On Thursday night, the City Parks Foundation 2025 Dinner & Dance Party Benefit, this year honoring Grammy-and-Oscar-winning drummer, filmmaker, author, DJ and producer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, raised nearly $1 million in donations. All funds raised will support City Parks Foundation’s free arts, sports, environmental education, and community building programs produced each year in New York City public parks across all five boroughs.
The event, held in Central Park at the flagship SummerStage venue, also awarded Barclays Center/New York Liberty/Brooklyn Nets owners Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment with the People & Parks Award.
In his acceptance speech, Questlove spoke of attending many SummerStage concerts as a young fan and hoping to perform there one day — the Roots’ most recent show at the venue was just two months ago — and, in a comic slip, the proud Philadelphia native accidentally referred to New York as his “hometown.”
He was presented with the Icon Award for “his contributions to the artistic and cultural landscape of New York City as a music industry pioneer and innovative leader shaping our nation’s culture,” and noted that his Oscar-and-Grammy-winning documentary “Summer of Soul” celebrated a 1969 cultural festival in Harlem that had been filmed but was nearly been forgotten by history. It also noted that the Roots performed a free show in Queens for more than 7,000 New Yorkers in July, the day before the SummerStage gig.
His award was presented by legendary New York DJ, producer, radio host, and SummerStage alum Stretch Armstrong (pictured with Questlove), who said, “SummerStage means a lot to me because this is where I grew up. The cultural output he [Questlove] is responsible for is astounding. It’s hard to find an area of culture that this man hasn’t made his mark on.”
The evening concluded with a special DJ set by Questlove, who packed the dancefloor with a trademark combination of pop, hip-hop, R&B, and rock classics and deep cuts, and the first-ever Young Philanthropists After Party silent disco.
City Parks Foundation also honored Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment with the 2025 People & Parks Award “for their work in uplifting the health, education, and well-being of communities in Brooklyn and beyond through their philanthropic initiatives and neighborhood programs.”
and advising on efforts that simply wouldn’t have succeeded without their guidance.”
City Parks Foundation’s 2025 Benefit was chaired by Angela Barkan, Joe Killian, Roland Merchant, and Greg Williamson.