer music camps of the Chicago Suzuki Institute (Deerfield, Illinois), Illinois Wesleyan University, Sphinx Performance Academy, Meadowmount School of Music, The Young Artists Program, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Gateways Music Festival. Ali-Landing was named the first-place laureate of the Sphinx Competition’s Junior Division in 2017 and subsequently performed as a soloist with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall. She was awarded as the second-place laureate of the same competition in 2016 when she was also named one of the winners of the DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers, after which she made a solo performance with the festival’s Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra. Ali-Landing has also been featured with such ensembles as the Wilmington (NC) Symphony, New World Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Southwest Michigan Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. Her recordings, radio, and television appearances include Holes in the Sky with Laura Downes, “White Christmas” for Jessie J with the Matt Jones Orchestra, NPR’s From the Top episode 349 with host Christopher O’Riley, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, and WFMT Radio’s Introductions. In 2013, at the age of 10, Ali-Landing was honored at the Friends of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s Rising Star Showcase where she recorded the first movement of the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1. To date, this video has over 100,000 views on YouTube and over 15 million on Facebook. She has more recently made video recordings of the first movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Ginastera’s Pampeana No. 2 for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 21. She is currently a freshman at the Colburn School in Los Angeles where she studies with Clive Greensmith. Jon Batiste | Keyboardist, bandleader, singer, composer, and educator Jon Batiste is an adventurous, eclectic jazz-based musician. Since 2015, he has been the bandleader and musical director for CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and toured the globe with his own group. The nephew of New Orleans musical greats Lionel Batiste and Harold Batiste, he issued his debut album at 17, Times in New Orleans, which was celebrated for its timeless take on Crescent @TownHallNYC | 13
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS City jazz, funk, pop, and R&B. Though heralded as a brilliant pianist and organist, his use of the melodica -which has graced albums by artists ranging from Stevie Wonder to Harry Connick, Jr.to Trombone Shorty -- has become a visible signature of his abilities. He has also scored films including Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, and toured with artists ranging from Prince to Lenny Kravitz. In 2018, he earned his first Grammy nomination for his rootsy take on “Saint James Infirmary,” from his expansive album Hollywood Africans. In the fall of 2018, Batiste issued his debut album for Verve, titled Hollywood Africans. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the album found Batiste diving deep into his personal and cultural heritage, weaving an intimate tapestry from original material and American standards, creating a musical journey from early New Orleans jazz to the jazz and pop of the present day. The album earned Batiste a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Performance for his rendition of “Saint James Infirmary.” In August 2019, he returned with Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard, which captured Batiste in concert during his 2018 residency at the storied New York City venue. A companion album culled from Batiste’s Vanguard residency, Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard, followed that October. Leon Bridges | Grammy Award winner Leon Bridges’ first strides as a soul inspired R&B artist prompted comparisons to legends like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but he quickly came into his own as a Top Ten, Grammy Award winning, globally touring artist. The 28 year old singer, songwriter honed his talent performing in and around his native Fort Worth, Texas, at open mic nights. Leon attracted industry attention when the venerable music and culture site Gorillavs-Bear posted uploads of analog recordings produced by Niles City Sound’s Josh Block and Austin Jenkins. Signed to Columbia Records, Bridges’ first singles, including a rich ballad written about his mother, appeared in February 2015 with a sound that evoked classic R&B and soul. His debut album, Coming Home, followed four months later. It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for two Grammys: Best R&B Album & Best Music Video. Bridges kept busy with appearances across the world including but not limited to performing at The White House for President Obama, the Library of Congress, 14 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS the Museum Of Modern Art Film Benefit - A Tribute To Tom Hanks and Tom Ford New York Fashion Week event. He has also opened for the Rolling Stones in Europe and Harry Styles in South America. Leon also penned the main track for Concussion starring Will Smith and had a huge sync with his track “River” on Reese Witherspoon’s hit HBO series Big Little Lies. In 2016 and 2017, Bridges’ was active as a performer and collaborator. In addition to extensive tours and festivals, he co-wrote and was featured on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Kevin,” Nick Waterhouse’s “Katchi,” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Present Without a Bow.” Additionally, he recorded “On My Own” with Lecrae and connected twice with Gary Clark, Jr., for Live North America 2016 and on a collaborative cover of Neil Young’s “Ohio.” Work with Aminé and ODESZA was also out by the end of 2017. Early the following year, Coming Home was certified gold by the RIAA. Shortly thereafter, Bridges released “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand”, “Bad Bad News” and “Beyond” the first offerings off his contemporary and stylistically broader second album, Good Thing, released in May 2018. Critics heralded Good Thing for its modern R&B sound, lush production and joyous songwriting. Leon, who has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, took home his first ever win for Best Traditional R&B performance for “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand”. Martin Luther King III | As the oldest son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King III is carrying the torch lit by both of his parents into the 21st century. Martin’s dedication to creating and implementing strategic nonviolent action to rid the world of social, political, and economic injustice has propelled him to the forefront as one of the nation’s most ardent advocates for the poor, the oppressed, and the disillusioned. Mr. King is committed to the personal and educational development of youth and has initiated several programs throughout the years to support and nurture young people. Among them are the King Summer Intern Program, Hoops for Health and A Call to Manhood. In 1998 Mr. King began his tenure as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference where he aggressively fought injustice on many fronts. In 2006 Mr. King founded the nonprofit organization Realizing the Dream, Inc. In 2010 Mr. King received the Ramakrishna Bajaj Memorial Global Award. In conjunction with Ambassador Andrew Young and other partners, Mr. King co-founded Bounce TV - the first-ever independently owned and operated TV network featuring African-Americans.
