2026 Citywide Black History Celebration Honorees

The 2026 Opening Ceremony recognizes individuals whose work has shaped Black cultural life, historical understanding, and creative expression across generations. This year’s honorees include Denise Nicholas, whose career bridges civil rights era theater, groundbreaking television, and literature; Charles Dickson, whose public artworks transform civic spaces into sites of memory and cultural affirmation; DMA Anderson, whose technology platforms have expanded access and opportunity across entertainment, education, and civic engagement; and Antwone Fisher, whose writing and film work preserve Black history through lived experience and reflection. The Origin Award honors Charles Burnett, whose films stand as foundational works documenting Black life and shaping American cinema. Together, these honorees are recognized as part of the 2026 Citywide Black History Celebration. 

Cookie Parker is an accomplished executive, technology entrepreneur, and civic leader with more than 55 years of leadership spanning innovation, enterprise strategy, public service, and philanthropy.

She is the founder and former President of KMS Software Company, an international human resources technology firm acquired by SAP, where she pioneered the first U.S. paperless HR onboarding platform. Under her leadership, KMS served global clients including Citigroup, GE, BP, and KPMG—helping transform workforce systems at scale.

Parker began her career at IBM, where she became the top-performing Systems Engineering and Marketing Manager in the Western Region. She later held senior executive roles at CGS, NCS, and CPR, consistently working at the intersection of technology, workforce development, and institutional change.

Her board service reflects a deep commitment to civic engagement, democracy, and equity. She serves on the corporate board of Vive Concierge and on nonprofit boards including Global LA, Kairos: Democracy Project, National Foster Youth Institute, People For the American Way, and VoteRiders. Appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, she is Vice Chair of the Entertainment Industry Council, focused on retaining film production in Los Angeles while building a diverse and sustainable industry pipeline.

In 2019, Parker co-founded Yes2Jobs, a nonprofit advancing economic mobility for youth in under-resourced communities by creating career pathways in entertainment and media, technology, e-sports, and finance.

Her extensive public service also includes serving as Board President of the Getty House Foundation, supporting brain cancer research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center through The Brain Trust, and serving on the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee. Her environmental advocacy includes research presented at the UN Copenhagen Climate Conference, and she is published in Employment Relations Today for her article “VOW to Hire a Veteran.”

A respected political leader and fundraiser, Parker has supported Presidential, Senate, House, and local campaigns. She served as a DNC Presidential Partner, National Co-Chair for Technology for President Obama, and on Mayor Bass’ re-election fundraising committee.

She holds a BA and MA from New York University and is the proud mother of two and grandmother of one.

Denise Nicholas’s life and career embody the very definition of a Living Legend—an artist whose work spans activism, performance, and literature, and whose influence continues to shape American culture. From her earliest days as an apprentice actress and founding member of the Civil Rights Movement’s Free Southern Theatre, where art and activism were inseparable, to her pivotal role as a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company, Nicholas has consistently aligned her artistry with purpose and social justice.

Her evolution from acclaimed actor to celebrated writer represents the fulfillment of her earliest dream—a journey that culminated in her extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater Road (2005). Inspired by her lived experience during 1964’s Freedom Summer—one of the most dangerous and transformative periods of the Civil Rights Movement—the novel was immediately recognized as a landmark work of historical fiction. The Washington Post hailed it as “a memorable book…surely the best novel about the Civil Rights Era since The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” Newsday called it “a breathtaking debut,” Entertainment Weekly described it as “hypnotic,” and a starred Publishers Weekly review praised it as “sometimes gorgeous, sometimes terrifying…the debut of a talented writer.”

Freshwater Road—the coming-of-age story of a University of Michigan student volunteering in Mississippi’s One Man, One Vote campaign—was named one of the Best Books of 2005 by The Washington Post, The Detroit Free Press, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newsday, and The Chicago Tribune. It won the Zora Neale Hurston / Richard Wright Award and the American Library Association Black Caucus Award for Debut Fiction, received a Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention, and was selected for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s citywide book club. The novel has been optioned for film, with Nicholas adapting her own work as producer and screenwriter.

As an actor, Nicholas is revered for portraying complex, resilient women, most memorably as Liz McIntyre on ABC’s Room 222, a groundbreaking role that earned her three consecutive Golden Globe nominations and expanded representation on American television. She later co-starred as Councilwoman Harriet DeLong on In the Heat of the Night, where she also wrote six episodes—launching her second career as a screenwriter. Her honors include three NAACP Image Awards and two Los Angeles Emmys for the PBS special Voices of My People.

