PRESS RELEASE DETAIL

Office of the Mayor-President


For release: IMMEDIATELY

Release Date: 03/24/2016

Mayor Holden Appoints Baton Rouge Bicentennial Committee

Actress Lynn Whitfield and Journalist Andre Moreau to Serve as Honorary Co-Chairs

Mayor-President Melvin L. “Kip” Holden has named a committee to help the City of Baton Rouge commemorate the 200th anniversary of its incorporation in 1817. Holden said he will task the committee with reaching out to the City’s arts, educational, cultural and entertainment programs this year to ask that they plan ways to welcome new visitors to Baton Rouge and educate residents about the City’s rich heritage.

“I would like to see us kick off a year-long celebration of all that is great about Baton Rouge at this year’s Red Stick Revelry event on New Year’s Eve,” Holden said, “and invite visitors to take a new look at Baton Rouge in 2017 and experience a place where people and culture have merged to build a vibrant Capital City.”

Holden said he has tapped Emmy Award winning actress Lynn Whitfield, star of the upcoming series Greenleaf on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and Emmy Award winning journalist Andre Moreau, news anchor at WAFB-TV, to serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the Baton Rouge Bicentennial Committee.

Holden said he is inviting organizations like Visit Baton Rouge, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the Arts Council and others to take a leadership role in planning ways to incorporate the bicentennial into existing educational and entertainment programs.

Members of the Baton Rouge Bicentennial Committee are:

• Paul Arrigo, Visit Baton Rouge
• Mary Stein, EBR Library
• Rene Chatelain, Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge
• Fairleigh Jackson, Foundation for Historical Louisiana
• Adam Knapp, Baton Rouge Area Chamber
• Stacy Simon, Visit Baton Rouge
• Karron Alford, Visit Baton Rouge
• Davis Rhorer, Downtown Development District
• Kia Bickham, Office of the Mayor-President
• Rannah Gray, Red Stick Revelry
• Bishop Ivory Payne, The Weekly Press
• Eric Dexter, Forum 35 President
• Carolyn Bennett, community volunteer
• Dr. F. King Alexander, Louisiana State University
• Patricia Flood, Southern University
• Philip Smith, Baton Rouge Community College
• Carolyn McKnight, BREC
• John Sykes, Magnolia Mound Plantation
• Rebecca Hamilton, State Librarian
• Verdi Adam, community volunteer
• Melissa Eastin, EBR Library Archivist
• Faye Phillips, former archivist for LSU




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