Jonelle procope biography sample
(Image credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
Decades after her first appearance, Billie Holiday is coming back to the Apollo Theater — this time as a hologram.
The iconic Harlem theater announced Wednesday that a new daytime show will open later this year featuring a singing Holiday hologram, The Wall Street Journal reports. She will be accompanied by recorded music, and will welcome guests with a speech. Holiday was selected for the show because she performed at the Apollo numerous times over the course of her career. "An important part of our mission is finding ways to connect our rich history with our present," said Jonelle Procope, president and chief executive of the Apollo. "This technology is going to give us the best of both worlds."
Procope said thousands of tourists visit the Apollo every year, but most come in the day and don't stay for night performances. By adding an earlier show, the theater will enable those visitors to take a tour and catch a program. The hologram is being developed by Hologram USA, which says this is the first venue in the U.S. to have a permanent hologram installation. "The show will have narrative elements that speak to Billie's life and struggles, as well as her lasting legacy," chief executive Alki David said.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wire
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TODAY
Tuesday 12, March 2024
Frank and Laura Baker Gallery at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria
Urban Bush Women: Legacy, Lineage and Liberation
The Apollo celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, Urban Bush Women with a stunning visual exhibition in the Laura and Frank Baker Gallery. With special pop-up performances on select dates,Legacy, Lineage and Liberation: An Examination of Urban Bush Women’s Art-Making and Community Organizing Praxiscontains rare photographs, performance footage, manuscripts, costumes and memorabilia from the groundbreaking ensemble’s 40-year history.
CREDITS
Lead Curators
Chanon Judson, Co-Artistic Director
Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Director
Curatorial Team
Jonathan D. Secor, Producer
Laura Stewart, Curatorial Consultant
Pia Monique Murray, Associate Producer
Burkindy, Visual Artist
Vince Ballantine, Visual Artist
Eddie Ballard, Installer
Jean Barberis, Lead Installer
Lizzy Cooper Davis, Scholar/Writer
Andrew Gordon, Installer
Nick Hussong, Video Compilation & Projection Design
Teya Juarez, SUNY Buffalo Research Assistant
Camille Lawrence, UBW Archivist
Nina Angela Mercer, Scholar/Writer
Makeda Smith, Marketing Director
Presented in Partnership with Urban Bush Women
ABOUT URBAN BUSH WOMEN:
Urban Bush Women is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollaras an engine and an amplifier for the unheard stories of Black Women+. Today, under the artistic leadership of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, UBW combines revolutionary performance, deep-healing community engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a cultural force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential.
UBW embraces the power of radical storytelling to activate social change. Whethe
At its annual Spring Benefit yesterday (June 12), the historic Apollo Theater honored its long-time president and CEO Jonelle Procope. During her two decades at the helm of the Harlem landmark, she helped restore the Apollo from a near-bankrupt institution to the largest African American performing arts organization in the nation.
Musician and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs, NBA legend Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and eyewear company Warby Parker also received awards at the benefit, which saw performances from MC Lyte and Wyclef Jean.
Stepping down from the theater later this month, Procope will be succeeded by Michelle Ebanks, the former CEO of Essence Communications, which oversees Essence magazine. “It has been an honor to lead this organization through two decades of outstanding performances, transformative educational programs, and civic advocacy,” said Procope in a statement.
After a seven-year-long career as an attorney, Procope joined the Apollo Theater as a board member in 1999 before she was elected its president and CEO in 2003. The 90-year-old theater, which launched Ella Fitzgerald’s career in the 1930s while she was still a teenager and showcased performers like the Jackson Five, Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, was in a dire financial situation at the start of Procope’s leadership.
The theater, which became a non-profit in 1991 after filing for bankruptcy five years prior, was still struggling by 2002 and unable to compete with large-scale arenas like Madison Square Garden, as reported by the Associated Press.
But Procope quickly turned her focus to fundraising, raising $54 million during a 2008 capital campaign for the theater’s preservation. It unveiled its “walk of fame” in 2010, memorializing legendary performers with plaques outside the venue, and in 2011 received a visit from Barack Obama—its first from a sitting president.
Another fundraising campaign was launched three years later, this t
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