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PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Throughout his life, Martin Luther King, III has worked with individuals deeply committed to the struggle for human rights and a nonviolent society. He is the recipient of numerous awards and several honorary degrees. In addition to being the former President and Chief Executive Officer of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta; Mr. King is the husband of Arndrea Waters King and father of a young daughter, Yolanda Renee King (b. 2008). He is both humbled and honored to serve as an ambassador of his parent’s legacy of nonviolent social change. Maimouna Youssef aka “Mumu Fresh” | Mumu Fresh is a Grammy Nominated, Indigenous Music Award Nominated, singer, songwriter, MC, speaker, activist, and Musical Ambassador for the US who has performed to sold out audiences worldwide in renowned venues as a headliner, opener, as well as a vocal support to music giants such as Oscar award winner, Common, Late Night Jimmy Fallon’s Band, The Roots, Bobby McFerrin, Sting, Erykah Badu, Femi Kuti, Ed Sheeran, Nas, the NSO and Dave Chappelle among others. Maimouna’s original music is currently streaming in 65 countries daily with a social media following exceeding 175,000 engaged fans worldwide. Recently her NPR Tiny Desk performance reached viral attention and some say spawned resurgence in the women’s rights zeal among millennials. You may have seen her light up the stages of such prestigious award shows as Black Girls Rock and Black Music Honors! In 2018 She became the voice of Ford’s commercial “Roll On” celebrating women of color. This songstress has several albums to her credit and has written for major and indie recording artists and is preparing for the release of the highly anticipated collaborative album with Dj Jazzy Jeff and The Playlist producers in spring 2020. She is committed to ‘Art Activism’ and has performed within the US prison system, Congressional Black Caucus, Global Citizens, IMAN nonprofit, The W. K. Kelloggs Foundation and more to bring awareness to important social issues. Mumu Fresh is a global citizen, a musical healer, a cultural philanthropist and a community pillar. Rapsody | In the saturated market of music and entertainment, consumers live with a constant craving for outliers and one-ofones. In the sphere of hip-hop, Rapsody is that outlier. The Jamla/Roc Nation artist has been hailed by peers and critics alike as one of today’s top MC’s. In 2014, XXL named her one of the 20 Greatest Female Rappers of All Time. The following year, Dr. Dre crowned her 16 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS his “favorite female emcee.” Rapsody’s released her most recent album, EVE, in 2019. Named after the Bible’s original woman, the album was dedicated to the celebration and empowerment of brown sistas worldwide. Each song is titled after a legendary black female. Produced primarily by 9th Wonder and Eric G of the Soul Council production team––and featuring J Cole, D’Angelo, Queen Latifah and GZA, to name a few––the album is a collector’s item in a current climate of disposable compositions. EVE is Rapsody’s third studio album, succeeding her debut The Idea of Beautiful and Laila’s Wisdom, which was nominated for a Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song GRAMMY. The groundwork laid prior to Laila’s Wisdom included her outstanding verse on Paak’s 9th Wonder-produced “Without U” and her first GRAMMY nomination for her performance on Kendrick’s album To Pimp A Butterfly. Rapsody would later earn an invitation from President Obama and Herbie Hancock to perform at the International Jazz Fest with Aretha Franklin, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin and Terri Lyne Carrington in honor of the late great Prince. Talib Kweli | The Brooklyn-based MC earned his stripes as one of the most lyrically-gifted, socially aware and politically insightful rappers to emerge in the last 20 years. “I’m a touring artist. I’m an artist that’s internationally known. I’m not just a local artist at this point in my career. I’m cognizant of the fact that what I do is beyond where it started. I’m trying to reach the apex of where I am now, but without turning my back on or dismissing what I’ve done before.” After nearly 20 years of releasing mesmerizing music, Talib Kweli stands as one of the world’s most talented and most accomplished Hip Hop artists. Whether working with Mos Def as one-half of Black Star, partnering with producer Hi-Tek for Reflection Eternal, releasing landmark solo material or collaborating with Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Just Blaze, J Dilla, or Madlib, Kweli commands attention by delivering top-tier lyricism, crafting captivating stories and showing the ability to rhyme over virtually any type of instrumental. In 2011, Kweli founded Javotti Media, which is self-defined as “a platform for independent thinkers and doers.” Kweli has set out to make Javotti Media (which released his 2011 album, Gutter Rainbows, and is named after his paternal grandmother) into a media powerhouse that releases music, films and books.
