Celebrating 30 Years of Community Powered Literacy at LINC’s Gala on Monday, May 4 at Gotham Hall 

Event Will Honor Acclaimed Children’s Book Authors Kwame Alexander and Peter Brown and Inaugural LINC Executive Director Tinny Weintraub

NEW YORK, NY, April 28, 2026– Literacy in Community’s (LINC) 30th anniversary will be celebrated at their annual Spring Gala, on Monday, May 4 at Gotham Hall. Two giants of children’s literature will be honored with the organization’s Champion for Children award: Kwame Alexander, the Emmy Award-winning producer and author of the critically acclaimed The Crossover, and Peter Brown, the bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator of The Wild Robot series.

The organization’s Mimi Levin Lieber Legacy Award will be given to Tinny Weintraub, LINC’s Inaugural Executive Director and longtime literacy advocate. The award is named for Mimi Levin Lieber, LINC’s founder and the driving force behind LINC’s community-centered literacy approach that empowers parents and the community to build the early literacy skills that children need to reach school-age ready to learn and to read.   

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11 Anchor and Host of PIX 11 on Politics, will emcee the Spring Gala, which will feature cocktails, a dinner with a program, and a live auction conducted by Helena Guindo of Christie’s.

Literacy isn’t just about learning to read. It is essential for academic success and tied to every positive outcome for children as they become adults – financial stability, health and mental health, civic engagement. LINC is recognized as a leading advocate amplifying the message that literacy starts at birth. LINC works to impact the systems surrounding young children and families to support early literacy. The organization’s citywide community literacy programs and workshops reach thousands of families of children 0-5 years old each year to build the foundational literacy skills that will ensure every child is reading by the time they reach kindergarten. 

LINC’s Spring Gala takes place on Monday, May 4, at 6pm at Gotham Hall, NYC. Onsite media and interviews are available. For more information about the gala contact: npavlisko@lincnyc.org.

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About Literacy in Community (LINC): Since 1996, LINC has worked to harness the power that exists in every community to make literacy a value and right of all children and promote educational equity.  LINC’s two-generational Community Literacy Model connects families with each other and with community resources to surround children with literacy-rich environments inside and outside of home. When a community reads, children succeed! 

For more information about LINC, visit us at: www.lincnyc.org or contact Virginia Taddoni, Associate Director of Communications at vtaddoni@lincnyc.org or 212-620-5462, ext. 133.