Black Girls Rock!

BLACK GIRLS ROCK! was founded by celebrity DJ and model Beverly Bond in 2006. The inaugural BLACK GIRLS ROCK! AWARDS ceremony honored rapper MC Lyte and DJ Jazzy Joyce at powerHouse Arena, an art gallery and powerHouse Books location in DUMBO, Brooklyn. For the second annual BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards the organization honored Missy Elliott, Sylvia Rhone, and DJ Diamond Kuts at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City with actress Regina King as its host. The organization continued to independently produce its annual award show in New York City until 2009. In 2008 Regina King hosted the award show again and in 2009 the award show was co-hosted by Regina King and Tracee Ellis Ross. In 2010 BLACK GIRLS ROCK! collaborated with BET to bring its annual award ceremony to television. The award show aired on BET from 2010 through 2019. In 2021, Beverly Bond, launched BGR!TV Networks, which streams original content celebrating Black women and girls including the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards. The BGR!TV Networks first program was the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! 15th-anniversary Fundraising Gala which was headlined by Chaka Khan and featured Grammy-nominated artists Alice Smith and Maimouna Youssef, a.k.a. MuMu Fresh; D.C.'s all-woman go-go band Bela Dona; Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leonard; celebrity DJ Active; and an exclusive collaboration with Chaka Khan and Def Leppard lead guitarist Phil Collen. In 2019, in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, BLACK GIRLS ROCK! hosted BGR!Fest. The three-day celebration was timed to coincide with International Women's Day, and included a dance party and a weekend of music performances. A second BGR!Fest was held in 2020, The Kennedy Center announced that the BGR!FEST will return in March 2022 and BLACK GIRLS ROCK! is currently collaborating with the National Symphony Orchestra to produce another event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! also holds an annual BLACK GIRLS LEAD conference for girls and hosts educational STEM programs through its platform Girls Rock Tech! ==Award Show==

Each year, BLACK GIRLS ROCK! celebrants are recognized in categories including, but not limited to, "The Rock Star", "Social Humanitarian", "Who Got Next?", "Living Legend", "Shot Caller", "Trailblazer", "Motivator", "Young, Gifted & Black", "Star Power", "Icon" or "Visionary" award. The program features musical performances by female recording artists in the R&B and Soul music genres. Notable speakers have included Michelle Obama (2015) and Hillary Clinton (2016). Since its first televised ceremony on Nov 7, 2010, Black Girls Rock! has become an annually televised event on BET and BET Her. That year the ceremony was hosted by actress Nia Long and featured recognitions and musical performances by SWV, Coko, Raven-Symoné, Keke Palmer, Ruby Dee, Teresa Clarke, Marcelite J. Harris, Iyanla Vanzant, Kelly Price, VV Brown, Keyshia Cole, Marsha Ambrosius, Jill Scott, Ledisi, Keri Hilson, Ciara, and Missy Elliott. The 2013 show garnered over 2.7 million television viewers. Since 2015, the annual ceremony has been produced from Newark's New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The 2019 event was hosted by actress Niecy Nash on August 25, 2019 and aired on September 8, 2019 on BET. The award show has won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety in the Series of Special category three times (2013, 2017, 2019) and been nominated five times. Honorees 2006 • Pioneer Award DJ Jazzy Joyce • Icon Award MC Lyte • DJ Jazzy Joyce Award DJ Diamond Cuts • Monument Award Nicole Paultre-Bell and Valerie Bell • Fashionista Award Naomi Campbell • Visionary Award Missy Elliott • Star Power Award Taraji P. Henson • Young Gifted and Black Award Janelle Monáe • Young, Gifted & Black Award Misty Copeland • Community Activist Award Ameena Matthews • Shot Caller Award Ava DuVernay • Shot Caller Celebrant Shonda Rhimes • Star Power Award Regina King • Rock Star Award Ciara • Young, Gifted & Black Award H.E.R. • Shot Caller Award Debra Martin Chase • Community Change Agent Award Gwen Carr, Lucy McBath, Geneva Reed-Veal, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, Maria Hamilton, Sybrina Fulton == 2018 Book: Black Girls Rock! Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth. ==

In February 2018, Simon & Schuster published Black Girls Rock! Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth. The book was edited by Beverly Bond and features insights from nearly sixty influential Black women, including Michelle Obama, Angela Davis, Shonda Rhimes, Misty Copeland, Yara Shahidi, and Mary J. Blige. == References ==