Vy Higginsen to Be Honored at BET AWARDS 12 Tonight

Vy Higginsen, the creator of the classic gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing, will be honored at the "BET AWARDS 12," receiving a SHINE-A-LIGHT recognition on the live telecast. Ms. Higginsen will be honored for her work with the Mama Foundation for the Arts and its Gospel for Teens Program. Hosted by Samuel L. Jackson (who recently appeared on Broadway in The Mountaintop), the "BET AWARDS 12" (#BETAWARDS) will air live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 8:00 pm (EST) on BET.

Vy Higginsen is an award-winning producer, playwright, media personality and philanthropist. She spent a decade behind the microphone at major New York radio stations, earning the distinction of being NYC's first black female radio personality in primetime at WBLS, and the first woman to host a New York radio morning show at WWRL. In 1983, Vy co-wrote, produced and directed the classic gospel musical, Mama, I Want To Sing. The longest-running African-American Off-Broadway musical in history, the show ran for eight years and went on to be performed on stages throughout the U.S., in London's West End, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Caribbean and Japan. In 1998, Vy created the Mama Foundation for the Arts to present, preserve, and promote Gospel, Jazz, and R&B as an art form for current and future generations. In 2006, she founded Gospel for Teens, a free musical educational program for young people between the ages of 13 and 19, which was profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes" last year. The award-winning Gospel for Teen Choir has gone on to perform throughout New York City, in venues across the country, and along with such artists as Cissy Houston, Madonna, Arsenio Hall and Clay Aiken. Vy founded the independent label Harlem Records earlier this year. Its premiere recording, Cissy Houston's "Walk On By Faith" is currently available for download on iTunes. The follow up recording from the Gospel for Teens Choir will be released later this year.

Mama, I Want to Sing: The Next Generation, a revival of the hit 1983 musical, is currently playing at Harlem's Dempsey Theater (127 West 127th Street) along with Sing, Harlem, Sing!, a musical revue created by Ms. Higginsen, inspired by her many years in radio. Tickets for Mama, I Want To Sing: The Next Generation and Sing, Harlem, Sing! are $35 each and are available through SmartTix (212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com).

The BET AWARDS is one of the most watched award shows on cable television according to the Nielsen Company. The BET AWARDS franchise remains as the #1 program in cable TV history among African-Americans, and it is BET's #1 telecast every year. It recognizes the triumphs and successes of artists, entertainers and athletes in 20 categories.

BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc., is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and Production Company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET operates in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.

The BET AWARDS 12 will premiere Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 8:00PM BST across BET's international platforms in the UK and Africa.

For more info, please visit www.BET.com/BETAwards.

 

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