Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. officially announced the 2018 Bronx Walk of Fame Inductees.
The announcement came at a pre-kickoff to the 47th annual Bronx Week, held this year from May 10th to the 20th.
The Walk of Fame celebration will honor Bronx natives Tarana Burke, Slick Rick and Maggie Siff.
Diaz made the announcement on Monday, May 7 at the Mott Haven Bar and Grill.
The Bronx Walk of Fame inductees will be permanently recognized on street signs located along Grand Concourse.
Burke founded the Me Too movement back in 2006, more than a decade before it gained widespread hashtag traction over social media.
However, her tireless work in social activism and commitment to advocacy for people of color and other marginalized groups, has spanned the better part of 25 years, a career that started in Selma, Alabama.
While in the south, she worked with youth leadership, served as a curatorial consultant at the national voting rights museum, and created a cultural community program for underserved youth while working for the Black Belt Art and cultural center, among other things.
In 2014, Burke was tagged as a consultant for the Ava Duvernay directed film ‘Selma.’
In 2018, Burke was named to ‘Time’s 100 Most Influential People’ list.
“Bronx Week is a celebration of everything that makes our borough such an amazing place,” said Diaz, who mentioned he attended Lehman High School with her.
Adding to the diversity of the list, Slick Rick, the ‘Golden Age’ famed rapper whose real name is Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, debuted his career in 1983 with Doug E. Fresh’s ‘Get Fresh Crew.’
Since then, he released four albums, collaborated with dozens of fellow artists within and outside of his genre, and even made an appearance in his fair share of movies and videos.
In 2018, Rick remained the most sampled hip-hop artist of all time, with his songs being used well over 600 times, though the rapper’s passions also led him to devoting much of his time now to being a youth mentor and raising awareness for issues affecting underserved communities.
“It’s exciting to celebrate our Bronx heroes and sheroes during this celebration of the best of the borough,” said the executive director of the Bronx Tourism Council, Olga Tirado.
Capping off the list of 2018 inductees is actress Siff, who has made her rounds through the theater and film industry since the late 1990s.
Early in her career, she won a Barrymore Award for a production of ‘Ghosts’ in Philadelphia and has since been nominated for several more awards, including two Critics Choice Awards for her part in the FX series ‘Sons of Anarchy.’
Siff’s credits span from theater productions such as New Audience’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Dollhouse’ at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre to television productions like ‘Concussion,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and ‘Law & Order.’
In 2018, Siff continued her role as one of the lead characters, ‘Wendy Rhoades,’ on Showtime’s ‘Billions,’ which debuted in 2016.
