Celebrating its 55th anniversary this year, the NAACP Image Awards continue to be a shining beacon of Black excellence when it comes to highlighting creatives and projects other awards shows tend to overlook.
This year’s nominees include Colman Domingo, Halle Bailey, Usher, Fantasia Barrino-Taylor and Keke Palmer — all up for Entertainer of the Year, the ceremony’s top prize. Honorary awards will be bestowed at the ceremony, with winners revealed during the two-hour live TV special, airing March 16 on BET and CBS from the Shrine Auditorium. The ceremony will also recognize winners in non-televised Image Awards categories March 11-14 and will stream via naacpimageawards.net.
“It is such an honor to be recognized for doing something that you love,” says Palmer, who has four nominations. Beyond entertainer of the year, she was nominated for character voiceover performance (“The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder”), directing a TV movie or special (“Big Boss”) and arts and entertainment podcast (“Baby, This Is Keke Palmer”).
“I have been performing since the age of nine, and I know I truly am blessed to have found something that I am very passionate about and that is entertainment,” Palmer says. “It is absolutely an honor to be recognized by such a historic organization like the NAACP, as well as to have been chosen for recognition by my peers.”
Kyle Bowser, senior VP of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, says the ceremony celebrates meaningful and entertaining work year after year. He views it as it is an extension of the organization’s mission as it relates to how Black people are seen and represented in the public sphere, particularly when it comes to media and entertainment.
“The Image Awards is a platform that allows everyone the opportunity to see firsthand just how immense, how fast, how deep, and how broad our contributions are to culture. It’s right there on display and it’s undeniable,” Bowser tells Variety. “I just feel given the events of the current era, I think people are going to start doing more accurate math about who we are and what our proximity is to the epicenter of culture.”
The organization also spotlights pay equity and on-screen representation issues for Black performers.
“Unlike other award shows, we are a nonprofit that has an awards show, versus an awards show that has a nonprofit,” points out Robin Harrison, VP of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau. “So our focus and our work is slightly different in that we can utilize the Image Awards to honor people who typically may not have been honored. That goes hand-in-hand with the advocacy work that we do in the industry,” Harrison says.
For his part, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson hopes the show will “continue shaping a cultural narrative that will create a more representative landscape across the entertainment industry and society at large.”
Johnson adds: “The awards show remains a powerful platform for recognizing and honoring outstanding contributions from various communities, influencing positive change, and inspiring a more inclusive and equitable future and we’re confident that it will continue to hold its impact for the years to come.”
