Tyler Perry Salutes Nicole Avant, Amber Ruffin Jokes About DEI Rollbacks and More From Inside the AAFCA Awards

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson Tyler Perry made a special trip to Los Angeles to present his friend (and the producer of his latest Netflix film, “The Six Triple Eight”) Nicole Avant with the Beacon Award at the 16th annual African American Film Critics Association Awards. “I don’t know why I’m working like I’m still broke,” Perry joked about arriving at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel straight from the airport, then hopping back on the plane when the show was over.

But the quick roundtrip was necessary to support AAFCA’s mission of uplifting Black storytellers — “especially in this climate when there’s so many attacks on who we are, what our stories are,” Perry said — and to salute Avant, who he emphasized is “Hollywood royalty” as the daughter of the late Jacqueline Avant, a philanthropist, and Clarence Avant, the music executive known as “The Black Godfather.” On the red carpet, Nicole Avant told Variety her parents would be proud to see her receive this specific honor. “I’m sure they are beaming down.

My mom would always tell me to go out in the world and be the light. Choose which side you’re on, and then play ball,” she said. “And I haven’t been here since ‘The Black Godfather’ [documentary] in 2019, when my dad received an award.” On stage, Avant dedicated the award to them, plus her godfather, the late Quincy Jones, as well as all the people “who have been beacons of light along my journey,” including Don Cornelius, Cicely Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier.

Perry stood behind her giggling, as confirmed his point about the “Hollywood royalty” of it all and the Black cultural icons she encountered throughout her life because of that status.