| Broadway Advocacy Coalition's Annual Gala to Honor COLMAN DOMINGO & ZAKIYAH SHAAKIR-ANSARI | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 04:37 pm EDT 09/04/24 | |
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| BROADWAY ADVOCACY COALITION'S ANNUAL GALA—THE ARTIVISM BALL To Honor Academy Award, Golden Globe, Tony nominee & Emmy winner COLMAN DOMINGO and Co-Executive Director of the New York State Alliance for Quality Education ZAKIYAH SHAAKIR-ANSARI ZHAILON LEVINGSTON Named Director of the Gala Program on MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2024 New York (Wednesday, September 4, 2024) – The Tony Award-winning non-profit Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) has announced that its annual gala, The Artivism Ball, will be held on Monday, October 14, 2024 at 583 Park Avenue. This year's gala will celebrate the Emmy-winning and Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Tony-nominated actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo, and Co-Executive Director of the New York State Alliance for Quality Education Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari. Zhailon Levingston (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), who serves on BAC's Board of Directors, will serve as Director of the Gala Program. The evening will feature live performances from BAC's past and future while honoring individuals who have been vital to the organization's growth and the furthering of arts advocacy across the country. The event is a critical moment for BAC to celebrate its mission of creating a more just and equitable world through the power of storytelling and raise funds to support the organization's ongoing mission to amplify and empower artist-activists on Broadway and beyond. BAC President, Britton Smith shared the following: "The work Colman Domingo is doing as a producer and star of the A24 film Sing Sing, which highlights the Rehabilitation for The Arts program in prisons, is the very example of what BAC knows is possible when artists use their platform to tell under sung stories. Narrative change will impact culture, and culture will shift policies that impact the lives of many. We are honored to lift up Colman and thank him for his long journey as an artist who will be remembered as a voice of liberation and impact beyond the stage and screen. "Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and the Alliance for Quality Education model what it looks like to fight for the rights of Black and brown students in NY with grace, rigor, spirit, and diligence. We honor Zakiyah for leading the masses into a deeper understanding of what's possible when we truly care for the rights of our students, and we stand with countless parents and advocates who have witnessed her transformative leadership in this space." "As an organization BAC has evolved over the past year, so the theme of this year's Artivism Ball is reintroduction. We are excited to share our latest programming, regrounding in our founding commitment to activate theater artists as change agents, and to spotlight the new staff and leadership team members who have led these initiatives. As we learned from last year's inaugural Ball, the gala offers us an opportunity to be in fellowship with our larger community…and to dance!" Tickets to Broadway Advocacy Coalition's Artivism Ball can be purchased at ArtivismBall.com. To learn more about BAC, visit their website at www.bwayadvocacycoalition.org. Founded in 2016, BAC's mission is to use arts and storytelling to build a more equitable society —and build the collective capacity of individuals, organizations, and coalitions to do the same. In 2021, BAC received a Special Tony Award for providing an unparalleled platform for underrepresented members of the theater community and tools to help the theater industry move toward a more equitable future. BIOGRAPHIES: COLMAN DOMINGO (Honoree) Colman Domingo has been nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA, Tony®, Critics Choice, Independent Spirit, Gotham, Laurence Olivier, Drama Desk, Drama League, NAACP Image, and Black Reel Award. He has won an Emmy, Astra, AAFCA, NAACP Image, and Black Reel Award. In 2023, Domingo starred as Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin in Netflix and Higher Ground's film "Rustin" for which he received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG nomination. He can also be seen as "Mister" in the Warner Bros production of "The Color Purple", which received a SAG Ensemble nomination. Domingo produced and stars in Greg Kwedar's film "Sing Sing" which premiered at TIFF this past September and was purchased for distribution by A24, and will have its theatrical release in 2024. He also executive produced "It's What's Inside", premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by NETFLIX later this year. Domingo is well known for his Emmy Award-winning role as Ali in HBO's "Euphoria" as well as his roles in "Zola", "If Beale Street Could Talk", "Selma", "Candyman", and many more. Domingo and his husband Raul Domingo have produced a myriad of work under their Edith Productions banner. He has also co-produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated play Fat Ham. Domingo co-wrote, produced, and starred in the Academy Award shortlisted animated short film "New Moon" as well as the award-winning short "North Star." This fall Domingo will be seen as the lead in the limited series "The Madness" created by Clement Virgo for Netflix. He also recently wrapped production on "Michael" playing Joe Jackson, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Lionsgate will release the film April 25th, 2025. ZAKIYAH SHAAKIR-ANSARI (Honoree) Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari is the Co-Executive Director of the New York State Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the leading statewide organization that has been fighting for educational justice in New York State. Zakiyah is the mother of 8 children and grandparent of 4. Zakiyah has dedicated 20+ years of her life to the fight for educational justice and ending the oppression of Black and brown people. Zakiyah sits on the board of the Institute for Educational Leadership and the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Zakiyah was named one of City and State magazine's "25 Most Influential in Brooklyn." Zakiyah volunteers her time with Justice League NYC and Resistance Revival Chorus. Zakiyah is a Senior Fellow for Racial Equity at the Atlantic Institute. ZHAILON LEVINGSTON (Director of the Gala Program) Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. He is a Board Member for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which he co-created, and teaches the Theatre of Change course at Columbia University. He is a Music Mentor Fellow and has done work with Idina Menzel's A Broader Way Foundation. His directing credits include: Neptune (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum), The Years That Went Wrong (Lark, MCC), The Exonerated (Columbia Law School), Chariot Part 2 (Soho Rep, for The Movement Theatre Company), Mother of Pearl (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center). He is the associate director of Primer for a Failed Superpower with Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, and Runaways at The Public Theater with Sam Pinkleton. Most recently, he directed Chicken & Biscuits which premiered on Broadway in 2021, Patience which premiered at Second Stage UPTOWN Summer of 2022, CATS: The Jellicle Ball running at Perelman Performing Arts Center, and Table 17 running at MCC Theater. He is currently co-creating with Alex Hare, A Burning church:A New Musical and will be directing Little Miss Perfect at the Olney 2026. Zhailon is also the former resident director at Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway and the associate director of Hadestown in South Korea. ABOUT THE BROADWAY ADVOCACY COALITION The Broadway Advocacy Coalition is a Tony Award winning arts-based advocacy nonprofit dedicated to building the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities to use storytelling to dismantle the systems that perpetuate racism. Founded in 2016 by several Black members of the Broadway community as a direct response to the nation's pandemic of racism and police brutality, it has since grown into a multidisciplinary organization which unites artists, legal experts and community advocates to create lasting impact and collaborations on policy issues ranging from criminal justice reform to education equity. Via its partnership with the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, BAC has created its groundbreaking "Theater of Change" methodology and collaborated with public institutions across New York City including the New York City Council and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office. Other recent collaborations including the Gasping for Justice campaign featuring Jesse Williams, Fiona Apple and Alec Baldwin; the 24 Hour Plays "Viral Monologues" featuring DeRay Mckesson, Lynn Nottage and Aja Naomi King; and the Flores Exhibits—in partnership with Waterwell Theater—featuring David Schwimmer, Morena Baccarin and others. Over the last year BAC has built out a number of programs including the Artivism Fellowship, a commission-based program supporting a group of artist-activists over the course of seven months in building their skills as artivists and producing works that catalyze change in the criminal justice landscape; Storytelling for Social Good, a guided storytelling experience that invites everyone to see themselves as an agent of change; and its Change Agent Training workshops, which teach theater industry workers the foundations of labor organizing and community based advocacy. |
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