First Annual Benefit Gala
Apollo Theater
Harlem, USA
The Ashley Stewart Stores Community Foundation will celebrate its First Annual Benefit Gala “Back to Harlem” with a star studded event on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at Harlem’s World Famous Apollo Theater, 253 W 125th Street, New York. Three worthy organizations will be honored with charitable contributions raised by this event; Dress for Success, The Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and The Boys Choir of Harlem.
Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening is author and radio personality Wendy Williams of WBLS Radio and will include performances by founding board member and world renowned musical legend, Gladys Knight. The six-time Grammy Award winner has enjoyed #1 hits in pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary, and has triumphed in film, television and live performance.
A special advanced preview of Gladys’s new lingerie collection “Knightwear by Ashley Stewart” will be unveiled.
Other performers for this memorable evening include Lalah Hathaway, daughter of the late music legend Donny Hathaway, who possesses one of the most identifiable voices of her generation, Shirley Murdock, who calls up memories of a red-hot string of Top Five R & B and pop smashes that kept the airwaves buzzing from the mid-80s well into the early-90’s, Mandisa, The American Idol Finalist, who has performed with such artists as Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill and Charlie Daniels and The Boys Choir of Harlem, founded in 1968 by Dr. Walter J. Trunbull. Over the years the choir has grown from a small community choral group to a major performing arts institution of international renown.