Harlem-based youth organization Brotherhood/Sister Sol (Bro/Sis) recently hosted its 15th annual VOICES benefit gala. This year’s event was held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown where ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts hosted.
This year’s honorees were choreographer Bill T. Jones, civil rights litigator Debo Adegbile and TV producer and Black Girls Rock! founder Beverly Bond.
The organization raised $1.3 million was raised at this year’s gala. Bro/Sis executive director Khary Lazarre-White said the money will go to programs Brotherhood/Sister Sol provides, including job training, international study and college preparation.
Special performances included spoken word performances and reflections by current participants and alumni of Bro/Sis.
Jones received the Frida Kahlo Award for Innovative Creativity while Adegbile received the Ella Baker & Cesar Chavez Award for Positive Community Development. Bond was honored with the June Jordan Clarion Call Award.
Lazarre-White said the organization has been changing the lives of youth since the organization was founded 24 years ago. The fundraiser gala is where Bro/Sis receives a quarter of its funding.
“Bro/Sis is dedicated to developing youth into empowered critical thinkers and community leaders,” he said. “We offer long-term, intensive involvement with our participants over the course of their secondary school careers and provide unique scaffolded and wrap-around services that support their personal development and academic achievement.”
Construction is underway for Bro/Sis’s new 20,000 square foot building in Harlem. The six-story state-of-the-art building break ground last summer and will house training facilities, a technology center and an arts/performance space.