Photos: Wikimedia Commons
March 14, 2024/Brooklyn, NY—On May 1, BAM honors two iconic trailblazers; the multi-hyphenate artist, Solange Knowles, and legendary arts producer and advocate, Mikki Shepard, for their indelible influence, inspiration, and contributions to the performing arts. The benefit will take place at BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp building followed by an afterparty at the BAM Fisher. Funds generated by this event help secure a sustainable future for BAM as it continues its mission to be a home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas.
BAM’s President Gina Duncan, BAM Interim Artistic Director Amy Cassello, and BAM Board Chair Diane Max, are the evening’s hosts.
Benefit committee members include Hanif Abdurraqib, Peter Born, Mark Morris, Annie-B. Parson & Paul Lazar, Okwui Okpokwasili, Huang Ruo, Abdel Salaam, and Whitney White.
Each honoree distinctly embodies BAM’s adventurous spirit and commitment to elevating culture, and each has contributed to BAM’s vision of supporting outstanding achievements in the performing arts. Knowles was first at BAM in spring of 2013 when she headlined the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry music festival. In the spring of 2023, she returned to the organization to present Eldorado Ballroom—a sold-out performing arts series that celebrated the intergenerational expressions of experimental and transcendent Black performance through the decades. Shepard has produced more than 25 programs for BAM including Steps in Time and Tappin’ Uptown, DanceAfrica, and the landmark Dance Black America: 300 years of Black Dance in America. In 1988, she founded Brooklyn’s 651Arts—an organization committed to developing, producing, and presenting performance and cultural programming rooted in the African Diaspora, with a primary focus on contemporary performing arts—which was headquartered on the BAM campus for more than three decades.
