Black Star Honors Champions

“We are gratified that some of the most successful pioneers in their respective fields will join us as we celebrate our 10th anniversary,” says Milton Allimadi, CEO of Black Star News Publishing Co.

[New York News]

The Black Star News, New York’s leading African American investigative newspaper honors 11 outstanding individuals from the community at its 2007 Annual Awards Dinner at Harlem’s famed Nubian Heritage, on November 30.

This year’s lineup of stellar honorees include Lillian Roberts, who heads District Council 37, New York’s largest municipal employees union, and legendary journalist Gil Noble, host of “Like It Is,” news and current events show on ABC Television.

“We are gratified that some of the most successful pioneers in their respective fields will join us as we celebrate our 10th anniversary,” says Milton Allimadi, CEO of Black Star News Publishing Co. Past Annual Awards Dinner honorees have included Camille Cosby, Charles Barron, Amiel Larriuex, Imhotep Gary Byrd, Herman Edwards, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Marian Wright Edelman, Kermit Eady, and others.

“This year’s theme is ‘workers’ rights and empowering our people through information.’ Ms. Roberts has been at the forefront of union organizing for decades and Mr. Noble defines the essence of bold and fearless journalism,” Allimadi adds. “Both are leaders whom many people look up to and we are proud to recognize their achievements.”

The Black Star News Publishing Co. was founded in 1997 by Allimadi and two former partners, Ben Otunu and Dr. Mana Lumumba-Kasongo, with seed capital from Bill and Camille Cosby. The company publishes The Black Star News, a weekly newspaper focusing on investigative news in New York City. The paper, distributed on newsstands in New York City, Long Island, and parts of New Jersey, also has a national and global outreach through its popular website,  www.blackstarnews.com.

The Black Star News has landed several major news scoops and garnered coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News, The New York Post, The New York Observer, Brill’s Content Magazine, New York Press and The Village Voice.

Allimadi has also appeared on CNN financial news as a “news maker,” and has been a guest on “Like It Is,” on ABC Television in addition to numerous appearances on local New York radio.

Allimadi also publishes Harlem Business News magazine, a monthly publication found on newsstands and also online at www.harlembusinessnews.com  .  Brenda Jeanne Wyche is Managing Editor of both The Black Star and Harlem Business News; Chichi Nwoko is General Manager.  The company also operates an online music publication The Groove, which is found online at www.thegroovemag.com and edited and published by Ocen Allimadi.

Lillian Roberts was overwhelmingly re-elected to a third term as executive director of District Council 37 on  Jan. 23, 2007. The powerful union represents 121,000 members and 50,000 retirees. Roberts enjoys a rich history in the labor movement and has earned the reputation of a tenacious leader and brilliant organizer. Her reputation as a courageous, fighting labor leader resonated with the Delegates Council, which in 2002 unanimously elected her to run and rebuild DC 37 after scandals rocked its reputation.

Gil Noble is recognized locally and nationally as a dedicated journalist whose work has been a part of the struggle of African Americans for advancement. Noble spends long hours of research and investigation to ensure consistently high quality programming through “Like It Is,” and has received over 650 community awards, numerous industry awards including seven Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and five honorary doctorates. 

Over the years, Noble has interviewed many prominent figures in our society, including the following heads of state: Sekou Ture (Guinea), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson (Jamaica), Maurice Bishop (Grenada), Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), and Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso). In entertainment, his interviews have included Bill Cosby, Erroll Garner, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Carmen McCrae, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne, Wynton Marsalis, Milt Jackson and Jackie Mclean.

In sports, Noble has interviewed Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Arthur Ashe, and Jim Brown. Noble has interviewed such political figures as: Jesse Jackson, David Dinkins, Harold Washington, Louis Farrakhan, Andrew Young, Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Bruce Wright. He has also done the following documentaries: W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X(3), Paul Robeson(2), Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Decade of Struggle, M.L. King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Jack Johnson, Charlie Parker, Essay on Drugs.

Dominic Carter, one of New York’s best political reporters with New York 1 News Television and author of “No Momma’s Boy” will be honored.  Carter hosts NY1’s nightly political show, “Inside City Hall.” In 2006. he received widespread acclaim for his role as the moderator of series of state-wide debates for governor, U.S. Senator and state attorney general. During the first debate with Senator Hillary Clinton, he made international headlines when Clinton said for the first time that she was thinking about running for president.

One of New York’s leading columnists, The Daily News’ Errol Louis, is honored this year for his columns on a wide range of political and social affairs. Louis is a member of the Daily News editorial board, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. He is a frequent guest on television and radio, including New York 1, Regional News Network, WNYC radio, WABC-TV and CNN.

As Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs at Columbia University, La-Verna Fountain, serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Columbia’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs. She is the public affairs liaison on the University’s top initiative—the expansion of the University. Ms. Fountain has been instrumental in building a strong marketing relationship between the University and New York’s African American publishers.

