So you may have heard: “O” herself (Oprah Winfrey) recently helped Maya Angelou turn a pretty big “0” – the big 8-0. Eighty years on earth.
Turns out she needed our own Eugene B. Redmond to do that right.
“Just weeks before the big Maya 8-0 party, Oprah’s event planner, still shopping for novel ways to augment the ‘Celebration of Maya,’ called me for input,” Redmond told the American.
They decided: they needed some EBR photos. Redmond has been friends with Maya for 38 years and you know the brother has been snapping pics the whole time.
The turnaround time was tight, but Redmond and Howard Rambsy II (curator of his photos) jumped into action to produce Eighty Moods of Maya: A Photo-Mosaic Birthday ‘Homage’ from the Eugene B. Redmond Collection.
The exhibit was displayed in the promenade of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, right on the way to the ballroom. That’s not bad placement.
Before anyone saw those pics, invited guests received fuchsia and white decorated chocolate individual birthday cakes, sent to them on Valentine’s Day by Bruce Southworth, O’s event planner.
“As for the birthday weekend, it deserves a book or a movie,” Redmond said.
“I enjoyed rapping with gospel singer Bobby Jones who, it turns out, has blood connections in St. Louis where he taught at Beaumont High School between 1959 and the early 1960s; and Quincy Jones, who has blood hookups in East Boogie and who informed me he’d be receiving an honorary degree from Wash. U. during spring commencement.”
Redmond also has – and had – an eye for the ladies.
“Natalie Cole looked post-‘good’ in those beguiling ‘cat’ eyes. Grammy winner Vanessa Bell Callaway ‘turned out’ the Sunday Best Gospel Hour & Brunch.”
He checked at least one well-turned brother as well: “Kephra Burns, Susan Taylor’s, hubby, was clean as a hound’s tooth.”
As for the entertainment, well, you know. Oprah can get whomever she wants. She had Michael Finestein, Natalie Cole, Jessye Norman, a marching band led by George Faison, and Ashford and Simpson, who brought Maya onstage for “I’m Every Woman” and Maya’s poem, “Phenomenal Woman.”
And, then, Tony Bennett.
“At O’s request, Tony Bennett cancelled a European tour to serenade The Phenomenal Woman,” Redmond said.
“He ended a jazz medley with his signature song, ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco,’ in honor of Maya who, born in St. Louis, spent her teen years in the City by the Bay and started her singing-dancing career at SF’s Purple Onion Club.”
The Sunday gospel service was led by Bebe Winans, joined by all his siblings, plus Fred Hammond, The Clark Sisters and a large choir.
What’s a party without a guest list? Here was some, in addition to the above:
Freddie Jackson, T. Shnugg, Howard Dodson, Margaret Courtney-Clark, Tyler Perry, Reuben Cannon, Rev. Cecil Williams, Janice Mirikitani, Virginia Newell, Dr. Maxine Mimms, Dr. Ruth Kelly, Lesa Terry, William Nyaho, Dr. Ruth B. Love, Marcia Gillespie, Toni Fay, Jim Kelly, Stan and Beverly Hicks, Stephanie and Guy Johnson, Art and Sharon Cossey, Colin and Jessica Johnson, Rosa Johnson, Danny Butler, John and Bettie Clay, Brent and Gloria Herndon, Julianne Malveaux, Michael (Eric) and Marcia Dyson.
“All in all it was a fabulous, memorable celebration,” said Dr. Vicki Hughes. “What a way to celebrate Maya’s birthday in such an elegant, opulent style.”
P.S. Some of this fabulous crowd will be SIUE on May 10 to honor Redmond with his honorary doctorate.
