BassetT to Deliver Message of Hope
By CARRIE WHITE
By Carrie White
Correspondent
HAMPTON
Angela Bassett, star of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” is helping young girls find their own grooves by delivering the keynote address at Girls Incorporated’s 500 People of Influence benefit gala tonight at the Hampton Roads Convention Center.
Girls Inc., said Executive Director Dr. Jackie Jackson, “used to be the Girls Club, but our name changed in the early 1990s.” The national, nonprofit group aims to help girls ages 6-18, she said. “We don’t teach, we facilitate learning. We let the girls draw their own conclusions and make their own decisions, which means their decisions have ownership, and they’re more likely to remember them.”
Bassett first considered becoming an actress after going on an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, through the Upward Bound program, to see James Earl Jones perform in “Of Mice and Men” in 1974.
Bassett has often played pioneering black women. She was nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical and the NAACP Image Award for best actress for her breakthrough performance as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It” (1993).
She won an NAACP Image Award for supporting actress as Dr. Betty Shabazz, widow of slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X, in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” (1992). She later played Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles’ “Panther” (1995). She played Janet Williams – the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in “Music of the Heart” (1999).
Bassett frequently attends events for children with diabetes and in foster homes, and she has been a supporter of the Boys and Girls Club in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla.
The gala, now in its third year, “was originally my idea,” Jackson said. “We needed a way to get influential people to recognize the good we are doing and to support us. Last year we had Judge Hatchett, and this year we are fortunate to get Angela Bassett. After I shared our mission and goals, she immediately and graciously agreed to help us raise funds.
“She’s going to speak before the gala with 200 young girls, some of ours and some selected from other programs, in a ‘rap session.’ During the main event, our choir will sing two songs, and the participants of our Leadership Institute are going to have their ‘debut,’ just like a cotillion. Then Miss Bassett will speak.”
The event includes a silent auction, dinner, a book-signing session and live entertainment.
“We need all the support we can get,” Jackson said. “Both our sites have waiting lists, and we are about to expand into Norfolk and Virginia Beach. This program really works, and the more girls we can reach, the better for all of us.”
Carrie White, caramine2@aol.com
if you go
What Girls Incorporated’s 500 People of Influence benefit gala
When 6 tonight
Where Hampton Roads Convention Center, 1610 Coliseum Drive, Hampton
Tickets $125, (757) 722-6248
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