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Steelpan Virtuoso Iman Pascall at
practice. |
Brooklyn, New York -
On April 23rd, 2005 Iman Pascall entered the
Performing Arts category for musical instrumental (Steel-Pan) and won
the Gold medal in the Contemporary category, and the Bronze medal in
Classical, at the NAACP NYC ACT-SO competition. In July she heads to
Milwaukee, WI to compete in the National Competition representing NYC.
Read more about from this NAACP NYC ACT-SO
initiative from their official pre-event press release directly below.
Special
sections of interest are highlighted in
ORANGE.
PRESS RELEASE
New York, NY. --
The NAACP New York City chapter of the
Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (NYC
ACT-SO) will pay tribute to New York City Deputy Mayor for Policy Dennis
M. Walcott, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation Chairman Emeritus Percy
E. Sutton, legendary actor and activist Ruby Dee, acclaimed author and
poet Ntozake Shange, and National Cancer Institute Associate Director
Dr. Harold P. Freeman, who also is Medical Director of the Ralph Lauren
Center for Cancer Care – each as a Special Honoree – at the 18th annual
NYC ACT-SO VIP Reception & Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 25, 2005 at
Con Edison, 4 Irving Place in Lower Manhattan. The VIP Reception
(invitation only) will be from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., and the Awards
Ceremony (open to the public with ticket purchase) will be from 7 p.m.
to 9 p.m. Jane Hanson and Otis Livingston of NBC News Channel 4 will
host the ceremony. Former President William Jefferson Clinton, U.S.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and U.S. Senator Barack Obama are
Honorary Co-chairs of the event, which is made possible through the
generous support of Con Edison, edGenuiti Worldwide, Washington Mutual,
and media partner WNBC-4/New York. Tickets are $50, $100, and, for VIP
Reception access, $250.
“Our distinguished and highly-accomplished honorees are the kind of role
models who can have a positive and lasting impact on the lives of New
York City’s young scholars,” said NYC ACT-SO Executive Director Anton
Tomlinson.
The Awards Ceremony is the local culmination of NYC ACT-SO’s annual
signature event, the Olympics of the Mind competition, in which some 200
enthusiastic Black high school students, grades 9 to 12, from throughout
New York City will converge under one roof to showcase their talents in
the humanities, performing arts, visual arts, and sciences, two days
prior on Saturday, April 23, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Manhattan’s
Martin Luther King Jr. High School, 122 Amsterdam Avenue, between 65th
and 66th streets.
Special Honoree in the Humanities, Deputy Mayor for Policy Dennis M.
Walcott, is Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s point person on education. In
that capacity, he coordinates the mayor’s reform of New York City’s
public schools. He also serves as the liaison to the Department of Youth
and Community Development, New York City Housing Authority, Health and
Hospitals Corporation, City University of New York, and the Mayor’s
Office of Health Insurance Access. The former President and CEO of the
New York Urban League is a product of the New York City public school
system. He received a Masters of Social Work from Fordham University and
a Masters of Education from the University of Bridgeport.
Special Honoree in Entrepreneurship Percy E. Sutton is a celebrated
attorney, activist, former elected official, businessman, technology and
communications expert, and World War II U.S. Air Force veteran. Mr.
Sutton is the founder, controlling shareholder, and Chairman Emeritus of
Inner City Broadcasting Corporation with its principal office in New
York City and radio stations around the United States. He also is
Chairman & CEO, and principal investor in Synematics, Inc., a high
technology software/hardware company with offices in New York City and
Upstate New York. Between 1954 and 1965, Mr. Sutton and his brother,
Judge Oliver C. Sutton, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the
State of New York, individually or together served as advisors to, and
legal counsel for Malcolm X. Mr. Sutton, co-founder of the first Black
political caucus, served in 1965 and 1966 as a member of the New York
State Assembly, where he led in the development of early New York State
legislation in housing, employment, civil right, human rights, access to
higher education and other key issues. He also served for 11 years as
the first elected President of the Borough of Manhattan, ran for Mayor
of New York City, practiced law before various state and federal courts,
and served as legal advisor in Reverend Jessie Jackson’s presidential
campaign.