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PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Tamron Hall | Tamron Hall is an accomplished TV host, award-winning journalist and philanthropist. Her highly-anticipated syndicated daytime talk show “Tamron Hall” premiered nationally in September 2019 and has since been renewed for its second season. Since 2013, Tamron has hosted “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall” on Investigation Discovery, taking an in-depth look at crimes that shocked the nation. Previously, Tamron co-hosted the third hour of “TODAY” and “TODAY’s Take” and anchored “MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall.” Prior to joining MSNBC, Tamron served as an anchor, general assignment reporter, consumer reporter and host of “Fox News in the Morning” for WFLD in Chicago, and spent four years as a general assignment reporter at KTVT in Dallas. She began her broadcasting career at KBTX in Bryan, Texas. Tamron was honored with Temple University’s Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award in both 2010 and 2015 and was appointed to Temple’s Board of Trustees. She is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists and has received an Emmy, the 2015 Edward R. Murrow Award for Reporting: Hard News in Network Television, and an Honorary Doctorate from Peirce College for her work. Tamron is passionate about causes including domestic violence, homelessness and literacy. She is an ambassador for Safe Horizon, a domestic abuse organization, and partnered with them to launch The Tamron Renate Fund in honor of her sister and help victims and families affected by domestic violence. Tamron is a native of Luling, Texas and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Temple University. Terri Lyne Carrington (Music Director, Drums) | 2019 Doris Duke Artist and three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning drummer, composer, and producer, Terri Lyne Carrington, has also emerged as a formidable thought leader and activist in the struggle towards gender equity. From a child prodigy to a career that now spans more than four decades, she’s shattered glass ceilings as a 18 | @TownHallNYC
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS drummer and bandleader, gaining visibility early on through her stints on late night TV in the house bands of The Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV. Carrington is the first female artist to ever win the GRAMMY® Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, which she received for her 2013 work, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. She has played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Jarreau, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Yellowjackets, Pharoah Sanders, Stan Getz, Esperanza Spalding, and countless other music luminaries. An exceptional educator, Carrington was appointed Zildjian Chair in Performance at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music in 2005 and currently is the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice - the first of its kind. Inspired by her life’s work and expertise, the institute’s mission is to recruit, teach, mentor and advocate for young musicians seeking to study music with gender equity as a guiding principle. Carrington continues to be invited to speak and present at prestigious educational, artistic, and cultural institutions such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Harvard University, Princeton University, and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, in recognition of her activism and artistry. To date, Carrington has released nine albums, including her 2009 Grammy winning, The Mosaic Project and its 2015 follow up, The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL. Her newest album with her band Social Science, Waiting Game, was released this past November 2019 on Motema and is garnering global critical acclaim. Urban Bush Women | UBW burst onto the dance scene in 1984, with bold, demanding and exciting works that brought under told stories to life through the art and vision of its award winning Founder, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The Company weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora under the organizational artistic direction of Zollar and Co Artistic Directors of the Company, Chanon Judson and Samantha Speis. Off the concert stage, UBW has developed an extensive community engagement program, BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders through Dance). UBW’s largest community engagement project is its Summer Leadership Institute (SLI). This 10-day intensive training program connects dance professionals with community-based artists/activists in a learning experience to leverage the arts as a vehicle for civic engagement. UBW launched the @TownHallNYC | 19
