BlackStar Projects is pleased to announce its 2025 Luminary Gala Awards, honoring Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Townsend and Third World Newsreel. The gala will take place on November 21, 2025 at Switch House in Philadelphia from 6PM-10:30PM. Ticketing and sponsorship information is available here.
Established in 2012, the Luminary Awards have been given to a wide range of artists, cultural leaders and collectives whose contributions align with BlackStar’s mission of creating a more just and liberatory world. Past recipients have included Mira Nair, Menelik Shabazz, Ava DuVernay, Julie Dash, dream hampton and RZA. First held in 2023, the Luminary Gala is an unforgettable evening in celebration of the luminaries shaping and shifting the arts, culture and media landscape. Bringing together artists, philanthropists and BlackStar’s community of friends, the event shines a light on the organization’s work to garner further support for its suite of year-round cultural programming that provides Black, Brown and Indigenous artists with the resources and support they need to thrive. This year’s Gala will be hosted by journalist and music industry trailblazer Dyana Williams.
This year’s Luminary Award recipients display a commitment to social justice, embracing collaboration and celebrating a wide spectrum of aesthetics and storytelling practices. The 2025 honorees are: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, a cinematographer whose trailblazing work has opened up new pathways for visual storytelling; Meshell Ndegeocello, a genre-defying musician whose boundless sonic innovations spark renewed interest in Soul music; Robert Townsend, a towering figure in the world of Independent Film, where he has directed and produced blockbuster films and critically incisive series and Third World Newsreel, a news organization that has championed cultural and social justice in media for almost sixty years.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC, is a visionary cinematographer known for bold, atmospheric visuals. Her recent work includes Sinners (2025), the first film shot by a female cinematographer on IMAX 65mm and The Last Showgirl (2024). Autumn also lensed Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), earning major box office success and an Oscar nod for Rihanna’s ‘Lift Me Up.’ An Emmy nominee for Loki, she has also collaborated with Spike Jonze, Gia Coppola, and Aziz Ansari. A graduate of AFI, she was the first woman of color on American Cinematographer’s cover and is represented by Iconic and LUX Artists.
Meshell Ndegeocello has survived the best and worst of what a career in music has to offer. She eschewed genre for originality, celebrity for longevity and musical trends for musical truths. Fans have come to expect the unexpected and follow her on sojourns into soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop and rock, all bound by the search for love, justice, respect and resolution. Those sonic investigations have defied and redefined the expectations for women, queer artists and for Black music for over 30 years. She remains one of few women who write the music, sing the songs and lead the band.
Robert Townsend transcends any medium he touches, whether performing stand-up, acting, writing, directing or producing. With over 30 years in the business, Townsend is often called the ‘Godfather’ of the Independent Film World. An out-of-the-box thinker, he has made an indelible mark in Hollywood with an extensive list of credits. Robert’s recent directing credits include multiple episodes of Poppa’s House and Power Book IV: Force. He directed multiple episodes of the NAACP Image Award-winning The Best Man: The Final Chapters. Additional directing work can be seen on Netflix’s Kaleidoscope and Colin in Black & White.
Third World Newsreel (TWN) has advanced movement storytelling and media arts for cultural and social justice since 1968. They champion the self-representation of historically marginalized communities—including Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, Mixed/Multiracial, People with Disabilities and LGBTQIA+ individuals—through diverse genres and forms of media, such as documentary, experimental and fiction. Their aim is to create, engage and amplify stories while creatively activating audiences. Their comprehensive support includes hands-on training, fiscal sponsorship, educational distribution and preservation, all designed to advance cultural justice and societal change. From documentary and experimental to narratives, TWN is committed to shaping a media landscape where diversity and intersectionality are not merely represented but are central to social transformation.
The Luminary Gala is a microcosm of BlackStar’s multiplicity, an intentional community building moment, connecting its profound, diverse audience in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving. Sponsors and contributors will be directly investing in the sustainability of BlackStar’s efforts to rectify systemic imbalances in the media arts and beyond and support the mission of amplifying the moving image as a transformative tool for social change.
The Luminary Gala host committee includes Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Allison Acevedo, Brandon Pankey, Deesha Philyaw, Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Ernest Owens, Irit Reinheimer. James Claiborne, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Jermaine Jenkins, Joe Hill, Korin Williams, Kurt Evans, Loira Limbal, Louis Massiah, Nikil Saval, Omar Woodard, Omar Tate, Raymond Perkins, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Nikil Saval, Val Gay.
BlackStar Projects and its year-round programming is generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, City of Philadelphia, Critical Minded, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.
About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.
These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.