New York – The Tony Award-winning non-profit Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) has announced that its annual gala, The Artivism Ball, will be held on Monday, October 14, 2024, at 583 Park Avenue. This year’s gala will celebrate the Emmy-winning Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Tony-nominated actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo, and Co-Executive Director of the New York StateAlliance for Quality Education Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari. Zhailon Levingston (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), who serves on BAC’s Board of Directors, will be the Director of the Gala Program.
The evening will feature live performances from BAC’s past and future while honoring individuals who have been vital to the organization’s growth and furthering arts advocacy across the country. The event is a critical moment for BAC to celebrate its mission of creating a more just and equitable world through the power of storytelling and raise funds to support the organization’s ongoing mission to amplify and empower artist-activists on Broadway and beyond.
BAC President Britton Smith shared the following:
“The work Colman Domingo is doing as a producer and star of the A24 film Sing Sing, which highlights the Rehabilitation for The Arts program in prisons, is the very example of what BAC knows is possible when artists use their platform to tell under-sung stories. Narrative change will impact culture, and culture will shift policies that affect the lives of many. We are honored to lift up Colman and thank him for his long journey as an artist who will be remembered as a voice of liberation and impact beyond the stage and screen.
“Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and the Alliance for Quality Education model what it looks like to fight for the rights of Black and brown students in NY with grace, rigor, spirit, and diligence. We honor Zakiyah for leading the masses into a deeper understanding of what’s possible when we truly care for the rights of our students, and we stand with countless parents and advocates who have witnessed her transformative leadership in this space.”
“As an organization, BAC has evolved over the past year; this year’s Artivism Ball theme is
reintroduction. We are excited to share our latest programming, surrounding our founding commitment to activate theater artists as change agents and to spotlight the new staff and leadership team members who have led these initiatives. As we learned from last year’s inaugural Ball, the gala allows us to fellowship with our larger community…and to dance!”
Tickets to Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Artivism Ball can be purchased at ArtivismBall.com. To learn more about BAC, visit their website at www.bwayadvocacycoalition.org.
Founded in 2016, BAC's mission is to use arts and storytelling to build a more equitable society —and build the collective capacity of individuals, organizations, and coalitions to do the same. In 2021, BAC received a Special Tony Award for providing an unparalleled platform for underrepresented members of the theater community and tools to help the theater industry move toward a more equitable future.
ABOUT THE BROADWAY ADVOCACY COALITION
The Broadway Advocacy Coalition is a Tony Award-winning arts-based advocacy nonprofit dedicated to building the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to use storytelling to dismantle the systems that perpetuate racism. Founded in 2016 by several Black members of the Broadway community as a direct response to the nation's pandemic of racism and police brutality, it has since grown into a multidisciplinary organization that unites artists, legal experts, and community advocates to create lasting impact and collaborations on policy issues ranging from criminal justice reform to education equity.
Via its partnership with the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, BAC has created its groundbreaking "Theater of Change" methodology and collaborated with public institutions across New York City, including the New York City Council and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. Other recent collaborations include the Gasping for Justice campaign featuring Jesse Williams, Fiona Apple, and Alec Baldwin; the 24 Hour Plays "Viral Monologues" featuring DeRay Mckesson, Lynn Nottage, and Aja Naomi King; and the Flores Exhibits—in partnership with Waterwell Theater—featuring David Schwimmer, Morena Baccarin, and others.
Over the last year, BAC has built out several programs, including the Artivism Fellowship, a commission-based program supporting a group of artist-activists over seven months in building their skills as artivists and producing works that catalyze change in the criminal justice landscape; Storytelling for Social Good, a guided storytelling experience that invites everyone to see themselves as an agent of change; and its Change Agent Training workshops, which teach theater industry workers the foundations of labor organizing and community-based advocacy.
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