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Friday, January 10, 2003 at 7:00PM

SALAAM Theatre
Geeta Citygirl, Artistic Director invites you to
honor
Poet, Amiri Baraka
and
Actress, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney

at the
African Voices 10th Anniversary Celebration
( www.africanvoices.com )

On Friday, January 10, 2003, SALAAM Theatre invites you to join African Voices magazine in honoring poet Amiri Baraka and actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney at a special 10th Anniversary gala celebrating A Decade of Success.  The honorees will be presented with the Ellie Charles Artists Awards for their outstanding artistic and community contributions. The event will begin at 7 pm with a cocktail reception and awards ceremony featuring an evening of music, poetry, humor and wisdom.  African Voices will also host an After Party to celebrate A Decade of Success at 11 pm in Columbia University's exclusive Party Lounge.

The 10th Anniversary celebration will include a headline performance by Amiri Baraka and his band Blue Ark and special presentations by legendary poets Sonia Sanchez and Abiodun Oyewole (The Last Poets), producer/director Woodie King, Jr. (New Federal Theater) and award-winning writer/editor Sheree R. Thomas (Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora).  Several surprise guests will also pay tribute to honorees Amiri Baraka and Phyllis Yvonne Stickney.  Sabrina Lamb, notable comedienne and WWRL radio host, will serve as Mistress of Ceremony. The Ellie Charles Artists Awards is an annual benefit for the magazine that honors artists dedicated to community service and leadership.

VENUE:  Columbia University, Lerner Hall
115th Street and Broadway, NYC
Tickets for the event are $75 (includes after party).
Tickets for the After Party are $25.
Phone: 212.865.2982 or visit www.africanvoices.com

AMIRI BARAKA
Amiri Baraka is an inspiration to a generation of emerging young writers and poets interested in following his tradition of using art as a weapon to speak out against racism, sexism and other injustices. A widely published poet, playwright, essayist and journalist, Baraka is one of the most prolific and influential writers of the 20th century. His book of music criticism, Blues People, is regarded as a classic in the field. In 1965 he, along with others such as Larry Neal and Askia Tourà, founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School, an institution that quickly became a model for the development of Black Cultural Centers in the sixties. Renowned as the father of the Black Arts Movement, he was a founder of the Congress of Afrikan People and the National Black Political Assembly as well as a major member of the Afrikan Liberation Support Committee.

PHYLLIS YVONNE STICKNEY
A rare combination of thespian, stand-up comic, educator, and social commentator, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney performed with Harlem's New Heritage Theatre, the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, and many others. Her work on the stage and as producer for works such as Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King's Horseman" and the South African drama "Woza Albert" won her rave reviews and an Audelco Award. Her dramatic stage performances eventually led her to perform stand-up routines that could be described as a combination of Malcolm X and Moms Mabley. She has appeared in numerous hit films including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, What's Love Got to Do With It, Malcolm X and The Women of Brewster Place.

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SALAAM is a not-for-profit professional theatre company celebrating South Asian American artistic excellence through creative risk-taking and experimentation that challenges all boundaries, connects all peoples and links all the arts.

Geeta Citygirl, Artistic Director
SALAAM  (South Asian League of Artists in AMerica)
http://www.SALAAMtheatre.org