Charter Day 2024 Emcee and Entertainment
Dear Howard University Community,
Happy Charter Day!
This Saturday, March 2, 2024, the 100th Charter Day Dinner will honor Howard’s 157 years of excellence, leadership, truth, and service. I am grateful for all members of the Howard community who worked tirelessly to ensure we could safely return to an in-person format for the first time since the pandemic. Charter Day dinner is Howard’s premiere fundraising event; it allows us to support scholarships for students to ensure they are relieved from financial burdens and graduate.
The dinner will be held at the Marriott Marquis Washington D.C. Daytime Emmy award-winning host, comedian, actor, author, and philanthropist Loni Love will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies. The headlining entertainment for the evening will be En Vogue, featuring members Cindy Herron, Terry Ellis, and Rhona Bennett.
Love is a co-host of the GRACIE award-winning SiriusXM weekend radio show Café Mocha, the only nationally syndicated show of its kind created by women of color. Love was a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2015–2022, co-host for E! Daily Pop and guest cohost for E! Nightly Pop from 2020 to 2022. In 2019, she became the first female host on the mainstage of the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans and in 2020 hosted Essence’s 50th anniversary at its first-ever virtual Essence Festival.
As an actor, Love has appeared in “Mother’s Day,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” “Soul Plane,” the documentary “Being Loni Love”, and “Adopt a Highway.” She has written two books, “Love Him or Leave Him but Don’t Get Stuck with the Tab” in 2013 and “I Tried to Change So You Don't Have To: True Life Lessons in 2020.” A graduate of Prairie View A&M University with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, Love is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Her accolades include the 2018 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host for The Real, two NAACP Image Awards, and three GRACIE Awards from Alliance for Women in Media.
En Vogue’s unique sound defined the 1990s, and its look and style have remained chic for more than three decades. Starting with its debut single “Hold On” and continuing to other tunes such as “My Lovin’,” “Free Your Mind,” and “Don’t Let Go,” En Vogue accumulated a string of hits, solidifying their relevancy and appeal to various audiences. Its freshman album, “Born to Sing,” nearly went double platinum.
The trio won seven MTV Music Video Awards, three Soul Train Music Awards, two American Music Awards, a Billboard, and Lady of Soul Award. The group also has countless Grammy nominations for hits, including: “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” Aretha Franklin’s remake “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” and “Free Your Mind” from its 1992 sophomore album “Funky Divas.” Other nominations include “Don’t Let Go [Love]” from the “Set It Off” soundtrack in 1996 and EV3, its third album in 1997. In 2004, its sixth album, “Soul Flower,” hit the Billboard Top 20 for indie albums.