92Y Announces Its 6th Annual Extraordinary Women Awards 11/17

On Wednesday, November 17, the 92nd Street Y will honor women leading the way and making a difference with its sixth annual Extraordinary Women Awards.

The event will be conducted in-person and livestreamed at 92Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue & 92nd Street, and online, 6-7 pm ET. In person attendees are invited to an informal post-event cocktail hour in Weill Art Gallery afterwards. Tickets are available here.

Hosted by Alison Stewart of WNYC Radio's All of It, this year's honorees are:

* Misty Copeland, Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, producer, activist, author, will receive the Inspiration Through the Arts Award. She was the first black woman to be promoted to Principal in ABT's 75-year history, in 2015, and she has performed some of the most iconic classical ballet roles, including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Juliet in Romeo & Juliet; Giselle; Manon; Coppelia; Kitri in Don Quixote; and Firebird, to name a few.

* The Impact Award will go to mother/daughter duo, Mikayla Barnett and Veronica Loomis, co-founders of It's a She Thing, Inc., a nonprofit organization that serves women and girls who have encountered traumatic experiences, such as domestic violence, sexual assault, and bullying. It's a She Thing, Inc. also provides girls ages 10-15 years old with a 2-week empowerment camp dedicated to health and wellness, nutrition, positive self-image, entrepreneurship, and much more, and their Willie Mae Loomis Scholarship named for their family matriarch, is awarded to a college-bound, female high school senior annually.

* Elizabeth R. Leber, AIA, Managing Partner at Beyer Blinder and Belle, will receive the Landmark Award for her dedication to advancing mission-based institutions through forward-looking architecture and planning projects.

* The Legacy Award will go to three generations of women in honor of the late Esther Peterseil z"l, a survivor of the Auschwitz/Birkenau Concentration Camp, who came to America in 1949 and devoted her life working for the Jewish community, and her daughter Dorothy Tananbaum and granddaughters, Zoe Bernstein, and JoBeth Abecassis, all philanthropists and activists.

The evening will include a tribute performance to Misty Copeland by Aleisha Walker and Tristan Brosnan, appearing courtesy of ABT Studio Company, as well as a performance by virtuoso singer/songwriter Anaïs Reno, a former 92Y Recanati-Kaplan scholar whose debut album is in the Top 10, while she's a freshman in college, and a solo by Shereen Pimentel, who recently starred as Maria in Broadway's West Side Story.

All event proceeds support 92Y's myriad programs for women and girls, from its Parenting Center, which provides resources to mothers and grandmothers and caretakers, to its Teen Producers program, which offers paid arts internships to high school juniors and seniors (many of whom are girls) from underserved schools in the Bronx. Particularly notable is its Women inPower Fellowship, a program that provides annual cohorts of senior-level women across all professional sectors with the peer support, mentorship, training, and coaching needed to help them to advance to the highest levels of leadership.

The co-chairs of the Extraordinary Women Awards are Jody Arnhold, Laurence Belfer, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP, Caryl Englander, Beth and Michael Fascitelli, Wendy Fisher, Linda Mirels & The Kirsh Foundation, Rebecca Kaden & Scott Friedman, Judy & Leonard Lauder, Maribelle Leavitt,
Clarissa & Steve Lefkowitz, Kathy Leventhal, Andrew Tananbaum, Tanner Tananbaum, Sara Weiner, Sharon Felzer & Alan Winters.

Throughout its history, 92Y has provided the space and created the programs that support women who make change and promote progress. Through the arts, education, civic dialogue, health and wellness, and the celebration of Jewish life, 92Y provides the mentors, programs and community to educate, develop and inspire women to succeed at all stages of life.

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