PERFORMERS/SPEAKERS Choreographic Center Initiative (CCI) in January 2016. The CCI supports the development of women choreographers of color and other underheard voices. Sophia Nahli Allison | The Lena Horne Prize Short Films Directed and Edited by Sophia Nahli Allison. Sophia Nahli Allison is an experimental documentary filmmaker, photographer + dreamer. She disrupts conventional documentary methods by reimagining the archives and excavating hidden truths. Her work is a meditation of the spirit, exploring the public and private spaces of black women through alternate histories, erased and lost archives, and the entry point of the metaphysical. Sophia conjures ancestral, personal, and collective memories to explore the intersection of fiction and non-fiction storytelling. She is a 2020 United States Artists Fellow in Film and has held residencies at The MacDowell Colony, The Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France., The Center for Photography at Woodstock, and POV Spark’s African Interactive Art Residency. She is a recipient of a 2014 Chicago 3Arts Award and has received grants from the Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs, Glassbreaker Films, and Getty Images. In 2017 she was named the Student Video Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association. She has a Master’s Degree in visual communication from UNC. Past projects have been featured in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Root, with Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA, and more. Her short documentary A Love Song For Latasha premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and received the Grand Jury Documentary Prize at AFI Fest, along with Best Documentary Short awards at the New Orleans Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, and more including an IDA Documentary Awards Nomination.
“What’s the point in being popular if you can’t popularize things that are worth knowing about?... My deep regret is that political power has been somewhat blurred by people turning that power into a misuse of popularity.” ~ Harry Belafonte 20 | @TownHallNYC
ADVISORY BOARD Elizabeth Alexander | Poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, cultural advocate, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Gail Lumet Buckley | Robert F. Kennedy Book Award-winning author and daughter of Lena Horne Harry Belafonte | Singer, songwriter, actor, producer, author, political and humanitarian activist Bruce Cohen | Academy Award-winning Film Producer & President of the board of directors of the American Foundation for Equal Rights Judy Collins | GRAMMY Award-Winning singer and songwriter, UNICEF Representative, and former Town Hall Honoree Deesha Dyer | Second female African-American Social Secretary of the United States and Special Assistant to President Obama; Chief of Staff Ford Foundation and co-founder and Executive Director of BEGIRL.WORLD Dr. Eve Ewing | Sociologist of education whose research is focused on racism, social inequality, urban policy and the impact of these forces on American public schools. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times and many other venues.
Bob Ferguson | Oxfam America’s Creative Alliances and Music Outreach Manager Yance Ford | Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award winning director | producer. First out transgender director of an Oscar-nominated film. Guggenheim Fellow. Alicia Garza | Innovator, strategist, organizer. Founder of the Black Futures Lab. Co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Roxane Gay | Writer, professor, editor and commentator, author Thelma Golden | Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by artists of African descent Amanda Green | Tony Nominated actress, singer, and songwriter dream hampton | dream hampton is an award-winning filmmaker and writer from Detroit who was named one of 2019’s TIME 100’s most influential people in the world Joy Harjo | Award-winning poet, musician, activist, educator. Member of the Mvskoke Nation and the first Native American United States Poet Laureate.
