DEAR AMERICA SPECIAL EVENT APRIL 13 FEATURES PERFORMANCES FROM MUSICIANS REGINA SPEKTOR, AMANDA PALMER, ELVIS PERKINS, JOHN FORTE

WRITERS SUSAN MINOT, A.M. HOLES, ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, MARIA POPOVA, MATTHIEU AIKINS TO SPEAK & READ

SPECIAL EVENT BENEFITS PLANNED PARENTHOOD, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, THE TREVOR PROJECT, AND NRDC

Special event Dear America will be held on April 13 with musical performances from GRAMMY-nominee Regina Spektor; musician, author, and performance artist Amanda Palmer; and “dark, delicate” (NY Time) music of Elvis Perkins; and John Forte of the Fugees, and noted soprano Julia Bullock. Also speaking and reading is an array of writers, including poet, short-story writer, novelist and screenwriter and incarceration activist Susan Minot; A.M. Homes; author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas Anand Giridharadas; Brain Pickings podcast mastermind and published writer Maria Popova; and noted war correspondant Matthieu Aikins. The special event benefits Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Trevor Project, and the National Resources Defense Council. Tickets are on sale now: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=7318495

Performer bios:

Regina Spector is Russian-born, American musician Regina Spektor is an internationally known, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter.

Amanda Palmer is a performer, songwriter, and New York Times best selling author. She first came to prominence as the piano-playing songwriting half of the internationally acclaimed punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.

Elvis Perkins has released three full-length collections of songs, two under his own name ( 'Ash Wednesday' ’07 XL Recordings & 'I Aubade', ’15 MIR) and one under the band name Elvis Perkins in Dearland (’09 XL Recordings). The band with whom he has toured extensively also released the 6 track 'Doomsday EP' in 2009 (XL). In the past two years he has made two film scores:“I am the Pretty Thing the Lives in the House” (Netflix Original, October ’16) and “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” (A24 ’17). A soundtrack album for the latter will be released in 2017. Elvis is currently collaborating with theatre performer/creator Geoff Sobelle (Object Lesson) on his new piece HOME, set to premiere at BAM's Next Wave Festival in December.

Susan Minot is the author of Monkeys, Lust & Other Stories, Folly, Evening, Rapture, a poetry collection Poems 4 A.M. and, most recently, Thirty Girls about children abducted by the LRA in Uganda and how women struggle to cope with trauma. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, O Henry Prize Stories, Granta. New York Times, McSweeney's and Vogue. She wrote the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” and the film "Evening" was adapted from her novel.

John Forte is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, filmmaker and activist. First recognized for his work with multi-platinum hip hop group The Fugees, Forté's felony conviction and eventual Presidential commutation cemented Forté's commitment to reforming America's broken criminal justice system.” Forté has released several solo and collaborative projects to-date including, Music Supervisor Brooklyn D.A. (CBS/television), Created inaugural anthem for the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), The Russian Winter (feature film/documentary), Schools Not Prisons Tour.

A.M. Homes is the author of numerous books including, May We Be Forgiven, and The Mistress’s Daughter and teaches at Princeton University.

Anand Giridharadas is a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times. Most recently, he is the author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas, about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare the life of the Death Row sentenced white supremacist who tried to kill him. The book has been optioned to be directed Kathryn Bigelow. In 2011, he published India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking, about returning to the India his parents left.

Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials. She has also written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Fellow.

Julia Bullock is a versatile soprano. This season, she debuts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Baltimore Symphony. She also appears as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress at The Festival International in Aix-en-Provence and Kitty Oppenheimer in the BBC Symphony’s production and recording of Dr. Atomic, conducted by John Adams. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and San Francisco Symphony.

Ekow Yankah is a law professor whose work focuses on questions of criminal and political theory and punishment. He has written for publications spanning The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Huffington Post, among others and has been a regular commentator on criminal law issues on television and radio including MSNBC, BBC International.

Mark Warren was raised and educated in southeast Texas, where he worked in Democratic politics, until he realized how that whole situation was playing out and relocated to New York City, where he worked in magazines - first Harper's, then Esquire, where he would stay for 28 years, 19 of them as executive editor. In that time, he had the privilege to work with some of the greatest writers ever. And he wrote a little, too.

Matthieu Aikins is the Schell Fellow at the Nation Institute. He has been reporting from South Asia and the Middle East since 2008. His writing has appeared in US, Canadian, British, and French publications such as Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic among others.