NEW YORK (AP) – Ruby Dee will be remembered in poetry and song this weekend as the actress and civil rights activist is memorialised by admirers including Alicia Keys, Audra McDonald, Harry Belafonte and Angela Bassett.
The celebration of Lee’s life will be held at the Riverside Church in New York today. Dee died June 11 at age 91.
Dee’s poetry and prose will be read by Bassett, Tyne Daly, Kim Fields, S. Epatha Merkerson, Phylicia Rashad, Pauletta Washington and Lynn Whitfield.
Musical tributes will be performed by Keys, McDonald, Wynton Marsalis and Peter Yarrow. Belafonte will deliver the eulogy.
Dee’s long career earned her an Emmy, a Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards, the Kennedy Centre Honours, the National Medal of Art and an Oscar nomination.