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ADVISORY BOARD Dolores Huerta | Civil rights activist, community organizer, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez, founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. David Hwang | David Henry Hwang is a Tony Award winning playwright and two-time Pulitzer Finalist, whose works include M. BUTTERFLY, AIDA, YELLOW FACE, FLOWER DRUM SONG, CHINGLISH, and SOFT POWER. Jason King | Musician, DJ, performer, producer, arranger and songwriter, scholar, curator and journalist Susan Lacy | 14-time EMMY winning producer/director
Brittany Packnett | Activist, educator and writer, co-founder of Campaign Zero Ai-jen Poo | Nationally recognized grassroots organizer. Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Director of Caring Across Generations, Co-Founder of SuperMajority and Co-Founder of Care in Action. Billy Porter | EMMY, TONY & GRAMMY Award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, playwright and leading political and social activist Bob Santelli | Founding Executive Director GRAMMY MUSEUM, author and contributing writer Rolling Stone Amy Sorokas | Director Strategic Partnerships, Brand Strategy at Microsoft
Jenny Lumet | NAACP Image Award-winning screenwriter. Daughter of Gail Buckley Sidney Lumet, and granddaughter of Lena Horne Shola Lynch | Award-winning American Filmmaker, Peabody Award recipient, Curator of the Moving Image & Recorded Sound division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Janet Mock | Bestselling author of Redefining Realness (2014) and Surpassing Certainty (2017), a writer, director and producer on FX series Pose and the upcoming Netflix series Hollywood. 22 | @TownHallNYC
Kerry Steib | Senior Director, Brand & Marketing at Dig
Ken Sunshine | Founder and President of Sunshine Sachs, representing clients ranging from leading corporations, nonprofits and unions, to some of the most prominent names in entertainment. Jose Antonio Vargas | Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist
PRODUCED BY Marion Rosenfeld’s entire career has been in media with a focus on pop culture and food. Among professional highlights: four years in the editorial department at SPY magazine; launching associate producer at the Food Network; producer/ editor at several 1.0 websites including: New York Sidewalk.com, freshdirect.com, and howcast.com; writer/producer Epicurious television (The Travel Channel). She was lead researcher and a producer for The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor since its inception in 1998 (through 2018). Marion was co-author of both The Food Snob’s Dictionary (Penguin) and Get a Real Food Life (Rodale). She also is the co-founder and director of The Cooking Room a non-profit that has taught food literacy to thousands of NYC elementary school kids since 2010 Jeb Gutelius is the co-founder of Sailworks, which creates innovative social change ranging from urban education, women’s empowerment in Sudan and Afghanistan, LGBTQ homelessness to public service. His solutions rely on collaborations across musicians, nonprofits, policy makers, funders, corporations, and fans. His experience includes a year in China, ten years developing and growing a New England-based clothing design and manufacturing company, and 13 years building non-profit organizations with musicians which combine philanthropy and fan engagement. Michael Matuza conceives and produces high-profile media specials and live events in the music, comedy, political, sports and not-for-profit arenas. Matuza has produced over 50 hours of primetime network specials including EMMY & NAACP-nominated In Performance at the White House during the Obama administration and EMMY-nominated The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. These programs have honored an impressive list of artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Ray Charles, Carole King, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, David Letterman, Bill Murray and Dave Chappelle among many others. Matuza enjoys working closely with non-profits having produced successful fundraising events for GRAMMY Foundation & Museum, Kennedy Center, David Lynch Foundation, LBJ Presidential Library, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Ally Coalition, Little Kids Rock, CIA Memorial Foundation, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, United Nations, ACLU and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives with his wife Catherine, son Miles and their two pups Hugo and Rocket. M.A. Papper is Artistic Director of The Town Hall. Over the past seven years, Papper revitalized the non-profit institution with bold, adventurous programming and amplified the theatre’s great history with benefit concerts for social justice causes, public affairs debates and discussions, and diverse tributes to the Hall’s cultural and musical milestones. Papper has worked with hundreds of artists, authors, and leaders from dozens of countries, and presents numerous events annually for organizations with missions to protect refugees, combat climate change, protect reproductive rights, advocate prison reform, protect LGBTQ youth and the elderly, and promote gun control. @TownHallNYC | 23
LENA HORNE PRODUCTION CREDITS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