Beyond accolades, Denise Nicholas’s legacy is one of courage, conscience, and creative excellence. She stood on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement, carried its truths onto the stage and screen, and preserved its history through literature. With the publication of her memoir, Finding Home (2025), her voice continues to illuminate, inspire, and endure.

For a lifetime devoted to truth-telling, justice, and artistic brilliance, Our Authors Study Club proudly honors Denise Nicholas as a Living Legend.

Charles Dickson is widely regarded as a living legend, an artist whose life’s work embodies the cultural, artistic, and spiritual evolution of Black America—particularly as it has unfolded in Los Angeles. For more than six decades, Dickson has shaped the visual and cultural landscape of the city through an unwavering commitment to artistic excellence, community engagement, and the preservation of African American heritage.

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Dickson’s artistic journey began in childhood, fueled by curiosity and an innate ability to transform ordinary materials into objects of meaning. Entirely self-taught, he developed a distinctive multi-material practice that both predates and anticipates contemporary conversations around sustainability, Afrofuturism, and cultural reclamation. His early embrace of repurposed materials was not merely aesthetic but philosophical—rooted in survival, reinvention, and the power of Black creativity to generate beauty from limited resources.

Coming of age during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, Dickson aligned with a generation of artists who understood art as both expression and resistance. Exhibiting alongside influential figures such as John Outterbridge and Noah Purifoy, he emerged as part of a foundational cohort that positioned Los Angeles as a vital center of Black artistic innovation. His leadership as an artist-in-residence at Studio Watts Workshop, along with decades of mentorship, extended his influence far beyond his own studio, embedding his values deeply in the cultural fabric of the city.

Dickson’s public art commissions stand as enduring testimony to his impact. His installation for the Metro-Rail Green Line at Mariposa Station—featuring sculptural benches, awnings, relief elements, and integrated steps—is among the works he is most proud of, reflecting his belief that public infrastructure should also serve as a site of cultural affirmation and beauty. Other landmark projects, including Wishing on a Starat the California African American Museum, transform shared spaces into places of reflection, pride, and belonging.

He is also the artist-in-residence at the Watts Towers Art Center Campus, where his presence continues a lineage of community-centered artmaking and cultural stewardship. Through major initiatives such as Destination Crenshaw—where his commissioned work Car Culturehonors Black Los Angeles history and creativity—Dickson has helped redefine public art as a vehicle for historical continuity and collective memory. In recognition of his lasting influence, he has received the Destination Crenshaw Legend Award.

Nationally, Dickson’s legacy resonates because his work bridges African ancestral knowledge with contemporary American experience. His exploration of beauty, form, and spirituality challenges narratives shaped by slavery and exclusion, offering instead a vision of wholeness, dignity, and interconnectedness. Guided by a belief in the “Oneness” of humanity, his sculptures transform inanimate materials into vessels of memory, resilience, and possibility.

Charles Dickson has sustained a lifelong practice grounded in art as truth, community as legacy, and Black culture as an ever-evolving force shaping the future of America.

Technology Entrepreneur | Strategic Consultant | Inventor

DMA Anderson is a veteran technology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of leadership designing software solutions that centralize, optimize, and democratize access to information, opportunity, and achievement across entertainment, education, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

A seasoned executive and strategic consultant in television, college access, and social-impact startups, Anderson’s work has consistently addressed systemic barriers—using technology to simplify complex processes and expand participation for both established institutions and first-time users.

His portfolio includes several groundbreaking platforms:

• Show Starter Scheduling and Budgeting Plus, the first cloud-based production financials platform to integrate budgeting, scheduling, and cash flow into a single application. Built with industry-standard rates and vendors, it enabled producers—emerging and established—to create professional-quality financials in a fraction of the traditional time. The platform was used by networks, production companies, professional organizations, and independent producers.
   
• The CLIC Network, the first social network designed specifically for college access. The platform allowed students to complete a single profile that automatically populated eligible colleges, financial aid opportunities, community-based organizations, and application deadlines. It was used by students and advisors across LAUSD, Centinela Valley Union High School District, and Burbank Unified—significantly improving navigation of the U.S. college application process for first-generation students and families.
   
• The Hollywood Diversity Network, an interactive, searchable directory of working entertainment professionals, enabling networks, studios, and production companies to identify, contact, and share diverse talent profiles.
   
• DEMS (Democratic Elections Made Simple), a civic engagement app that enabled voters to quickly identify Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm and 2024 national elections, learn about campaigns, volunteer, support candidates, and share information across digital platforms. DEMS was used by regional and national nonprofit organizations for voter engagement and get-out-the-vote efforts.
   
• MIA (Managing Information Assets), a secure HR talent acquisition platform that created an industry-wide talent pool—expanding search, outreach, candidate tracking, and cohort analysis beyond traditional professional networks. MIA is currently in its sixth year of a global enterprise license with the world’s largest media corporation.
   
