Common; ABC/Fred WatkinsQuincy Jones, Common, Will Smith and Raphael Saadiq will be on hand to pay tribute to former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
The Academy is the organization that hands out the Oscars
According to Billboard, Jones will present Isaacs with the first-ever Legacy Award at lifestyle media platform Icon Mann‘s sixth annual pre-Oscar dinner on February 27 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
In addition, Common and actress Halle Berry will team up for a “special scholarship presentation.”
Among her many industry achievements, Isaacs is known for working to increase diversity among Academy members during the #OscarsSoWhite controversy a few years back.
In a statement posted on the Oscars.org website in 2016, she wrote, “I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes. The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership.”
The letter continued, “In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond…we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years.”
“But the change is not coming as fast as we would live. We need to do more, and better and more quickly.”
Other guests scheduled to appear at the special ceremony include Jada Pinkett Smith, Empire star Terrence Howard, Empire co-creator Lee Daniels, Mudbound director Dee Rees, director John Singleton, writer-director Reginald Hudlin, and Cloverfield Paradox actor David Oyelowo.
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