The Urban Professional Mixer (UPMIXER) hosted its annual event, the Holiday Soirée, Saturday at the newly opened Renaissance New York Harlem Hotel in Harlem. Over 500 Black professionals from various industries attended the aimed promoting networking, scholarship celebration, and recognizing notable community leaders.
This year’s event coincided with the Starlight Awards, an evening dedicated to honoring outstanding achievements and contributions in the community.
UPMIXER brings together a diverse collective of Black professionals and organizations, including the National Black MBA Association, New York Empire State Medical Association, One Hundred Black Men, National Black Nurses Association, New York Urban League Young Professionals, National Society of Black Engineers, New York Association of Black Journalists, Black Data Processing Association, and National Sales Network.
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The coalition had its first holiday gathering in 2016. Fast-forward to 2023, UPMIXER wanted to highlight people in various industries through an awards ceremony. The awards will raise funds for all of the organizations involved, along with scholarship funds.
“This is one big extravaganza,” said George Sainteus, executive director of UPMIXER and board member of the Metro New York Chapter of the National Black MBA Association and of the Harlem Tourism Board. “We came to Harlem with a specific purpose to show Harlem the power of unity, the power of Black excellence, the power of community. I think we did it.”
Sainteus added that the event showed the community the amount of work that each organization puts in. Guests represented a wide range of companies and professions.
“The goal is to collaborate, network and really create and ecosystem where folks are helping each other to elevate in their careers, whatever their aspirations are and increase membership for the organizations,” he said.
This year’s honorees include Jay Alexander Martin, founder of clothing company FUBU; activist Tamika Mallory; Larry Scott Blackman; Ebony Janice; Dr. Torian Easterling, former first deputy commissioner and chief equity officer for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; former City Councilmember Robert Cornegy; Spectrum News NY1 reporter Dean Miminger; past president of Empire State Medical Association, the late Dr. Christopher A. Phang; Norville Barrington, president of the Metro New York Chapter of the National Black MBA Association; and cosmetics company Estee Lauder.
“It’s always an honor to be honored by my own,” said Mallory. “I’ve received a lot of awards from people I respect dearly but when younger people specifically chose to acknowledge my work and my contributions, it means a lot because I know the younger we are the less disillusioned we are. It give me inspiration to keep pushing forward.”