Clarence Avant Remembered as an ‘Incredible Force of Nature’ By UMPG President Evan Lamberg at City of Hope’s Closing the Care Gap Event
variety.comBreAnna Bell Held at the Los Angeles home of real estate agent and TV personality Josh Flagg, the Bel-Air backyard garden full of doctors and music executives gathered together for City of Hope’s Closing the Care Gap fireside chat where attention was focused on the lack of access within the Black community to quality health care, preventive mobile screening, early disease detection, and personalized or precision medicine.
But the loss of Clarence Avant hung heavy on several attendees as they recognized his work to uplift the Black community. Alex Avant wasn’t in attendance at the start of the small gathering, Evan Lamberg opened the evening by acknowledging the tremendous loss the world felt in Clarence’s death, calling him an “incredible force of nature” whose contributions toward progress in the Black community are considered to be incomparable.
He led the night with a 15-second moment of silence. Avant, known to the world as “The Black Godfather,” died on Aug. 13 in his Los Angeles home.
He was 92 years old. Among the list of attendees were Kevin Liles (CEO at 300 Entertainment), Jody Gerson (CEO at Universal Music Publishing Group), past Spirit of Life honoree Rob Light (head of music at CAA), Debra Lee (former CEO at BET), Danielle Price Sanders (executive vice president at Republic Records), Willie “Prophet” Stiggers (CEO of 50/50 Music Group Management), and American songwriter Justin Tranter.
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