Sixteen people stood and sat for the photograph at Flourish Atlanta, most of them holding a black plaque. Ten were the honorees. The rest were the presenters, the chairman and the men and women who have kept the Living Legends Foundation running for 35 years.
The foundation held its 35th Anniversary Awards Dinner and Gala on Friday, October 2, 2026, at Flourish by Legendary, 3143 Maple Drive NE in Atlanta. Chaka Khan, a 10-time Grammy Award winner, served as Honorary Ambassador. Q Parker, a founding member of the Grammy-winning group 112, served as Honorary Gala Chair.
The class ran across the whole business of Black music. Louis Carr, president of BET, received the Ray Harris Lifetime Achievement Award. The Black Promoters Collective took the A.D. Washington Chairman’s Award. Greg Street, the V-103 Atlanta air personality, received the Frankie Crocker Radio Personality Award, and Kenny Smoov, vice president of urban programming at Cumulus Media, received the Jerry Boulding Radio Executive Award.
Phylicia Fant, who leads Black music and culture work at Amazon Music, received the Mike Bernardo Female Executive Award. Juliette Jones, chief operating officer of Alamo Records, received the Impact Player Award. Tim Reid, senior vice president of repertoire and marketing at BMG Recorded Music, received the Music Executive Award. Ted Lucas, founder of Slip-N-Slide Records, received the Hip-Hop Visionary Award. Ralph McDaniels, creator of Video Music Box, received the Entrepreneur Award. James McMillan, an entertainment attorney and chief executive of ART@WAR Entertainment, received the Kendall Minter Entertainment Advocate Award.
The Collective award went to nine promoters at once: Shelby Joyner, Gary Guidry, Troy Brown, William “Bill” Ingram, Sulaiman Mausi, Shahida Mausi, Lionel Bea, Janice Cotton and Walt Reeder Jr. Independent promoters rarely share a stage as a group. The foundation put them on one.
Chairman David C. Linton set out what the 35 years have been for. “Time not only flies when you’re having fun but when you’re doing something noble,” Linton said when the honorees were announced. “For 35 years, the Living Legends Foundation has been honoring and protecting the men and women who bring Black music to the world, while funding the future of the industry with scholarships.”
The protection in that sentence is literal. The foundation, founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1992 as a 501(c)(3), gives financial help to former music industry workers who have a confirmable need. Many of them worked in an era with no 401(k) and no retirement package, and the foundation says the help is given in a way that keeps the dignity of the person receiving it. The gala is the public night. The assistance work is the quiet part of the year.
Last year’s class set a high bar for this one. At the 34th anniversary gala the foundation gave its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the producers behind records by Janet Jackson and a long list of others. This year’s room answered with a sitting BET president, a nine-person promoters coalition and the executive ranks of Amazon Music, BMG and Alamo Records.
Thirty-five years in, the foundation’s bet is the same one it made in 1991: the people who built the business should be named, thanked and looked after while they can still hear it.
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