We recognize her artistic mastery and impact fostering innovation, unity, and positive change.

Nona Hendryx’s music tackles social issues, love and politics exploring music, technology, science fact and fiction. Hendryx’s legendary career spans six decades of sound and style evolution. Longtime fans know her as one of the groundbreaking group Labelle and their No.1 worldwide hit 'Lady Marmalade' (Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi C'est Soir?" Nona’s impressive career as a solo artist spanned eight studio albums and engaged her with an impressive lineup of collaborators, musicians and music technologist (Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Will Calhoun (Living Color Band) Bono, George Clinton & P-Funk, Prince), resulting in top ten hits and a Grammy nomination (Rock This Houses with The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards on guitar).

An activist and vocal supporter for women’s rights, social, political and criminal justice, Nona has helped to raise funds and awareness of HIV/AIDS from the outbreak of the epidemic and remains involved through the present day. Nona is also an Ambassador for Artistry in Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston and works across two departments; Music Theater and Berklee’s Electronic Production and Design Department with the guidance of the EPD Chair Michele Darling.

An Afro-futurist and visionary, Nona develops XR installations, incorporating Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Nona is passionate about visual arts and technology. Nona continues to be a prolific songwriter, music for theater and film composer, sound designer and explorer.

We celebrate her dedication to cultural preservation, community, and advocacy.

Mikki Shepard is a producer, presenter, curator and philanthropist. Her professional work has concentrated on building new and reimagining existing performing arts institutions, creating and producing unique arts programs and innovative performance presentations, and advising foundations on major arts initiatives. She has been an influential voice in support of Black art and culture, contemporary dance and in community and audience engagement and access.

Ms. Shepard currently is a senior advisor to foundation and nonprofit arts organization leadership nationally, and mentors emerging and mid-career executive and artistic leaders in the performing arts field.

Ms. Shepard is a member and former Board Chair of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and member of the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation board. Past board memberships include: the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), Brooklyn Community Foundation, and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ). Ms. Shepard has been an advisor to The Ford Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Heinz Endowments, August Wilson African American Cultural Center. She served as a Tony Awards Nominator from 2016 – 2019.

Ms. Shepard was recently honored by the Museum of Contemporary Diaspora Arts in an outdoor, permanent sculpture series Brooklyn celebrating Brooklyn’s living legends. BAM’s 1983 landmark Dance Black America festival produced by Mikki Shepard inspired and was the subject of acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Tiona Nekkia McClodden’s The Trace of an Implied Presence. Other honors include: a 2017 Bessies, NYC Dance and Performance Award, APAP’s Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award (2017) for exemplary service to the field of professional presenting, and was the first recipient of Association of Arts Professionals (APAP) Halsey and Alice North Award for Committed Excellence and Service to the Presenting Field (2014).

Ms. Shepard produced NYC FREE, the first multidisciplinary arts festival, for the August 2021 inaugural season of Little Island Park. Ms. Shepard served as Executive Producer of the Apollo Theater from 2006 – 2016. She led the development and implementation of the Apollo’s new artistic, institutional vision and organizational infrastructure. Ms. Shepard was the Director of Arts and Humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation. As Executive Producer and co-founder of Brooklyn’s 651Arts, she created and produced major programs including Betty Carter: Jazz Ahead, 100 Years of Jazz and Blues Festival, Ralph Lemon’s Geography and Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker and the Africa Exchange Program, a Ford Foundation international initiative that supported the collaboration and the creation of new work between artists from the U.S. and African countries. She created and produced over 25 performing arts programs for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, including Steps in Time: A Tap Dance Festival, DanceAfrica, Dance Black America: 300 years of Black Dance in America.