On Thursday, September 18, 2014, the NAACP in partnership with WE tv will host “Concert for a Cause: A Night to Support Childhood Literacy” in Cramton Auditorium at Howard University. The concert will amplify the urgent need to increase grade-level reading proficiency within communities of color. WE tv stars and musical artists “SWV – Sisters With Voices,” along with solo artists Erica Campbell of the gospel group “Mary Mary” and Traci Braxton, star of WE tv’s “Braxton Family Values” series, will perform. Special guests, including North Carolina Congressman G.K. Butterfield and NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks, will be in attendance.
“The NAACP is excited to partner with WE tv to host such a creative and important event,” states Cornell William Brooks, NAACP President and CEO. “Our goal is to cultivate a generation of young people committed to reading as studies show that children who begin reading at an early age are more likely to excel in school and in life.”
“We are proud to support the NAACP’s childhood literacy initiative through this special one-night concert at such a historic University,” said Marc Juris, WE tv’s president. “Through popular shows like SWV Reunited, Mary Mary and Braxton Family Values WE tv gives a voice to African American women who are leaders in their communities and role models for the next generation.”
This concert is part of “NAACP Reads,” a NAACP public awareness campaign with the support of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The campaign aims to reinforce the importance of early literacy development and increase third grade-level reading proficiency for African American and low-income students.
The event is free to the public, but there are no more tickets available.
About The Author
Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter
I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!
My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.
Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.
As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.
All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.
