The White Party

We have so much to celebrate and we want you there with us!

Join us as we celebrate the unveiling of the sculpture of civil rights pioneer, Vel Phillips, on state capitol grounds. After the ceremony we invite you to stay to celebrate Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County’s 25th Anniversary with a live DJ, dancing, food, celebrities, and MORE! 

July 27th at the Wisconsin State Capitol

5pm – 6pm 

Sculpture Unveiling Ceremony
hosted by Gloria Ladson-Billings and Chief Noble Wray

The speakers at the event will include Governor Evers, Michael Phillips (son of Vel Phillips), Michael Johnson, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, the State Executive Board Chair, and other distinguished guests. The statue unveiling is open to the public and free of charge.
There will be a VIP event hosted by the Downtown Madison Inc President, Jason Ilstrup. This will be an invitation-only reception inside the capitol honoring those who supported the creation of the sculpture.

 

July 27th at the Wisconsin State Capitol

6pm – 10pm

The White Party Affair
in honor of Vel Phillips

hosted by Actor Lorenz Tate

This ticketed event will feature food, live entertainment, celebrity guests and will be held inside the state capitol. This celebration is a fundraiser to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County who spearheaded this effort and raised more than $600,000 to gift to the capitol of the sculpture.

If you have any questions, contact our Master Planner Latonya Jackson at Ljackson@bgcdc.org

Lodging reccomendation:

Stay at The Park Hotel, conveniently located across the street from the Capitol at 22 South Carroll St

Celebrity Guests

Larenz Tate is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as O-Dog in Menace II Society, Anthony Curtis in Dead Presidents, and as Councilman Rashad Tate in Power. Tate’s other films and television series include the films Love Jones, A Man Apart, Crash, Waist Deep, Ray and the television series Rush and Game of Silence

Drew Sidora is an American actress and singer. She is known for her recurring role as Chantel in the Disney Channel Original Series That’s So Raven, as Lucy Avila in the 2006 film Step Up, as Tionne Watkins in the VH1 TLC biographical film CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, and the BET comedy-drama television series The Game. She joined the cast of the Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2020

Brianna Brown is an American actress and producer known for her roles in various television series. She has appeared in shows like General Hospital, Devious Maids, and Dynasty. Brown has also guest-starred in popular series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Smallville, Entourage, Without a Trace, The Closer, Joey, and Criminal Minds. Additionally, she has played lead roles in several horror films and has been part of projects like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

 James Hyde had roles in the films The Blackout and Let’s Talk About Sex. The Blackout has not yet been released in the US. He can be seen as one of the two dancers in the concert film Rip It Up Live, released on VHS in 1988.  For ten years, he played the role of “Sam,” the town sheriff on the daytime serial Passions, first on NBC and, later, on DirecTV.
Darrin Dewitt Henson is an American choreographer, dancer, actor, and producer. Hensen was a brief member of freestyle music 1980s group Trilogy and was featured on their single “Good Time”.[2] He worked as a choreographer for various artists and received the 2000 MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography for “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC.


Lance Gross is an accomplished actor, producer and photographer.

Notable credits include “Our Kind of People” (FOX), “Hawaii 5-0” (CBS), a series regular on “Star” (Fox) as ‘Maurice Jetter’, the role of ‘Billy Colton’ on ‘MacGyver” (CBS), Amazon’s “To Old To Die Young” with Miles Teller (Dir. Nicolas Winding), a series regular on “Sleepy Hollow’ (Fox) opposite Nichole Behari, and also the lead of the NBC drama “Crisis” opposite Dermott Mulroney, Gillian Anderson, and Rachael Taylor.

 

Leon Preston Robinson,  is an American actor and singer who began his professional career as a film actor in the early 1980s. He is best known for his roles as J.T. Matthews in the 1991 Robert Townsend film The Five Heartbeats, Derice Bannock in the 1993 film Cool Runnings, Shep in the 1994 basketball drama film Above the Rim, and Little Richard in the 2000 film Little Richard
Carl Anthony Payne II is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Cole Brown on the Fox sitcom Martin and Walter “Cockroach” Bradley on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, Carl on Rock Me Baby (TV series), Curtis on the sitcom George Lopez (2002–2003), and as Myles Wilson on Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan.