Palm Beach Post
Jan. 31, 2011
Spike Lee's wife works to do the right thing on infant mortality
Tonya Lewis Lee has an uncomfortable statistic to share - the United States ranks 29th among industrialized nations in infant mortality.
She lets that unpleasant news hang in the air for a second, probably because she wants everyone, from world health agencies to governments to corporations to parents, to be so uncomfortable that they want to do something about it.
Parent Dish
Jan. 24, 2011
Surgeon General Says Americans Should Be More Supportive of Breast-Feeding
Add breast-feeding to fighting fat, quitting smoking and other advice from America's top doc.
And it's not just for new moms. The surgeon general is calling on employers, medical experts, spouses and friends to rally their support for mothers who breast-feed.
Palm Beach Daily News
Jan. 21, 2011
Tonya Lewis Lee emphasizes self care at Women in Power luncheon
Tonya Lewis Lee has a long and distinguished list of accomplishments to her name, which include attorney, activist, author and producer.
But the one thing she wants women to know is that they must take care of themselves before they can take care of anyone else.
Women's eNews
January 18, 2010
Tonya Lewis Lee Aims to Save Nation's Babies
Tonya Lewis Lee, an award-winning TV producer, released the documentary "Crisis in the Crib" last year after learning of the high infant mortality rates among African Americans. She's also launched a grassroots program to encourage healthy living...
Addressing the Forgotten Faces and Voices of Health Reform
View Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen (C-VI), Chair, Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and the CBC Health Braintrust as they honor Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chair, of the Congressional Black Caucus; Tonya Lewis Lee (Mrs. Spike Lee) and top Senate and Congressional Staffers. Links on this webcast will take you to a video clip of the documentary about infant mortality produced by Tonya Lewis Lee, funded by the DHHS Office of Minority Health titled, "Crisis In the Crib." Go to the webcast at www.urbanhealthcast.com
As if it weren’t already long enough, attorney, author, producer and mother Tonya Lewis Lee can now add community health advocate to her list of accolades. The wife of famed filmmaker Spike Lee is the face of “A Healthy Baby Begins With You,” a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health campaign aimed at raising awareness about alarming black infant mortality rates.
The Jackson Sun
March 3, 2009
Celebrity guest plans to speak about saving babies' lives
Tennessee ranks seventh in the nation for the highest infant mortality rates, with a rate of about 8.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to a report from the Tennessee Department of Health. In 2007, 718 babies born in Tennessee died before their first birthdays, the report said.
The Office of Minority Health (OMH), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced that it will launch a new campaign, entitled A Healthy Baby Begins with You, to address and help reduce the high infant mortality rates among African Americans....Tonya Lewis Lee serves as the spokesperson for the print and radio campaign....“I am thrilled to be part of this national dialogue to end infant mortality in this country,” Lee said....
New York Magazine
August 21, 2006
The Angriest Auteur
Spike Lee, along with his wife, Tonya Lewis, is wealthy, hugely successful, at the top of W.E.B. DuBois’s “Talented Tenth” of black society in America. But does that mean Spike has mellowed? Hardly.
New Vision in Business
April, May 2006
HAVING IT ALL
A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Tonya Lewis Lee handled First Amendment and corporate law for Nixon, Hargrave, Devans and Doyle in Washington D.C. before ditching the corporate life to pursue her true dream of writing and producing.
Urban Influence Magazine
June/July 2005
EMERGING BLACK FEMALE LEADERS
Urban Influence Magazine is proud to salute the spirit and achievements of the African American woman in its June/July issue, “Emerging Black Female Leaders.” Tamara Brown, publisher and editor-in-chief of Urban Influence Magazine says, “...it’s about highlighting achievement...it’s about motivating the generations to come...it’s about looking back at the sisters on whose shoulders we all stand.”
In “The Aviators”, you’ll find the inspirational stories of Tonya Lewis Lee, Marvet Britto and Jacque Reid: three women who are really making waves in the industries in which they work. “The Landscape of Women in Engineering” showcases Black women who are making their mark in the world of engineering. In the “Urban Influencer” section, exciting profiles continue on just a few of the many emerging Black female leaders who are making strides, contributing and impacting the industries they represent. Also in “The Legacy of Black Female Leaders”, Urban Influence Magazine pays homage to Black female leaders, both past and present, and the impact that they had/have made on our communities, societies and even the world.
