Newton Man Aims To Bring Red Carpet Cultural Awards To City

NEWTON, MA —A Newton resident is hosting what he hopes will be a red carpet awards ceremony next month to honor people near and far who have made a difference in the world. He's planning to hand out a series of lifetime excellence awards he's calling the Newton Universal Legendary awards and the Newton Entertainment Awards.

On June 15, Errol Forde is inviting folks to come to the Charles E. Brown Middle School on Meadowbrook Road to watch performances from international stars and local talent, while honoring those who are here in Newton and from around the world.

Forde started a company called the Socio-Economic Development Foundation of Boston (it has 26 likes on Facebook so far) about four years ago, with the aim of promoting sports tourism in Greater Boston. A year later, he said he met Linda Plaut while she was working on the Newton festival of the arts and was inspired.

"I was amazed that Newton has some very unique talent," said Forde. "I thought why not promote the talent? But also embrace the cultures of everyone inside and out of the city."
Thus it was Newton Universal Legendary Awards - or NULAs was born. And on its heals, Newton Entertainment Awards - or the NEWAs.

"Newton is so complete when it comes to performing arts. I said I'm going to work to promote Newton to the highest level," said Forde.

Showcasing and lauding talent and effort inside and out of Newton, while focusing on bringing together multiple cultures is his dream, he said.

Forde has hosted a current events TV show at NewTV since 2015, inviting different kinds of professionals who have impacted their communities to discuss. He plans to showcase many who have appeared on that program.

NewTV will be recording the event and broadcasting it later, according to Brian Hebert of the community cable access station.

Putting on such a big talent event - Forde expects hundreds to attend from as far away as Canada-isn't new to him. Each year he hosts a Christmas event different talents from different cities come in and air their talent with him on NewTV.

The awards gala will also honor Newton community arts champion Linda Plaut who passed away this winter.

Forde said he and Plaut worked on a multicultural festival with her and wanted to honor her life.
"We will be honoring two people with a Linda Plaut Memorial Award, and giving a posthumous award to Linda recognizing her lifetime of contribution to the community," he said.

Although the Newton Community Festival of the Arts is not a sponsor of the event, it comes at during the right time. From May until the end of June Newton is celebrating the "Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts" of which there are almost 50 events including porchfest June 1.

All told there will be more than a couple dozen awards given out throughout the night, sprinkled between live performances. A radio DJ from 96.5 will be the master of cermonies for the event, he said.

Forde has high hopes and plans for the night.

“This is going to be an annual event. I want it to be just as prestigious as the Emmys and the Grammys. And we want to make this available to everyone. We want to make this a global award,” he said.

He said he's financed almost all of the $7,500 to get event up and running himself this year, but hopes to recoup the money from the ticket sales. There’s room for more than 600 people in the auditorium, he said.

He also plans to donate a percent of the proceeds to NewTV, and to the the Arts and Culture Planning Committee, on which he has informally attended for the past few years, he said. And the rest will go back into a fund to put this on again next year. And next year will be even bigger, he said.

“This event is designed not only to recognize great work, but to have an economic impact on the city,” he said.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).