At its annual Spring Benefit yesterday (June 12), the historic Apollo Theater honored its long-time president and CEO Jonelle Procope. During her two decades at the helm of the Harlem landmark, she helped restore the Apollo from a near-bankrupt institution to the largest African American performing arts organization in the nation.
Musician and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs, NBA legend Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and eyewear company Warby Parker also received awards at the benefit, which saw performances from MC Lyte and Wyclef Jean.
Stepping down from the theater later this month, Procope will be succeeded by Michelle Ebanks, the former CEO of Essence Communications, which oversees Essence magazine. “It has been an honor to lead this organization through two decades of outstanding performances, transformative educational programs, and civic advocacy,” said Procope in a statement.
After a seven-year-long career as an attorney, Procope joined the Apollo Theater as a board member in 1999 before she was elected its president and CEO in 2003. The 90-year-old theater, which launched Ella Fitzgerald’s career in the 1930s while she was still a teenager and showcased performers like the Jackson Five, Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, was in a dire financial situation at the start of Procope’s leadership.
The theater, which became a non-profit in 1991 after filing for bankruptcy five years prior, was still struggling by 2002 and unable to compete with large-scale arenas like Madison Square Garden, as reported by the Associated Press.
But Procope quickly turned her focus to fundraising, raising $54 million during a 2008 capital campaign for the theater’s preservation. It unveiled its “walk of fame” in 2010, memorializing legendary performers with plaques outside the venue, and in 2011 received a visit from Barack Obama—its first from a sitting president.
Another fundraising campaign was launched three years later, this time with a $20 million goal focused on expanding the Apollo’s programming, which had already doubled by 2014. Procope also later spearheaded the Apollo’s redevelopment of the Victoria Theater. The latter site, which plans to open later this year as an addition to the Apollo, recently named one of its spaces after Procope.
In addition to serving as an executive producer on the 2019 Emmy-nominated documentary The Apollo, Procope led the theater through the Covid-19 pandemic, launching the “Apollo Digital Stage” in 2020, a series of virtual performances which garnered nearly half a million views in under a year.
Procope’s swan song was a multi-million dollar fundraiser for the Apollo’s renovation
Most recently, she has overseen the theater’s nearly $80 million capital campaign for a full-scale renovation of the Apollo set to be completed by 2025. In addition to $15.7 million given by New York City, a $10 million grant from New York Governor Kathy Hochul and $5 million from Sirius XM Radio, the campaign has spurred donations from philanthropists like Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder and Frank and Laura Baker and organizations like the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Empire State Development Corporation, the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation.
During its 2022 Spring Benefit, the gala raised a record-breaking $3.7 million, with awardee Tyler Perry announcing an impromptu $500,000 gift while on stage. The theater has also raised millions during its annual “Apollo in the Hamptons” fundraising events, hosted by philanthropists like Ronald Perelman. “Jonelle has led the Apollo through an unparalleled period of growth,” Charles E. Phillips, chairman of the Apollo’s board, told the Associated Press.
The theater saw $16.2 million in revenue and support in 2022, $8.3 million of which was made up of donations and grants, marking a dramatic rise from its oldest available figures from 2012, when the theater brought in $9.4 million and saw $6 million in contributions.