ADDITIONAL VIDEO CONTENT
HOUSE BAND
The Town Hall
Anthony Farina
“SOCIAL SCIENCE” Music Director/Drums:
Marion Rosenfeld Jeb Gutelius
ADDITIONAL SCREEN
Terri Lyne Carrington
Michael Matuza
CONTENT
Guitar: Matthew Stevens
Alexis Gallo
Saxophone/Bass/Drums:
SHOWRUNNER/
Morgan Guerin
HEAD WRITER
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS
Vocals: Debo Ray
Kierna Mayo
Geoffrey Morrissey
Piano/Keyboards:
Jordan Di Pirro
Ray Angry
WRITER Karen Good Marable
Keyboards/Saxophone: AUDIO ENGINEER
Edmar Colon
Marc Urselli
Turntables: Val Jeanty
PRODUCER Hillary Capps
Vocals: Michael Mayo MONITOR ENGINEER
Trumpet: Alonzo Ryan
Marie Kim
Bass: Ben Zwerin
LIGHTING DESIGN
BACKLINE
Mark Powell
Centerstaging
SET DESIGN
PRINTING
OTR Collective
Red Star Merch
PUBLICITY
LENA HORNE PRIZE STATUE
Sunshine Sachs
Designed and created by Imani
MUSIC DIRECTOR Terri Lyne Carrington TALENT EXECUTIVE Carrie Paddock TRAVEL COORDINATOR Rob DelliBovi PRODUCTION MANAGERS
Shanklin Robert and Nala Turner
Carl Acampora
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Marty Yee
Allison Gobel
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Anchi Friedman
Afropunk
STAGE MANAGER
Isaac Jankowski
City of New York
Arthur Lewis
Rui Dun
GRAMMY Museum
ASSISTANT STAGE
TALENT ESCORTS
MANAGERS
Blake Brooks
Jeffrey Gitter
Brian José
Karen Tasch Weiss
Carolyn Castro
Elizabeth Healy
Erica Bletsoe SHORT FILMS DIRECTED/
George Williams
EDITED BY
Gigi Bell
Sophia Nahli Allison
Jeff Gershon Keely Gordon Nancy Shefts Tanya Jennings
24 | @TownHallNYC
Amber Ruffin
THE TOWN HALL FOUNDATION The Town Hall’s mission is to provide affordable world-class entertainment by new and established artists to a diverse audience; to inspire the youth of our community to appreciate and participate in the arts at The Town Hall and in schools through our Education Outreach Program; and to preserve and enhance The Town Hall as a historic landmark venue for the enjoyment and cultural enrichment of generations to come.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
WARNING
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
Tom Wirtshafter
Alfred H. Horowitz
PRESIDENT EMERITUS
VICE PRESIDENT
Bruce S. Leffler
Marvin Leffler
TREASURER
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Andrew T. Miltenberg
Susan Zohn
SECRETARY
TRUSTEES
Phyllis Putter Barasch
Jacobo Almuiña Phyllis Putter Barasch Robert E. Evanson Anne Frank-Shapiro Alfred H. Horowitz Henry Johansson Bruce S. Leffler Marvin Leffler David F. McCarthy Ellen Miller-Wachtel Andrew T. Miltenberg Rita Robbins Madhu Southworth Nevin Steinberg Tom Wirtshafter Susan Zohn
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Kathleen Rosenberg, Chair Nancy Berman Shauna Denkensohn Sandy Horowitz Elizabeth Iannizzi Zita Rosenthal Rhoda Rothkopf ARTS IN EDUCATION
Dr. Charlotte K. Frank, Chair Michael Fram Dr. Sharon Dunn Gary Hecht Ernest Logan Dr. Lisa Mars Dr. Eloise Messineo Dr. Pola Rosen Leona Shapiro George Young
Leona Chanin Mary Dettling-Wright
THE TOWN HALL STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Lawrence C. Zucker
Bill Dehling
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
BOX OFFICE MANAGER
M.A. Papper
Angel Rodriguez
DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION, SUBSCRIPTIONS & MEMBERSHIP
CHIEF ENGINEER
Steve Franqui
Helen Morris HOUSE MANAGER
Richard Looney
Jacqueline Maddox DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONAL GIVING ASSOCIATE
Lauren Noble
Barbara Matovu
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT
Jeff Mann
P. H. Lawson
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & ARCHIVIST
Melay Araya DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER
Alex Koveos PRINCIPAL DESIGNER
Leia-lee Doran
FIRE NOTICE The exit indicated by a red light and sign nearest to the seat you occupy is the shortest route to the street. In the event of fire or other emergency please do not run, WALK TO THAT EXIT. Thoughtless persons annoy patrons and endanger the safety of others by lighting matches or smoking in prohibited areas during the performances and intermissions. This violates a city ordinance and is punishable by law.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
LIFE TRUSTEES
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording inside the theatre without the written permission of the management is prohibited by law. Violators may be punished by ejection and violations may render the offender liable for monetary damages.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Britni Montalbano
-FIRE COMMISSIONER
DIRECTORY OF THEATRE SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES: 212.997.1003 Mon-Fri 9:30 am to 5 pm, for rental & membership info BOX OFFICE: 212.840.2824 Mon-Sat 12 noon to 6pm. 24/7 Recording TICKETMASTER: 800.982.2787 to charge tickets by phone.online Ticketmaster.com LOST AND FOUND: 212.997.0113 CELL PHONE POLICY Cell phones should be silenced prior to the performance as a courtesy to the performers and audience. LOBBY REFRESHMENT BY Theatre Refreshment Company of NY
123 WEST 43RD ST NYC 10036 THETOWNHALL.ORG
EDUCATION ASSISTANT
Sophie Siegel-Warren EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT
Kylee Brinkman
filx
CONNECT @TOWNHALLNYC @TownHallNYC | 25
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Color of Change is a proud workshop sponsor.