Year Honored: 2024

Biography

Raye has accumulated 35 years of public service focused on arts-based community devel-opment, education equity, reproductive justice, racial justice, and urban affairs and policy with Community Action of Greater Wilmington, Delaware League for Planned Parenthood, Henrietta Johnson Medical Center, United Way of Delaware, Christina Cultural Arts Center and Kuumba Academy Charter School. In 1991, Raye was granted the opportunity to lead Christina Cultural Arts Center Inc. as the 2nd woman Executive Director and the first African American woman to hold the top leadership position. Raye helped to lead a $3 million capital campaign acquiring and renovating the current central business district location on Market Street.

Currently, Avery volunteers on the governance boards of Kuumba Academy Charter School, the Wilmington Center for Education Equity and Policy, Elevate Vocal Arts Academy, Delaware Theater Company, the Redding Consortium, and is past president of National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Delaware Chapter. As a socially conscious artist, Avery has self-produced two recording projects - “Sistah Girl’s Lament” released in 2002 and “Between” released in 2018. Raye was a Robert Johnson Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in April 2022. Delaware Art Museum has engaged Raye to host a monthly jazz series led by Jonathan Whitney.