Honorees Are Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright and Screenwriter, and Michele Roberts, Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association
NEW YORK, NY (April 21, 2015) – The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (Bro/Sis), the nationally recognized non-profit and youth development organization that provides multi-layered support, guidance and academic services to New York City area youth, will mark its 20th anniversary on Thursday, May 14 at New York’s Gotham Hall, with the 11th edition of its annual VOICES benefit.
More than 400 supporters and notables are expected at the event, which will salute two esteemed honorees: Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter, Lynn Nottage; and Michele Roberts, Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association. The organization’s accomplishments over its two-decade history will be marked with inspiring reminisces and video featuring the organization’s leadership, staff and youth and alumni who represent the thousands of young people who have been guided to successful academic and professional lives by Bro/Sis. Also featured will be spoken word pieces from award winning alumnus members of Bro/Sis’s Lyrical Circle and The Peace Poets.
Founded in 1995 by Brown University seniors and New York City natives, Khary Lazarre-White and Jason Warwin, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol provides a comprehensive, long-term support to New York City youth, ages eight to twenty-one, out of its headquarters, a restored, four-story brownstone in West Harlem. Its services include an intensive four-six year Rites of Passage program, including five-day a week after-school care, counseling, summer camps, job training, college preparation, employment opportunities and international study programs in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
As a result of Bro/Sis’s dedicated work, 94% of its students have graduated high school (versus the 68% NYC number), and 95% are working full-time or enrolled in college. Due to the high-profile success of its evidence-based model, the organization has trained over 1,000 educators working in cities across the nation, and its leaders have been sought-after advisers for numerous government and private organizations, on policy related to youth development, mentoring, violence prevention and education.
The evening’s honorees, Lynn Nottage and Michele Roberts, are being feted for their support of the organization and positions as vital role models to the youth who participate in Bro/Sis’s programs.
Brooklyn-born Lynn Nottage graduated from Brown University and the Yale School of Drama before launching her meteoric career as a playwright, which has earned her honors including the Pulitzer Prize and the OBIE, for her best-known work, Ruined, as well as the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. Her works, which has included successful and award-winning plays including Intimate Apparel, Fabulations, or the Re-Education of Undine and Crumbs from the Table of Joy, often deal with the lives of women of African descent. Over the year, Nottage has taken her dramatic skill from the stage to the screen with her production company, Market Road Films, whose recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout, which premiered at Sundance in 2014 and 2013’s First To Fall. She is presently adapting her 2003 play, Intimate Apparel, into an opera with composer Ricky Ian Gordon.
As Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association, Michele Roberts is the first woman to head a major profession sports union in North America. In this role, she serves as the primary advocate for all players, including serving as the lead negotiator in all collective bargaining activities. Raised in a housing project in the South Bronx, Roberts went on to earn her B.A. from Wesleyan University and legal degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. She began her career in 1980 at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, serving eight years and rising to the position of Chief of the Trial Division. Prior to joining NBPA, Roberts was a renowned trial lawyer and member of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Litigation Group. For many years, she has routinely rated among the top in her profession, in articles and ratings from organizations including Legal Times, Chambers USA and Washingtonian Magazine, which called her the “finest pure trial lawyer in Washington, D.C.
“This year’s VOICES benefit is truly special, one where we mark 20 years of helping young people to transform their lives, in New York City and, increasingly, the world beyond,” said Khary Lazarre-White, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Brotherhood/Sister Sol. “After 20 years and documented results – it is no longer a theory. We help young people to change and transform their lives; it is what we do. When I reflect on two decades of work and achievement at The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, I am deeply moved by the personal stories and journeys of our young people. It has been a profound experience to watch so many youth become lovers of education, to come to define their own moral and ethical code – and to be involved in guiding them as they become politically aware. It is a dream fulfilled.”
“We’re also delighted to highlight the great work of our honorees, Lynn and Michele, at VOICES 11,” continues Lazarre-White. “These women represent the types of honorees we seek to celebrate – successful people who engage in work that is important to society and who create art that gives voice to vital social issues of the day.”
Past participants and supporters of VOICES included: Harry Belafonte, Mayor David N. Dinkins, entertainment figures such as Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson, S. Epatha Merkenson, George C. Wolfe, Michael Ealy, Esperanza Spalding, Boris Kodjoe and Norm Lewis, journalists Soledad O’Brien, T.J. Holmes and Tamron Hall and prominent attorneys such as Theodore Wells and Elaine Jones. Fundraising co-chairs for VOICES 11 are Michael J. O’Brien, Senior Vice President and Secretary, Omnicom Group, and Craig Phillips, Managing Director of BlackRock, and his wife, Liz.
VOICES 11 will take place Thursday, May 14 at Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway (at 36th St.). Reception/silent auction begins at 6:30 pm, followed by formal dinner and awards presentation at 8:00 pm (Dress code: Festive Cocktail Attire).
About Brotherhood/Sister Sol:
Founded in 1995, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (Bro/Sis) provides comprehensive, holistic and long-term support services to youth who range in age from eight to twenty-one. Bro/Sis offers wrap around evidence-based programming such as four-six year rites of passage programming, thorough five day a week after school care, school and home counseling, summer camps, job training, college preparation, employment opportunities, community organizing training, and month long international study programs to Africa and Latin America. Bro/Sis is locally based with a national reach as they publish assorted curricula and collections of our members’ writings; train educators from throughout the nation on our approach; and advise on educational policy, violence prevention and criminal justice reform across the country and New York City. Bro/Sis has earned national recognition for their evidence based model, receiving an array of awards, including from Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network Use Your Life Award, and honor from the Ford Foundation, Brown University, New York Women’s Foundation, the Fund for the City of New York, Union Square Awards, and the New York State Department of Education. More information: http://brotherhood-sistersol.org
