News: Dr. Renee Cousins King, a retired pediatrician who now heads the Charles Cousins Trust, and Janet Damon, a library services specialist for the Denver Public Schools, were among those honored when the Colorado Symphony presented its annual public benefit concert.

King is the daughter of the late businessman and philanthropist Charles Cousins and recently gave a six-figure cash gift to the Black American West Museum in order to help sustain its operation in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.

Both she and Damon, co-founder of Afros and Books, received the Rev. Dr. James Peters Humanitarian Award.

The event at Boettcher Concert Hall marked the 31st year that the symphony has partnered with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission to honor adults and youths who have made impactful contributions to racial equity throughout the state.

The commission is headed by photographer Vern Howard. Charleszine “Terry” Nelson, the special collection and community resource manager for the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, is the commission’s vice chair. She also chaired the Jan. 11 event.

Prior to their introduction at the concert, the honorees were feted at a VIP reception where they joined select guests for a buffet supper from Two Sistahs’ Catering.

The 90-minute concert, with Scott O’Neil conducting, featured two of MLK’s favorite pieces “Hymn to Freedom” and “This Little Light of Mine,” performed by pianist Purnell Steen and the Five Points Ambassadors.

Steen, a Denver native, met MLK in 1964 when he played in the first biracial Easter concert held in Birmingham, Ala.

His LeJazz Machine was the house band for the Alabama delegation to the Democratic National Convention held in Denver in 2008.

Steen and the Five Points Ambassadors are slated to travel to France this summer to play in Denver’s sister city of Brest.

The 2022 awards also went to:

• Chartashia Miller, founder of Coaching with Results, whose work focuses on helping young people to be their best selves.

• FirstBank Multicultural Banking Center, for its work in helping communities of color receive the support needed to achieve financial literacy, establish businesses or become homeowners.

Executive vice president Tony Oum accepted the Trailblazer Award.

• Taylianna Chambers Lopez, a 15-year-old sophomore at Rangeview High School, where she is an honor student in chemistry and math, received the Joyce Marie Davis Youth Award for her scholastic and extracurricular achievements.

• Marilyn Chipman, an educational sociologist, received the Menola Upshaw Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of the 45 years she has spent developing guidance and educational policies to shape and improve public education.

• Retired Judge Claudia Ella Abernethy-Felicianna was honored posthumously for a career spent “balancing the scales of justice for single mothers, senior citizens, people with mental and physical disabilities, brown people, black people, immigrants, refugees and members of the LGBTQ community.”

Floyd Jones accepted the Wilma J. Webb Founders Award on her behalf.

• Also honored posthumously was Clementine Washington Pigford, a master researcher, storyteller and historian of Denver’s African American community.

A retired educator, she spent 16 years as the first full-time, African American female classroom instructor at Red Rocks Community College before joining Denver Public Schools, from which she retired in 1998.

She was given the Menola Upshaw Lifetime Achievement Award.

About the organization: Since its founding 37 years ago, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission has worked to unify and educate communities within Colorado by encouraging appropriate observations, ceremonies and activities in commemoration of the federal holiday and state legal holiday honoring King.

Perhaps the best-known activity is Denver’s annual Marade, which takes place this year on Jan. 17.

Former state legislator and former Denver first lady Wilma Webb had a key role in founding the commission and served as its first chair. She also established the Marade.

Website: drmartinlkingchc.org

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