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Black Girls Rock! Will Honour Rihanna And Gladys Knight

Rihanna is set to receive the Rock Star Award at the annual Black Girls Rock! Awards, a ceremony which honours black women in a number of industries.

The show, which will be filmed on April 1 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre, in Newark, New Jersey, will be honouring a number of women, including R&B singer Gladys Knight who will be receiving the Living Legend Award, as well as The Walking Dead actress, Danai Gurira who will be taking home the Star Power Award.

Black Girls Rock! will be celebrating it’s tenth anniversary of the ceremony and it’s sixth televised broadcast with BET. The awards night was founded by Beverly Bond, with the specific intention of honouring achievements of black women in the fields of philanthropy, music, art and community services.

Apart from Rihanna, other award recipients will be Amandla Stenberg, who most famously portrayed Rue, in The Hunger Games, receiving the Young, Gifted and Black Award. As well as Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi who founded the Black Lives Matter movement.

The night will be hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross, who stars in the hit show black-ish.

I have personally never heard of Black Girls Rock! before, it’s both surprising and somewhat upsetting that such an important organisation and award night has been flying under my radar for the last 10 years. Although it’s easy to put it down to the simple fact that as an Australian I don’t watch BET, it’s perhaps more accurate to assume that not a lot of media coverage goes towards highlighting a night which is all about honouring achievements of black women. If you would like to learn more about Black Girls Rock! which is an organisation that does more than just host a yearly awards ceremony, click here.

If you are interested in following the awards night which will be airing April 5, check it out here.

Image credit: jacqueamadi