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At the Dance Theatre of Harlem's "Vision Gala" Tuesday night in New York City, special guest host Soledad O'Brien and the evening's honorary chairperson actress Lynn Whitfield helped fete the event and honor Harry Belafonte.
Tuesday night's gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel ballroom raised a whooping $390,000 for DTH’s Next Generation Fund and Community Engagement Fund -- providing scholarships and financial assistance for aspiring dancers and supporting arts education and community programs.
Born Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital, Harlem,New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper (of Jamaican descent) – and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as chef in the Royal Navy. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country ofJamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him 2 tickets to the theater as a gratuity. He fell in love with the art form and also metSidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German directorErwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac. |
