ArtsEmerson Announces The 4th Annual WORLD ALIVE! Celebration Honoring Cicely Tyson

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, proudly announces its 4th annual World Alive! Celebration. The fundraising event will honor Cicely Tyson with ArtsEmerson's inaugural Decade Award which will be presented every ten years to an artist that best represents the goals of ArtsEmerson for a performance in the preceding decade. Cicely Tyson reprised her Tony Award-winning performance as the feisty and funny Carrie Watts in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote's beloved American classic The Trip to Bountiful at ArtsEmerson in 2014. World Alive! Celebration will take place on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 6:00pm at the Four Seasons Hotel located at 200 Boylston Street in Boston, tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available at www.ArtsEmerson.org.

The event will support ArtsEmerson's annual fund, which allows the organization to continue presenting inspiring and impactful world theater that builds community and ignites conversation that connects the city of Boston to artists who want to make a difference in the world.

In addition to Tyson, ArtsEmerson will recognize 11 Champions who go above and beyond to connect their communities to the organization's vision of a more inclusive and empathetic world ignited by art. These distinguished Champions have brought their own singular leadership towards supporting art that speaks to diverse stories, allowing us all to connect across differences and recognize our common humanity.

Actress, advocate, and humanitarian, Cicely Tyson is renowned for her portrayals of strong female characters on stage, screen, and television, from her stunning initial stage appearance as Barbara Allen in Dark of the Moon to her triumphant 2013 return to Broadway.

After a 30-year hiatus from the Broadway stage, Ms. Tyson returned as Mother Carrie Watts in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, for which she received rave reviews and the triple crown of theater awards: the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Actress in a Play. Ms. Tyson returned to the Broadway stage in September 2015 in The Gin Game co-starring James Earl Jones.

Best known for her double Emmy performance (Best Lead Actress in a Drama as well as a Special, unprecedented Emmy Award for Actress of the Year) as Jane in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ms. Tyson also was recently nominated in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019 for an Emmy for her recurring guest role as Ophelia, Annalise's mother (Viola Davis) in ABC's How To Get Away With Murder. She received her third Emmy Award for The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and was nominated for her performances in Roots, King, Sweet Justice, The Marva Collins Story, and A Lesson Before Dying. In November 2019, Ms. Tyson will be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Ms. Tyson was nominated for an Academy Award for Sounder. Her film credits include The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Fried Green Tomatoes, Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoodlum, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, Why Did I Get Married Too?, The Help, Alex Cross, Last Flag Flying, and most recently in 2018, A Fall From Grace directed by Tyler Perry. On November 18, 2018, Ms.Tyson received an Honorary Oscar at the Motion Picture Academy's Governors Awards.

In March 2014, Ms. Tyson served as the executive producer of the film version of The Trip to Bountiful, presented on Lifetime Television network. In 1977, as a student of the American Film Institute, Ms. Tyson directed the one-act play, Save Me a Place at Forest Lawn.

In recognition of her talent, dedication, and contributions, Ms. Tyson has been the recipient of countless awards including numerous Honorary Doctorates, most recently by Columbia University in 2014 as well as an unprecedented number of NAACP Image Awards. Other notable honors have been bestowed on her by the Princess Grace Foundation, National Urban League, National Council of Negro Women, National Civil Rights Museum, and organizations: PUSH, CORE, SCLC, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center. Ms. Tyson is among the elite number of entertainers honored with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. Ms. Tyson was recognized for her contribution to the performing arts at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. She is the recipient of the NAACP's highest honor, the prestigious Spingarn Award. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the highest civilian award of the United States.

Since 1996, Ms. Tyson has served as the guiding force of the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts. This $143 million institution of academic and creative expression in East Orange, New Jersey serves 1,200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. This cultural icon continues to develop her art as she takes on new roles and opportunities in her efforts to enlighten the human race.

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