Bowie State University Honors Dionne Warwick With Theatre Name

Supply: Lester Cohen / Getty

Bowie State College is formally naming its theater on the college’s performing arts middle after a music legend, Dionne Warwick.

The Dionne Warwick Theater will formally be unveiled on Saturday which would be the first efficiency middle named in her honor.

“We’re very grateful that Dionne Warwick acknowledges the worth of this storied establishment, and for lending her iconic title to the Major Stage Theater within our High quality and Performing Arts Heart,” mentioned Brent Swinton, Bowie State College’s vp of Institutional Development. “Given the wealthy historical past of artists and performers akin to Myles Frost who’ve originated from this college, the naming is much more applicable due to Ms. Warwick’s lifelong advocacy for greater training, healthcare and the humanities.”

Swinton added: “The Dionne Warwick Theater will host live shows, performs and different performances along with her title elevating the venue to a different stage.”

The tribute is scheduled to be held Saturday morning on the college.

The occasion is being held nearly 4 months after two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant paid it ahead to the traditionally Black faculty in Maryland over the previous vacation season. That was when the Phoenix Suns star supplied Bowie State College with a beneficiant donation for the creation of a reimagined basketball enviornment.

The $500,000 reward was made by the Durant Household Basis, a nonprofit that has a mission rooted in empowering youth from underserved communities by initiatives that sit on the intersection of sports activities and training. Bowie State College—which is the oldest traditionally Black establishment within the state of Maryland—holds excessive significance for Durant because it was one of many locations the place he competed as an adolescent.

The Durant household’s donation will go in the direction of the refurbishment of the varsity’s basketball courtroom and the renovation of its bleachers and press field. The reward may also help the creation of scholarships. Durant’s mom, Wanda “The Actual MVP” Durant, offered the donation to the varsity earlier than the ladies’s and males’s basketball groups on the Leonidas S. James Bodily Training Advanced.

“We’re devoted to offering sources and potentialities to college students for greater training, particularly in Prince George’s County,” she mentioned. “Bowie State was the right place to make a significant affect.”

Aminta Breaux, who serves as President of Bowie State College, shared the Durant household’s donation may have an incredible affect. “We’re grateful for the sources that Kevin Durant and his household basis have generously donated to Bowie State College to advance pupil success in attaining their tutorial objectives,” she shared. “His contributions will go a great distance in the direction of updating our services and guarantee a top-tier athletic expertise for all of our college students. The muse has already constructed a community of community-centric providers inside the Durant Heart in Prince George’s County that’s exemplary.”