Leading business coach, author and renowned motivational speaker, Andrew Morrison is founder of Small Business Camp—an entrepreneurial training and marketing services firm.

Morrison built a multi-million dollar company by providing innovative direct marketing services to Fortune 500 companies. Morrison is featured in November 2007’s Black Enterprise Magazine. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain’s Magazine 40 Under 40 and Advertising Age. He also appeared as a “Young Millionaire” on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Andrew hosted the “Money Making Mondays” radio show heard on 98.7 KISS-FM and serves as an adjunct faculty member at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology. 

Public relations leader Phil Andrews is CEO of PA Public Relations Company and Founder of the Power Networking Business Series. Andrews has lectured throughout New York State at various colleges and universities. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he was Vice President and Marketing Director of the Haircut Hut franchise for over a decade.  He is listed in Who’s Who in Black America and International Who’s Who. 

At the tender age of 20, Pernon Dunston is already Vice President of two companies, National Allotment Insurance Agency and Dekalb Funeral Home.  As if those weren’t enough to fulfill this young dynamo’s life, he also owns his own company and is working to make his mark as a fashion designer.  Elegance and style is synonymous with the Dunston name, and Pernon lives up to that name in every way. His intelligence, strength and discipline are a combination of his father’s no-nonsense, Southern home-training and on-campus study at the New York Military Academy where he was educated from age 9 through 17, and from which he graduated with numerous honors.

Anthony “Tony” Herbert is CEO of The Professionals Network Organization.  In December of 1996, Mr. Herbert, together with several business associates and I helped form The Professionals Network Organization. The key function of this organization is to provide, upwardly mobile minorities with opportunities to obtain access to resources and information that will allow them to grow and to bring them closer to realizing the American dream of becoming part of an “Ownership Society”. The Professionals Network Organization members and supporters get together for monthly social mixers at various hot spots around New York City, with 10,000 members.

Honoree, London-born Michelle Mitchell is revolutionizing the way women of color communicate and interact with each other on a daily basis.  Concerned with the lack of love and sisterhood among African American women, Mitchell created The Phenomenal Women Group, a virtual forum that would serve as a conduit by which women of color could come together to share their joys, sorrows, experiences and resources as a means to empower and support one another. The Phenomenal Women Group started out as an E-Group on Yahoo! but quickly grew into a social network that connects to women throughout the entire world. 

Renee Daniel Flagler is a freelance writer who has served in marketing, promotions and events for more than 10 years. Under the divisions of Aspicomm Media, Flagler has been able to marry the things she enjoys the most, marketing, events and writing, into one fulfilling personal career. 

Flagler is founder of The Self-Publishing Symposium, a business conference for self and independent publishers, The S’Indie Awards, which honors the works and accomplishments of self and independent publishers and the Divas of Literature Tour, a multi-city book tour in malls across America. Flagler is a recurring guest and one of the resident “Literary Leaders” for WBAI Radio’s weekly talk show, Off the Page.  Additionally, Flagler has been profiled in Literary Divas, The Top 100+ Most Admired African American Women in Literature, among literary greats such as Tony Morrison, Terry McMillan and Oprah Winfrey.

This year’s Black Star News Annual Awards dinner kicks off with a cocktail hour at 6:30 at Nubian Heritage, located at 2037 5th Avenue in Harlem, on 126th Street, followed by dinner, which will be accompanied with the awards presentations, and musical entertainment from a surprise musical guest— Amiel Larriuex was the last surprise guest artist at BSN’s annual dinner.

“We want everyone to support The Black Star News by enjoying a great meal and evening in the company of some of the best New Yorkers,” Allimadi adds. “Make sure you come with a business card for networking.”

Dinner tables for 10 are priced at $2,500, corporate rate and $1,250 small business rate; individual tickets are $75.

Advertisement rates in the Black Star News 2007 Annual Awards Dinner Commemorative Journal are:
Full Page ad dimensions: 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches (without bleed space)  $1,000.
Inside Cover Full Page ad: 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches (without bleed space)$1,500. 
Half Page ad dimensions: 5.5 inches x 4.25 inches (without bleed space): $500
Quarter Page ad dimensions: 2.75 inches x 4.25 inches (without bleed space): $250.  
Back Cover Full Page ad: 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches (without bleed space) $2,000
Business Card: $100.

Preferred Attire: Afro-centric or formal business.

RSVP and ticket or dinner table reservation required. Tickets can also be purchased in person at BSN’s offices at 11 Broadway, Suite 519, New York, N.Y., 10004.

For more information about The Black Star News 2007 Annual Awards Dinner or to purchase tables or individual tickets please call (212) 481-7745. Also remember to visit www.blackstarnews.com, www.harlembusinessnews.com and www.thegroovemag.com

 

To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to [email protected]

Also visit out sister publications Harlem Business News www.harlembusinessnews.com and The Groove music magazine at www.thegroovemag.com

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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