Music industry legend Stevie Wonder, R&B favorites Anita Baker, Bettye Lavette, Ginuwine, El Debarge and Angie Stone, and fast-rising stars Fantasia, Ledisi, Melanie Fiona and Anthony Hamilton will lead an all-star tribute to Chaka Khan when UNCF An Evening of Stars is taped Saturday, September 25 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The evening’s climax will be the presentation to Khan of UNCF’s prestigious Award of Excellence, in recognition of her distinguished career and her support of UNCF’s mission: making the famous words, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” a reality for students and families around the country. The program will also feature a special on-stage appeal on behalf of an endangered group: UNCF graduating seniors. UNCF An Evening of Stars will be televised nationally in January 2011.
Wonder, Baker and Fantasia, along with music industry peers Angie Stone, Melanie Fiona, Ledisi and Anthony Hamilton, will honor Khan by performing the songs she has made famous over her four decades of stardom. In addition to the galaxy of performing stars, an equally illustrious line-up of celebrities, including UNCF member-college graduates Shaun Robinson and Tom Joyner, will join Soledad O’Brien, Mo’Nique, and Quincy Jones in introducing the performances and reminding the audience what UNCF An Evening of Stars is all about: ensuring that all American children get the education they need—and the nation needs them to have—from preschool through college graduation. Akon, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker, LeVar Burton, and Taraji P. Henson will also serve as presenters and UNCF advocates during the two hour salute to the legendary Queen of Funk Soul.
The stars on the UNCF An Evening of Stars stage will also be making a special appeal for some very special students. The lingering recession is threatening thousands of students at UNCF schools, including Rust College and Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Pay-cuts and layoffs have reduced family contributions to their children’s college education. And the credit crunch has squeezed many private student loan programs off the market. Hundreds of graduating seniors are at risk of not receiving their diplomas without last-minute help. UNCF is ready to provide that help, through its Campaign for Emergency Student Aid (CESA), but it needs the support of viewers to help these seniors graduate with their class.
“The stars who make up UNCF An Evening of Stars® are not only paying tribute to an icon and legendary entertainer, they are joining UNCF and Chaka Khan to make sure that every child gets a good education from pre-school through college,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph. D., president and CEO of UNCF. “These artists are helping the millions of Americans who tune in understand the importance of helping students get the education they need and our nation needs them to have in order to compete in a global economy.”
UNCF–the United Negro College Fund–the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization is honoring Khan for her distinguished career as an artist, her longstanding support of UNCF and for her personal philanthropic endeavors. Previous recipients of the UNCF Award of Excellence are Lou Rawls (2004), Quincy Jones (2005), Stevie Wonder (2006), Aretha Franklin (2007), Smokey Robinson (2008), Patti LaBelle (2009) and Lionel Richie (2010).
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Friday, September 17th 2010 at 2:14PM
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