NEWSLETTER
Dreams In Action: A Night of African Inspired Elegance
Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at Brooklyn Children’s Museum Rooftop
Will Honor Four Recipients with first Impact & Excellence Awards
Brooklyn, NY, (April 17, 2023) – K. Osei Williams, Executive Director of Brooklyn’s revered Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation, Inc., has announced they will host their inaugural fundraising Dreams In Action: A Night of African-Inspired Elegance Gala at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum Rooftop on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The foundation will also present its first four recipients of the Asase Yaa Impact & Excellence Award, Atiba Edwards, President & CEO, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Cheryl Todmann, Founder & Executive Producer, Stars of New York Dance, Sheena Wright, NYC’s first Deputy Mayor, and Malik Yoba, actor & CEO, Yoba Development. The Brooklyn Museum is located at 145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
Asase Yaa’s special evening will also commemorate its 23rd year as a 501c3 nonprofit. Sharon Gordon, a multi-talented and acclaimed journalist, actress, and film producer will serve as Host/Mistress of Ceremonies. The headlining performers will include the Asase Yaa Youth Ensemble, Arkestra Africa feat. Amma Watt, an 11-member Afro beat band, and The Jouvayfest Company, the award-winning 2023 J’ouvert Band of the Year- “THE RED LETTERSSSSS” (presented by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association). The after-party will feature music by the renowned DJ Spinna. Doors Open & VIP Cocktail Reception 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Main Event, Performances, & Award Ceremony 8:00 – 9:00 pm, Afterparty/Dancing, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM.
Rubie Inez Williams, Asase Yaa’s Director of Operations, shared, “Our Impact & Excellence Award recipients are a part of our community of champions. We felt this would be the best way to celebrate and honor those who have supported our mission and more than two decades of life-changing programming we’ve developed for our youth and communities.”
Kofi Osei Williams added, “Through our diverse education and arts programs, we have helped to culturally enrich and blossom our communities. We are proud of our accomplishments and the funds we raise from our Gala will help ensure that our impact is fortified for generations to come!”
To purchase tickets and sign up for sponsorships go to https://www.asaseyaaent.org/dia-2024/. For more info about the Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation go to: www.asaseyaaent.org/.
ABOUT ASASE YAA CULTURAL ARTS FOUNDATION IMPACT
For over 20 years, Asase Yaa Cultural Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit has evolved with imagination, agility, discipline, dedication, resourcefulness, and passion. Within our first decade we established a professional dance/drum company, the Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater as well as powerful and enriching cultural arts based educational programs. Today, our Foundation encompasses a robust range of programs including the Asase Yaa School of the Arts, Asase Yaa Children’s Summer Art Camp, and Asase Yaa Arts Outreach, which services over 1,000 students and schools throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens with live entertainment and interactive educational performances throughout the school year. Many of our dance and drum students from our School of the Arts graduate and join our African American Dance Theater.
We have a deep commitment to continue our mission of creating positive impact through the arts and cultural practices in our communities. This gala is an effort to balance its founding purpose and sprit with an improved infrastructure and the acquisition of a new home base—all of which will better support all our ability to continue to elevate and expand all the programs that are managed and sustained under the umbrella of the Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation.
ABOUT THE ASASE YAA IMPACT & EXCELLENCE AWARD RECIPIENTS
Atiba T. Edwards, President & CEO, Brooklyn Children's Museum
Atiba Edwards is President & CEO of Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM). Prior to his role as President, Atiba spent nearly five years as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at BCM, overseeing visitor experience, finance, and human resources, building operations, and marketing. Prior to that, Atiba was Director of Operations at Brooklyn East Collegiate, a middle school that is part of the Uncommon Schools network. He began his career as a Fixed Income Research Analyst at JPMorgan’s Investment Bank, where he covered the automotive sector, and at Nomura Securities in their high grade and high-yield fixed income research divisions. Atiba also co-founded FOKUS, a non-profit organization that connects and builds community through the arts. He lives in Brooklyn.
Atiba was born in St. Vincent, West Indies and grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He graduated from the University of Michigan with degrees in Industrial Operations & Engineering and Liberal Arts, with a focus on poetry and musicology.
Cheryl Todmann, Founder & Executive Producer of The Stars of New York Dance
Cheryl Todmann began her career in marketing for media companies like Essence Magazine, The New York Times, TV Guide and MTV Networks. She found her calling as the founder and executive producer of The Star of New York Dance, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that makes children’s dance dreams come true. The Stars of New York Dance is most known for its charitable, thrilling, and judged dance competition for New York City leaders that raises dance education funds for children from under-resourced communities to help them develop discipline, confidence and self-esteem to succeed in school and in life. This year, The Stars of New York Dance will celebrate 15 years of providing hundreds of children and youth—from East New York to East Harlem—with a year of free dance education and training with reputable community-based dance organizations in New York City. Learn more at www.starsnydance.org.
First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright
Sheena Wright has served in the Adams administration since January 2022, first as Deputy Mayor of strategic initiatives and, since January 2023, as First Deputy Mayor. During her time in the administration, she helped launch the first phase of the MyCity portal, a one-stop-shop where New Yorkers can easily apply for and track city services and benefits. She has helped the city deliver on key planks of the Blueprint for Childcare & Early Childhood Education in New York City — most notably, clearing a backlogged waitlist for vouchers and allowing families of 36,000 children to apply for low-cost, high-quality childcare. First Deputy Mayor Wright also co-led the Joint Taskforce to Get Nonprofits Paid on Time, which unlocked more than $4.2 billion in contractual dollars for more than 460 large and small organizations. She drove an historic expansion of New York City’s summer youth employment program — already the nation’s largest such program — to offer job opportunities to 100,000 young New Yorkers this past summer. And First Deputy Mayor Wright additionally co-leads the city’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, which has contributed to the city’s decrease in shootings. First Deputy Mayor Wright previously served as the first female president and CEO of United Way of New York City and president and CEO of Abyssinian Development Corporation. Before joining the Adams administration, she was appointed to the city’s Education Sector Advisory Council and the state’s New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board. First Deputy Mayor Wright practiced law, including for five years at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. She also served as a trustee for Columbia University and acted as a board member for New Visions for Public Schools, NYC Kids Rise, and the New York City Regional Economic Development Council. First Deputy Mayor Wright has been named number one on City & State New York’s “Nonprofit Power 100,” listed in Crain’s New York Business’ “Notable Black Leaders and Executives,” and named numerous times as a notable nonprofit executive and civil servant. She is a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School.
Dr. Malik Yoba, Actor, Founder & CEO of Yoba Development
Although this Hollywood veteran offers over three decades of commitment to the arts with over fifty film credits and more than a dozen lead roles in network/cable television series, he considers himself a community and youth advocate first. Born in the South Bronx and raised in Harlem, it was his debut in the 1993 Disney classic Cool Runnings and his performance as NYPD Detective J.C. Williams in the groundbreaking nineties police drama, New York Undercover, that catapulted Malik into the fabric of American culture.
A serial entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of Yoba Development, a diversified portfolio company specializing in real estate, education, and media. As a mission-driven firm, they are committed to building human capacity through education and media while simultaneously pursuing sustainable, affordable and market rate mixed-use development projects in transitioning neighborhoods. Yoba Development has active real estate projects in New York, Baltimore, Augusta GA, Chicago and Charleston.
In 2022, Malik received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Livingstone College.