The next installment of the CNN Dialogues series will be held this coming Wednesday, April 18, at Atlanta’s Rialto Center. Tickets for the free event are available online here. Details from CNN below.

CNN Press Release: “Today’s Other America” to be the Focus of Upcoming CNN Dialogues Event

April 18 Forum to be Moderated by CNNMoney Anchor Poppy Harlow at Atlanta’s Rialto Center

In the years since Michael Harrington’s seminal work, The Other America (1962), perhaps no issue has proven more complex, destructive, and intractable than poverty in America. The social and economic inequities associated with enduring poverty have also been persistent for the City of Atlanta.

Although Atlanta has been able to successfully foster bright spots of urban renewal, in 2009, Atlanta was forced to return $24 million in federal anti-poverty funds that it had failed to allocate to anti-poverty initiatives. The decades-long debate over the efforts to alleviate poverty will be the focus of “Today’s Other America: Poverty in America,” a CNN Dialogues event to be held at Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts (80 Forsythe Street, NW) on Wednesday, April 18 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm ET in Atlanta.

CNNMoney anchor and business correspondent Poppy Harlow will moderate the forum. Harlow is based in New York and anchors much of CNNMoney’s video coverage of global business events, business news updates, and interviews compelling personalities from the world of finance.

The panelists for this event include the most experienced experts on the subject of poverty and the challenges intractable poverty presents for communities in Atlanta – and around the nation:

· Donna Beegle, PhD, author and founder of the communities consulting firm, Communication Across Barriers;

· Henry Cisneros, executive chairman of the urban home development investment firm, CityView and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Clinton Administration);

· Renee Glover, chief executive officer of the Atlanta Housing Authority, which is tasked with developing, leasing, and operating affordable housing and community development for nearly 50,000 people;

· Michael Rich, director of Emory University’s Office of University-Community Partnerships and associate professor of political science and environmental studies; and,

· Robert Woodson, president and founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a faith-based, community revitalization organization.

Admission for this program is free, but pre-registration is required for entrance to the event at Atlanta’s Rialto Center for the Arts. Tickets may be reserved by visiting www.cnndialogues.com, or by calling the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Race and Difference at 404.727.2515, or the National Center for Civil and Human Rights at 404.991.6988.


About CNN Dialogues

CNN Dialogues represents a partnership between CNN, Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study for Race and Difference and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights for a series of community discussions on major topics shaping our times, led by leading thinkers of the day. The planning committee for CNN Dialogues includes writer Pearl Cleage, Morehouse College President Robert Franklin, president and trustee of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Penelope McPhee, vice president for communications and marketing for Emory University Ron Sauder, executive vice president and director of programming for Atlanta’s World Affairs Council Cedric Suzman, president and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Tisha Tallman, and Eric Tanenblatt of the Atlanta-based law firm of McKenna, Long, and Aldrich.

CNN Press Release - February 09 Forum to be moderated by CNN International Anchor Hala Gorani at Atlanta’s Emory University

The political uprisings ignited in 2010 and 2011 in North Africa and the Middle East, labeled the ‘Arab Spring,’ have altered history and upended the balance of power in the region. The uncertainty and struggles that continue to unfold are the focus of “The ‘Arab Spring’: A Path to Democracy?,” a CNN Dialogues event that will be held at the Glenn Memorial Auditorium (1652 North Decatur Road) at Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, Feb. 09 at 7:00pm ET.

CNN International anchor Hala Gorani will moderate a dynamic evening forum, exploring issues of democracy, women’s rights, the role of Islamists, and the role of social media in the uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain to Yemen with scholars, journalists, and activists. Gorani is based in Atlanta, but has reported from every country in the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. She spent much of 2011 covering the tumultuous political uprisings in the region, particularly the Egyptian revolution.

The panelists for this discussion are:

• Lamees Dharif is an award-winning journalist and activist who has been active in the Bahraini resistance campaign. She has been banned from writing by the Bahraini government since the beginning of the democracy movement there;
  
  
• Nic Robertson is a senior international correspondent, based in CNN’s London bureau. Robertson has been with the network for twenty years and covered every major global news event since that time, including war and conflict. Robertson has continued to provide key coverage for events associated with the ‘Arab Spring,’ including reporting on the democracy demonstrations and conflict in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia.
  
  
• Ahed Al Hendi is a founder of the Syrian Youth for Justice and has worked as a journalist for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and The Daily Beast. He lives in the United States.
  
  
• Carrie Rosefsky Wickham is an associate professor of political science at Emory University, specializing in political opposition movements and political integration in the Arab World. She is the author of Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism and Political Change in Egypt: 1st Edition (2002).
  
  
• Dalia Ziada is director of the Egypt office of the American Islamic Congress which promotes education and literacy for Arab youth. She is a published poet and active in pro-democracy politics.

This is the first CNN Dialogues event of 2012. Admission for this program is free, but pre-registration is required by visiting www.cnndialogues.com, or by calling the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Race and Difference at 404.727.2515, or the National Center for Civil and Human Rights at 404.991.6988.

About CNN Dialogues
CNN Dialogues represents a partnership between CNN, Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study for Race and Difference and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights for a series of community discussions on major topics shaping our times, led by leading thinkers of the day. The planning committee for CNN Dialogues includes writer Pearl Cleage, Morehouse College President Robert Franklin, president and trustee of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Penelope McPhee, vice president for communications and marketing for Emory University Ron Sauder, executive vice president and director of programming for Atlanta’s World Affairs Council Cedric Suzman, president and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Tisha Tallman, and Eric Tanenblatt of the Atlanta-based law firm of McKenna, Long, and Aldrich.