Laura Baudo Sillerman Memorial

Celebrating Laura

Join us at Harlem Academy on Thursday, May 15, 2025 from 6-8 p.m. to honor Laura’s legacy and celebrate her life. As Laura wished, her “shuffling off party” will be held at Harlem Academy, and it will be a joyful evening. We hope for good weather so that we can convene on the Poets Terrace, dedicated to the Sillerman family for its unwavering support of the school and contributions to our poetry program, which has inspired so many of our students.

Please RSVP and help contribute to making the event special by sharing a song she loved, a photo of you together, or a poem. 

In Loving Memory

Laura will long be remembered for her service and counsel to a wide array of humanitarian, education and arts organizations including PEN America, the American Museum of Natural History and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. 
An alum and a trustee of Marietta College in Ohio, she was key to critical fundraising efforts there and championed the construction of the Dyson Baudo Recreation Center and Legacy Library; the Sillerman Commons on campus is named in her honor. With her husband Robert, she was co-founder of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University. 
She was also president of The Tomorrow Foundation, a New York City-based charitable foundation, and served on the board of Long Island University's Southampton campus, where she was instrumental in bringing both the Southampton Writers Conference and The Southampton Review to national prominence. During summer conferences at the school, she was a legendary host to a vast community of writers, treating all - renowned authors and unknowns alike - with the same genuine interest and care. And she was the creative spark behind the summer All For The Sea concerts to benefit the college's Marine Science Program, featuring acts such as Paul Simon, Tina Turner and Crosby, Stills & Nash. 
In 2012, she joined the board of Harlem Academy, an independent K-8 school for promising low- income students, helping to facilitate the creation of a visiting poets program in partnership with the Poetry Society of America. In 2013, she established the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, helping to expand the scope of publishing in African poetry. 
She was also an accomplished poet, columnist and co-author, with Bruce Morrow, of Cousin Brucie: My Life in Rock 'n' Roll Radio (William Morrow, 1982). She wrote with such elegance, depth and insight that a simple email from her could be something of a literary event, calling upon the recipient to muster their inner poet in response. It wasn't a challenge or a test, it was simply an example that made people want to rise to the best that was in them. That was her effect on people and she was always at the ready to help them do that. In the end, that may be her greatest legacy of all. 

The Laura Baudo Sillerman Scholarship Fund

The Laura Baudo Sillerman Scholarship Fund honors the immeasurable difference Laura has made at Harlem Academy. Since the school's founding, Laura has been dedicated to the strongest realization of our mission, making the school a philanthropic priority and continuously helping to fulfill the needs of our students. 

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Please RSVP and help contribute to making the event special by sharing a song she loved, a photo of you together, or a poem.

RSVP TODAY

Contact Us

Please contact Katie Steinbach at ksteinbach@harlemacademy.org or (212) 348-2600 ext. 5063 with any questions.
Harlem Academy
655 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York, NY, 10030

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Harlem Academy is an independent school (grades K-8) that drives equity of opportunity for promising students, guiding them to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day make a mark on the world.