• Korgi, the first productivity and collaboration platform to unify leading applications into a single shared workspace. Korgi integrates AI-generated boards, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoom, Meet, chat, and other tools—allowing individuals and teams to plan, execute, and deliver projects seamlessly. Korgi was named a Top 5 Product of the Day on Product Hunt and is Google CASA Tier 3 verified, the company’s highest security certification.
   

Anderson holds three patents, is a long-standing member of the Television Academy, the Producers Guild of America, and American Mensa, and is a graduate—with distinction—of Stanford University.

For his visionary leadership, sustained innovation, and commitment to expanding access and excellence through technology, Our Authors Study Club proudly honors DMA Anderson as a Hall of Fame Award Honoree at the 2026 Black History Opening Ceremony.

Hall of Fame Award – Literary  

Author | Screenwriter | Founder, Glenville House Press

Antwone Fisher is an author, screenwriter, and speaker whose work bridges lived experience, cultural memory, and the quiet power of reflection. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in the Glenville neighborhood, Antwone’s early life was shaped by foster care, displacement, and survival. Those formative years—rooted in community, endurance, and faith—continue to inform his voice and purpose. 

After serving in the United States Navy, Antwone discovered writing as a means of understanding his past and shaping his future. His memoir, Finding Fish, became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into the feature film Antwone Fisher, directed by Denzel Washington. Since then, his work has reached audiences across generations, offering an honest, human lens on identity, forgiveness, and belonging.

Now based in Los Angeles, Antwone has built a career that honors both where he comes from and where life has carried him. As the founder of Glenville House Press, he remains deeply connected to Cleveland, using storytelling to preserve memory, uplift community, and give voice to experiences too often overlooked. 

His latest book, Reflections Beneath the Buckeye Trees: Notes from a Life, gathers personal reflections that speak to Black history as lived—through family, place, resilience, and grace—reminding readers that history is not only written in books, but carried in people 

Award-Winning Film Director 

The work of Honorary Oscar® recipient and legendary filmmaker Charles Burnett stands among the most vital artistic and activist achievements in American cinema. Guided by moral clarity and an unwavering commitment to truth, Burnett has spent his career illuminating the inner lives of everyday people while confronting systemic injustice with quiet, enduring power. 

His landmark debut, Killer of Sheep, is widely regarded as one of the most important American films ever made. Created as Burnett’s UCLA thesis project—where he earned an MFA from the School of Theater, Film & Television—the film was later declared a “national treasure” by the Library of Congress and became one of the first 50 films inducted into the National Film Registry. With poetic restraint and emotional precision, Killer of Sheep redefined cinematic language, presenting Black working-class life not as spectacle, but as lived experience. 

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi and raised in Los Angeles, Burnett emerged as a central figure of the L.A. Rebellion movement, crafting films rooted in community, history, and human dignity. On Killer of Sheep, he served as director, writer, producer, cinematographer, and editor—an early declaration of the artistry and authorship that would define his body of work. The film won the Critics’ Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and first prize at Sundance (then the U.S. Film Festival), announcing Burnett as a singular cinematic voice.

After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, Burnett wrote and directed My Brother’s Wedding, followed by To Sleep with Anger, a masterful family drama starring Danny Glover. The film earned three Independent Spirit® Awards,including Best Director and Best Screenplay for Burnett, and became his second work named to the National Film Registry. Blending folklore, social critique, and intimate storytelling, it exemplifies Burnett’s ability to fuse artistry with moral inquiry. 

Throughout his career, Burnett has used film as an instrument of cultural memory and social witness. His work across independent cinema, studio films, documentaries, and television addresses racism, historical erasure, and resilience. Projects such as The Glass Shield, Nightjohn, Selma, Lord, Selma, The Annihilation of Fish, and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation foreground stories of resistance and survival. His Disney Channel film Night john—about literacy as an act of liberation—was hailed by The New Yorker as the best American film of its year. Burnett’s influence extends far beyond the screen. A revered educator and mentor, he has served as visiting faculty and artist-in-residence at institutions including Yale, UC Berkeley, CalArts, and Bard College, shaping generations of filmmakers committed to integrity and purpose. 

In 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences honored Burnett with an Honorary Oscar®, presented by acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay, with tributes from Tessa Thompson and the late Chadwick Boseman. The moment affirmed Burnett’s enduring legacy: a body of work defined not by commercial trends, but by conscience, artistry, and a profound commitment to justice. 

Charles Burnett’s films do more than tell stories—they preserve histories, challenge injustice, and affirm the humanity of those too often left unseen