NPR
May 9, 2005
'Gotham Diaries': Gossip of a City's Black Elite
by Ed Gordon
Ed Gordon speaks with the co-authors of Gotham Diaries, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Crystal McCrary-Anthony. The "gossip lit" novel focuses on the African-American elite of New York City.
Mississippi State University website
March 17, 2005
Author, television producer Tonya Lewis Lee to visit MSU
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A New York City-based children's advocate, television producer and author will be the guest for a special April 5 program at Mississippi State University.
Tony Bennett crooned, Wynton Marsalis wailed and a trim AI Roker beamed at his recent surprise 50th birthday party. Despite the star-studded assemblage, Roker's wife, Deborah Roberts, couldn't help noticing the swirl of activity around her friend Tonya Lee. "People wanted to talk to and know Tonya as much as Spike,” Roberts says. "She's sharp, fun, kind and beautiful...
This was tantamount to heresy. Tonya, after all, is married to Spike Lee, the director of such films as She'sGotta Have It, Malcolm X and, most recently, She Hate Me. Spike is well known as a black activist, a provocateur-and a Brooklynite.
The Hollywood Reporter
August 24, 2004
CURTAIN'S UP
By Kimberly Speight
Miracle's Boys (The N): The N has recruited Spike Lee to direct the premiere episode of its first dramatic miniseries, which centers on three orphaned brothers coming of age. The mini, in six half-hour episodes, is based on the novel by young-adult author Jacqueline Woodson. It's described as a character-driven series revolving around the everyday lives of the Bailey brothers: three half-Puerto Rican, half-black orphaned teenage brothers living in Harlem and struggling to hold their family together after the recent death of their mother, Milagros (Spanish for "miracle"). Tonya Lewis Lee executive produces. (February)
Filmmaker Spike Lee reflects on his film career and weighs in on the Michael Moore documentary and Bill Cosby's controversial remarks. Tonya Lewis Lee & Crystal McCrary Anthony discuss their new book, Gotham Diaries.
Sarah Lawrence
Autumn 2003
COLORFUL DIALOGUE - AN INTERVIEW WITH TONYA LEWIS LEE '88
Former trustee Tonya Lewis Lee ’88 has devoted much of her professional life to trying to increase the presence of people of color in mainstream media, partly through her company, Madstone. A lawyer and producer for Nickelodeon and Noggin, in 2002 she co-wrote a children’s book, Please, Baby, Please, about a rambunctious toddler, with her husband, filmmaker Spike Lee....
PROJECT FOR KIDS HAS ART AND SOUL By Neil Graves
New York Post
Feb. 28, 2003
The names of black artists such as Jacob Lawrence, William H. Johnson and Faith Ringgold may not mean much to public-school students right now – but they will if Tonya Lewis Lee has anything to do with it...
BEHIND THE VELVET ROPE
Co-hosts Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg (left) and Tonya Lewis Lee (director Spike Lee’s wife, far right) welcome powerhouse attorneys Vernon Jordan and Elaine R. Jones, president and director-counsel, respectively, of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, at LDF’s annual fund-raiser in Martha’s Vineyard.
(Picture by Don West)
POWER COUPLES
Actor Edward Norton (l.), the star of Spike Lee's latest film, "25th Hour," arrives with girlfriend/actress Salma Hayek, along with Lee and his wife, Tonya, at last-night's star-studded premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater. The movie opens Thursday.
(Picture by Richard Corkery)
Child Magazine
November 2002
SPIKE LEE'S LATEST CHAPTER
A sweet, whimsical children’s book might not be what you’d expect as a Spike Lee project. But this month, the director and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, parents of Satchel, 7, and Jackson, 5, publish Please, Baby, Please, a lyrical look at a cheerful mischievous 2-year-old.
Sept. 12, 7:55: The first big show of New York Fashion Week was the Versace showing of its secondary line, Versus, at Roseland. Celebrities lined the front row to view the rock-inspired clothes. From left, Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, and Kate Driver and her sister, Minnie Driver.
(Picture by Bill Cunningham)
