This month, the Aspen Institute brings leading thinkers together to talk about youth and their access to play and sport. Then we turn the tables and ask youth to offer innovative solutions to the problems our society faces—from education and governing to the environment and access to healthy food. Here’s a look ahead to these events, and others, that the Institute is featuring in April.
On April 9, the Sports and Society Program launches the Aspen Institute Project Play initiative. The three-day summit, in Aspen, CO, will convene leaders from the realms of sports, health, philanthropy, media and other industries. Underwritten by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the event aims to start a national conversation about how to give stakeholders—from parents to policy makers—the tools to build “Sport for All, Play for Life” communities.
The summit will also feature a public conversation with Olympic and Paralympic athletes on April 11, which is geared to the youth of the Roaring Fork Valley. Speakers include renowned figure skater Michelle Kwan, swimming champion Nancy Hogshead-Makar and more. To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.
Also on the Aspen campus, Cheryl Strayed will discuss her book, Wild, on April 12, at the Paepcke Auditorium. This will be the final book talk in the Aspen Writers’ Foundation final edition of Winter Words 2013. For tickets, click here.
April 13 is judgment day for 20 high school teams from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) participating in the Aspen Challenge. After seven weeks of working on challenges posed to them in February, the teams will present their solutions. Judges will pick three winning teams to attend and present at the meeting of the minds that is the Aspen Ideas Festival. Take a look at these students’ journey from the beginning, which included guidance from Grammy-winning artist John Legend and LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy.
Our next book talk in Washington, DC, this season will feature former Obama Administration “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein. Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson will interview him on his book Simpler: The Future of Government. Watch it live on April 15.
On April 22, our Communications and Society program will delve deeply into race and racism in America. The third annual Aspen Institute Symposium on The State of Race in America will touch on issues of institutional racism, personal responsibility, multi-racial and post-racial attitudes, and other related questions within the context of the home, workplace, school, politics, and the media. Watch this event live, but also catch up on previous video from the series.
See our event page for a complete list of upcoming Institute events. You can keep up with all of our speakers, seminars, and more right here on the Aspen Idea blog, on Twitter @AspenInstitute, or Facebook at /AspenInstitute.
