Common has come a long way from the scrawny Chicago kid dropping underground classics like Resurrection. Decades later, he is an Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy winner, a centerpiece on Apple TV+’s hit series Silo, and now the first recipient of the Artist Impact Award presented jointly by SAG-AFTRA and SoundExchange.

A while back, I took my niece to see Aladdin on Broadway. She was completely mesmerized by the music and the pageantry of the stage. She loved the characters, but she really took to Princess Jasmine and the Genie. At the time, she was big on princesses, and pink was her entire world. That afternoon sparked something in her, a genuine appreciation for theater and the arts that stuck. She ended up falling in love with a couple of other musicals after that.