Connie L. Lindsey,
executive vice president of Northern Trust and national president of the Girl
Scouts of the USA, picks up Loretto Hospital Foundation’s Spirit of Achievement
Award on Thursday at the eighth annual dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
She’ll also be honored with the establishment of the Cancer Resource Center
that will bear her name. Derrick Blakley, CBS 2 reporter
who’s been couragesly battling multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow,
guest speaks; ABC7’s Cheryl Burton emcees. The yearly
event recognizes “exemplary individuals who have demonstrated a life-long
commitment to improving the lives of others and their community,” according to
organizers, raises money for the hospital and introduces the hospital to others
outside of the Austin community who would not otherwise know about the facility
or its work. Contact Barry Axler, (773) 854-5007.
Summit Scene –
National Urban League president and former New Orleans mayor, Marc H. Morial,
keynotes Chicago Urban League’s Summit 2011, Accelerating the Economic
Recovery, Tuesday at the Hilton Chicago. The event, focusing on jobs, equal
opportunity and workforce investment, will include remarks by Andrea L. Zopp,
Chicago Urban League president/CEO, and a panel discussion with Chancellor
Cheryl Hyman of the City Colleges of Chicago, Warren Ribley,
director of the Ill. Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Shelly Stern,
citizenship director of Microsoft’s central and southwest regions. ABC 7’s Cheryl Burton moderates.
Buy $75-$150 tickets online: www.thechicagourbanleague.org.
Alumni Accolade – Dorothy Miller
Cobbs, a grad of Jackson State University (Mississippi) and
a musician par excellence, will be saluted by the National Alumni Association
on April 16, 4 p.m., at a Scholarship Concert with the Jackson State University
Chorale at St. Mark United Methodist Church. Besides being the minister of
music at two Chicago churches, Cobbs served in the Gary,
Ind. public school system for 33 years – a teacher for 15 and administrator for
18. She was also executive
director of Hal Jackson’s Miss Talented Teen
International Pageant. In 2010 she judged the competition in Bermuda and will
attend the Jr. Miss America Pageant in May in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.
Donation to the benefit concert is $20; call (773) 268-7727.
Book-Look – Dr.
Lawrence Jackson, author of The indignant Generation: A
Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics 1934-1960, kicks off
his Chicago book tour at DuSable Museum on Thursday, 5:30 p.m., continues at
various Chicago and suburban locations and concludes Sunday, 2 p.m., at Woodson
Regional Library. Covering that neglected period between the Harlem Renaissance
and the Civil Rights movement, the tome discusses the political and artistic
milieu in which writers like Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison and Lorraine
Hansberry produced their greatest works. Come find out why
scholar Cornel West said: "This is a magisterial book.
Jackson is a first rate historian – I salute him!" Call Kensey & Kensey, (773)
288-8776.
Gala Guy – Les Coney,
Mesirow Financial’s executive vice president and a member of the board of
directors of the League of Chicago Theatres, has signed on as co-chair of the
League’s 2011 Spring Gala on May 16 in the newly opened JW Marriott Chicago
Hotel on West Adams Street. During the ”black-tie optional” event LCT’s Tribute
Award will be presented to The Boeing Co., which is headed by James A. Bell,
corporate president and chief financial officer. LCT is an alliance of theaters
which promotes, supports and advocates for Chicago’s theater industry locally,
nationally and internationally. The Gala is the premier event to support the
dozens of programs and services that LCT provides to more than 200 Chicago
theater companies, including workshops, HotTix, Theater Thursdays and Free
Night of Theater.
In Support –
Retired educator Dr. Gloria Latimore Peace hosts a
fundraiser for two living legends, Okoro Harold Johnson, and Baba Hannibal
Afrik, both of whom are facing medical challenges. Johnson
is an actor, director and playwright; Afrik has given
leadership and service to the Black Liberation Movement for over four decades
as a Pan-Afrikan Nationalist, community activist, educator, author and
institution-builder. The event is Saturday, 1 p.m., at Malcolm X College. “If
your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend,” says Dr. Peace,
“please buy a ticket or two to show the same support they have shown us over
the last 50 years. E-mail this to your friends and let’s fill the house to show
some love.”
Slated to perform:
musicians Willie Pickens, Ari Brown, Yosef Ben Israel, Avreeayl Ra, Greg Penn,
Vince Willis, Prince Saleem, Corey Wilkes, Ernest Dawkins, Mwata Bowden;
singers Julia Huff, Joan Collaso, Maggie Brown, Loretta Lee, Senabella;
Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Najwa Dance Corps, Minianka Dance Co., Fred
Baker West African Dancers, Alyo Children’s Dance Co., Mr. Tap, Rico,
Sax Preacher and poets Oba King
and Khari
B. Tickets: $22; $25 at the door. Purchase online:
www.unitedscolarsassistance.com or
call Fran
Young, (224) 650-0140.
Newsy Names –
Happy b’day to Real Times’ head honcho Hiram Jackson,
United Parcel’s “tall drink of water” LaRue Martin,
TUCC’s Ron Anderson, Lisa Miller-Holt, Joyce McCain-Doty, Joslyn DiPasalegne,
Roderick Sawyer, Monroe Anderson, Midge Kimberly, Senabella Gill, Jim
Stricklin, Kimberly Edmonds, Charles Walker, Eric Thomas, Hank Meyer, Wanda J.
Bishop. Susan Peters, Corky McClerkin, Nate Grant, Chef
Cordell McCray, Grace Lajoy Little, Daniel Hammond ... We
hear that Rev. Henry O. Hardy, pastor of Cosmopolitan
Community Church, has announced to his faithful that he is dissolving his
marriage to the former Tandria Jemison, a hair designer and
South Shore beauty salon proprietor. They were wed in Nov. ’09 during nuptials conducted by Rev. Clay Evans.
Rev.
Hardy’s second surprise announcement to his parishioners: he
is stepping down as Cosmopolitan’s pastor after 44 years of leading the
congregation. Who knew ?
Carol Bell, Defender’s director of
finance, is one of 12 to receive a Rhomania Torch Award on Saturday from Sigma
Gamma Rho Sorority at Everything that Blings! at Chateau Del Mar. Spearheads:
Bethel L. White, president; Carolyn G. Palmer, chair; and Jacquelynn D.
Thweatt-Pippen, awards chair ... Real Men Cook for Charity, national Father’s
Day initiative co-founded by Yvette Moyo-Gillard, was honored at the 32nd
annual Drum Major for Justice Awards Dinner in Atlanta, given by SCLC/Women’s
Organizational Movement for Equality Now Inc. in memory of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. on Monday, the anniversary of his death. The award was presented by
Evelyn Gibson Lowery, founding chair ... Dr. Keith Hampton, directs the Chicago
Community Chorus in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches
Requiem (A German Requiem), Opus 45 on Saturday, 2 p.m. at Comer Youth Center,
7200 S. Ingleside. The all-volunteer choir of over 130 voices will perform the
seven movement work for chorus, soloists and orchestra in German, featuring
piano accompaniment by Yvonne Lindsey, the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and
soloists, Dorothy Canady, soprano, and Brandon Brown, baritone ... Congrats to
two of my fav-o-rite radio guys, V-103’s Ramonski Luv and Joe Soto, who
celebrate “Year 7 of Togetherness” on Saturday at House of Blues ... Former
gang member Wallace “Gator” Bradley was cited by Urban Shake and Museum 44, the
young adult division of A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porters’ Museum, at One
People, One History, One Future.
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
