The Brotherhood/Sister Sol To Honor Legendary Choreographer Bill T. Jones

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (Bro/Sis) -- Harlem's nationally acclaimed social justice, youth development, and education organization -- will honor legendary dance choreographer Bill T. Jones, civil rights litigator Debo Adegbile, and TV producer and Black Girls Rock! founder Beverly Bond at its 15th Annual VOICES Gala in New York City on May 21 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, it announced today. The annual charity gala, which raises critical funds for Bro/Sis' life-changing education programs and support services, will be hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist and ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts.

For more information and to support Bro/Sis's life-changing programs through the purchase of tickets or sponsorships, visit: https://brotherhood-sistersol.org

Bill T. Jones will receive Bro/Sis's Frida Kahlo Award for Innovative Creativity. One of the leading choreographers in America, Jones has received a 1994 MacArthur "Genius" Award, the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the 2005 Wexner Prize, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the 1993 Dance Magazine Award, among others. His recent foray into off-Broadway theater (The Seven) earned him a 2006 Lucille Lortel Award, while his choreography for Spring Awakening was awarded a 2007 Tony Award as well as an Obie Award for the show's 2006 off-Broadway run. Jones and Arnie Zane launched onto the scene as the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1983 with the premiere of Intuitive Momentum with Max Roach at BAM. In addition to creating more than 140 works for his own company, Jones has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies, and has choreographed and directed opera and theater productions including Mother of Three Sons, which was performed at the Munich Biennale, New York City Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. He also directed Lost in the Stars for the Boston Lyric Opera.

Debo Adegbile will receive Bro/Sis' Ella Baker & Cesar Chavez Award for Positive Community Development Award. Adegbile is one of the leading civil rights lawyers of our time. He was the chief litigator for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and served as Acting President and Director Counsel at LDF. He has argued cases in the Supreme Court of the United States - including the historic Shelby County v. Holder and is a leading expert on issues of discrimination and voter suppression. Adegbile was Senior Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, and was appointed by then President Obama as a Commissioner for the United States Civil Rights Commission. He was previously nominated by President Obama to serve as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He is currently a partner at Wilmer Hale, where he co-chairs the anti-discrimination practice.

Beverly Bond will receive Bro/Sis' June Jordan Clarion Call Award. As a TV producer, writer, serial entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Beverly Bond has blazed trails in the music, entertainment, and social entrepreneurship industries. A true art and culture connoisseur, Beverly Bond's passion for music and her uncanny ability to read the crowd has solidified her as one of the world's premier celebrity DJs. In 2006, Bond founded Black Girls Rock! and the annual Black Girls Rock! Awards to mentor the next generation of Black girls, to showcase empowering images of women of color and to promote positive role models for girls. Over the last decade, Bond, a former Wilhelmina model, has also brought her versatile talents to the most highly exclusive events and to a myriad of celebrity clients including Prince, Alicia Keys, Sarah Jessica Parker, Erykah Badu, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Derek Jeter, Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld, Jay-Z, Martha Stewart, and more. Within a few years of launching her vision, Beverly Bond partnered with BET in 2010 to share the successful Black Girls Rock! Awards on a world stage. As the creator and executive producer of the televised show, Bond's platform is now reaching approximately over 10 million viewers annually and earned her four NAACP Awards.

Previous VOICES honorees include Harry Belafonte, Jeffrey Wright, Rosario Dawson, Sherrilyn Ifill, Theodore Wells, Carrie Mae Weems, and George C. Wolfe, among others.

Since 1995, Bro/Sis has transformed the lives of young people in New York City and across the country through wrap-around educational programming and support services for youth. Services include an intensive 4-6 year Rites of Passage program, five-day-a-week after-school care, counseling, summer camps, job training, college preparation, employment guidance, and international study programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Bro/Sis provides comprehensive direct services, trains educators on the organization's model, and organizes to affect policy and social change. As one of the most successful youth development organizations in the country, Bro/Sis is a social justice organization that is committed to working to respond to inequality, to train young people to become empowered as social change agents, and to work to expand a vision of equity, racial and economic justice - and opportunity and access for all.

Bro/Sis is embarking on an exciting new chapter with the building of a new six-story, 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art educational space in Harlem. This new home, the Bro/Sis Center, will allow the organization to more than double the number of youth it serves directly, and also expand its capacity to train educators on their unique youth development model. The Center is one of few buildings of its kind being built in NYC - 100% community educational use, and will allow Bro/Sis to expand its services exponentially, and serve as a youth model nationwide.

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol's 15th Annual VOICES Gala is presented with the generous support of Gold Sponsors including Omnicom Group, Marti Meyerson & Jamie Hooper, and Michelle Ores & Charles N. Schorin; Silver Sponsors including Marcy & Bennett Grau; Ann & Weston Hicks; Goldman Sachs Gives/Pat & Ali Fels, Katja Goldman; The Dr. David M. Milch Foundation/Ars Veritas; Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolf, & Cohen; and Lisa & Bob Schultz.

Event Co-Chairs and Bro/Sis Board Co-Chairs are Rahsan-Rahsan Lindsay and Clara Markowicz; Fundraising Co-Chairs are Marcy Grau & Bennett Grau, Ann Hicks & Weston Hicks, and Marti Meyerson & Jamie Hooper; and Fundraising Vice Chair Tiffany R. Warren.

Learn more about Bro/Sis at https://brotherhood-sistersol.org or stay updated on Bro/Sis's impact on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.