Photo credits: United Artists via MGM Distribution Co.
A roadway will soon be renamed Cicely Tyson Way in memory of the late, celebrated actress.
On the same stretch of 101st that Cicely Tyson grew up on, there will be a street celebration in her honor. The deputy speaker of the New York City Council, the Honorable Diana Ayala, will give a speech during the unveiling event. Following the presentation, the Caribbean-American Sports and Youth Movement Steel Orchestra, the Dominican Folklore Dance Troupe, the Poet Laureate of El Barrio Jess Papoleto Meléndez, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and several more illustrious locals will perform. The occasion is held on September 17 from noon to 5 p.m.
Ayala, Taina Traverso, Nina M. Saxon, and Deborah Quinones, who co-founded the Cicely Tyson Street Renaming and Landmark Committee, were instrumental in making this feat official last summer.
Numerous well-known individuals and institutions signed the petition, including political analyst Donna Brazile, the New York Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Landmark East Harlem, El Museo del Barrio, and Artspace PS 109. The Committee has collaborated with a number of neighborhood groups, such as Hi-ARTS, to organize the free street festival. Public dancing will follow the ceremony, with DJ Krayze and Liquitone Entertainment providing the music.
Tyson’s parents were from the Caribbean island of Nevis where he was born in 1924. She was reared in a five-story walk-up between Lexington and Third Avenue at 178 East 101st Street. In addition to several other outstanding honors, Tyson has won three Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, multiple NAACP Image Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and many more. In January 2021, she passed away at the age of 96.
This roadway’s name will act as a local landmark that will always identify her as an East Harlem native who transformed the globe.
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