COUNCIL MEMBER LETITIA JAMES REMEMBERS ARTIST AND VISIONARY AARON INGRAM

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
March 22, 2012

Contact: Amyre Loomis (646) 201-8183

COUNCIL MEMBER LETITIA JAMES REMEMBERS ARTIST AND VISIONARY AARON INGRAM

(Brooklyn, NY)— Aaron Ingram, the beloved ActNow Foundation founder & Executive Director, passed away on Monday, March 19th, after a prolonged battle with cancer. We will remember the theater and film programs that he brought to Brooklyn audiences, and his innumerable contributions to the national and international artistic communities.

The funeral service celebrating the life of Aaron Ingram will take place this Friday, March 23rd, at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 279 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. The viewing begins at 10am and the celebration begins at 11am. For more information please contact ActNow’s Curtis John at (347) 275-0563, or curtis@actnowproduction.org. Aaron’s family has created the following link as well: http://www.facebook.com/events/206561192783357/ .

Aaron Ingram founded ActNow Foundation nearly a decade ago to support artists of color, and showcase black film and theater. ActNow started humbly by showing short films at local bars, and has since grown to producing the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “New Voices in Black Cinema” screening series. Aaron said that his passion to promote black films stems from his upbringing in a racially and culturally mixed neighborhood in the Bronx, where he learned you didn’t have to be black to identify with black characters. Aaron’s strength and sensitivity created a home for the black arts community, and his inspiration continues to keep ActNow moving forward.

We remember Aaron for his big heart, love of the arts, his achievements as an actor, director, visionary, and as founder of a leading Black theater and film institution. Through ActNow Foundation, his legacy lives on with the continuation of great programs like New Voices in Black Cinema, New Voices in Theater, and the program that started ActNow, the ANF Short Film Collective. Aaron Ingram will truly be missed. His support of the African-American creative process is legendary. A gentleman with a wonderful spirit, he kept on fighting the fight for artists of color, and today his vision is already a part of the future. Aaron made a difference in the lives of many people. We thank him for sharing his gifts, and nurturing the Brooklyn renaissance in film and theatre. We will miss Aaron dearly, but will continue his dream.

The Funeral Service for Aaron Ingram will take place:
Friday March 23rd at Emmanuel Baptist Church
279 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238 (at Lafayette Avenue & St. James Place)
Viewing at 10am - Celebration Begins at 11am


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