Special Honoree in the Performing Arts Ruby Dee – known for her
legendary groundbreaking efforts to honestly and positively portray the
lives of African Americans – and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, have
been featured in more than 50 films, beginning in 1950 with No Way Out
featuring Sidney Poitier. Her more recent films include Malcolm X,
Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing and Get on the Bus. An alumna of Hunter
College, in 1961 Ms. Dee starred in the acclaimed Purlie Victorious,
written and directed by Mr. Davis. Ms. Dee was the first Black woman to
play lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival. Numerous awards
she has received include the Obie, Drama Desk, Emmy, NAACP Image Award,
National Medal of Arts, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award,
and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle Award. She
has been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and the NAACP Image
Awards Hall of Fame. Last year, she and Mr. Davis were distinguished as
Kennedy Center Honorees. Always giving back to the African American (and
indeed the Pan African) community, Ms. Dee co-produced the first
American feature film to be shot entirely in Africa by Black
professionals. Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis served as masters of ceremonies for
the historic 1963 March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Special Honoree in the Performing Arts Ntozake Shange (pronounced en-to-zaki
shong-gay) was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, N.J., on October 18,
1948. In 1971 she changed her name to Ntozake Shange which means "she
who comes with her own things" and "she who walks like a lion" in Xhosa,
the Zulu language. A 1970 cum laude graduate of Barnard College,
majoring in American Studies, she, in 1973 earned a master’s degree in
American Studies from the University of Southern California at Los
Angeles. While living in California, she collaborated with Paula Moss on
the poetry, music, and dance piece that would become her most noted
work, for colored girls. Ms. Moss and Ms. Shange went to New York and
performed for colored girls in a Soho jazz loft and later in bars in the
lower East Side. Producer Woodie King Jr. saw one of these shows and
helped director Oz Scott stage the “choreopoem” Off-Broadway at the New
Federal Theatre. It then moved to the New York Shakespeare Company's
Anspacher Public Theatre, and then to the Booth Theatre. In addition to
plays, Ms. Shange has written poetry, novels, and essays among other
genre. She has taught at California State College, the City College of
New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, and
New York University. Among her many awards are an Obie, a Los Angeles
Times Book Prize for Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize. Most recently, Ms
Shange was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary
Work for her recent children’s book Ellington Was Not A Street.
In addition to his leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute and
The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, Harold P.
Freeman, M.D., Special Honoree in the Sciences, holds the academic
position of Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Freeman also is a Diplomat of the
American Board of Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of
Surgeons, among numerous other significant professional distinctions.
Dr. Freeman is the chief architect of the American Cancer Society’s
initiative on cancer in the poor and is a leading authority on the
interrelationships between race, poverty, and cancer. Related to this,
the “Harold P. Freeman Award” was established by the American Cancer
Society in 1990. This award may be given annually in ACS divisions
throughout America to individuals who have made outstanding
contributions in the fight against cancer in the poor. Dr. Freeman
pioneered the development of “Patient Navigation” through his work in
Harlem to eliminate any barriers to diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Such programs have been initiated at more than 200 sites throughout the
nation.
Presented with pageantry and excitement, the
daylong NYC ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind competition on April 23 offers
students a singular experience and level of recognition that can greatly
impact their lives long after high school. Students compete in 25
Humanities, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Sciences categories. At
the Awards Ceremony on April 25, the top three winners in each category
will receive a gold medal with $500 in cash, silver medal with $300, and
bronze medal with $200. The NYC ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind gold
medalists will advance (among 1,200 gold medalists from local
competitions across the country) to the national NAACP ACT-SO Olympics
of the Mind to be held July 7-11 in Milwaukee, where prizes are a gold
medal with $2,000; silver with $1,500; and bronze with $1,000. Every
national medalist also receives a fully-loaded laptop computer.
The NAACP NYC ACT-SO program is a 501(c) (3) volunteer organization
funded by public and private donations. Founded in 1987 by Anton
Tomlinson and Benjamin Duster IV, NYC ACT-SO is dedicated to promoting
academic and cultural excellence among Black high school students. Its
mission is to overcome the vicious cycle of low scholastic expectations
and achievement that plagues minority communities throughout the city.
More than 98 percent of NYC-ACT-SO students graduate from high school
and 85 percent go on to college. Since its inception, NYC ACT-SO has
mentored nearly 5,000 students through coaching sessions, the Olympics
of the Mind, and other enrichment activities. NYC ACT-SO proudly carries
on the legacy started by the late Vernon Jarrett, award-winning
journalist, activist and founder of the national NAACP ACT-SO program in
1977. With more than 140 chapters nationwide, ACT-SO is the country’s
largest program committed to the academic success of Black youth.
For more information about the Olympics of the Mind or Awards Ceremony
tickets, the general public can call NYC ACT-SO at 212-666-9348 or visit
www.actso.org. The media
should call Nichell Taylor Bryant at 917-407-3852.
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