Connecticut Forum Announces Upcoming Season, Featuring Leaders, Artists and Cultural Icons – We-Ha

Jon Batiste, José Andrés, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Heather Cox Richardson and James Stavridis will headline the 33rd season of the Connecticut Forum, which will feature conversations about America’s complicated history, global affairs and our common humanity.

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THE Connecticut Forum has announced its 2024-2025 season with a star-studded lineup featuring accomplished and renowned artists, writers and a very famous chef turned humanitarian.

The season will begin on September 28, 2024 with An Evening with Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad, who will share their life experiences, the joy they have gained through their music, poetry and creative processes, as well as their prestigious careers. Batiste has won five Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award, among others. Jaouad is the author of Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted. The couple is featured in the award-winning 2023 biographical documentary, American Symphony.

The season continues with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and historian Heather Cox Richardson in Conversation: Reflections on a Complex America, on October 24, 2024. Hannah-Jones, a New York Times Magazine writer and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, is the creator of the 1619 Project, which traces the history of slavery as well as the story of the nation’s founding. Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College and the author of seven books on American history and political movements, writes the daily “Letter from an American,” ranked among Substack’s most popular newsletters with more than 1.3 million followers. In a conversation moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart, the two will discuss America’s complicated history as it prepares to mark its 250th anniversary.^th birthday.

The third Forum On March 6, 2025, this season’s show, Global Affairs: Perspectives on Today’s Changed World and Looking Ahead to 2050, will feature Admiral James Stavridis (Ret.) alongside an expert panel of global observers which will explore current challenges in the world. Stavridis, a highly decorated naval officer, who retired after 37 years of service, was NATO’s 16th Supreme Allied Commander. He is the author of seven books on various topics, including the geopolitics of the world’s oceans, leadership, and the life of the seafarer. The panel of global experts will dissect the many challenges of a changing and uncertain world: national security, trade and the economy, energy and environmental issues, immigration and human rights, and much more Again. NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor will moderate this important discussion.

THE ForumThe season finale of , An Evening with José Andrés: Renowned Humanitarian, World Central Kitchen Founder, Chef and Restaurateur, on April 3, 2025, will serve as an uplifting discussion about the beloved chef-turned-humanitarian’s life and how of which one person can change the world. After a decades-long career as an award-winning chef and entrepreneur, Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 to provide meals after natural disasters and in war-torn parts of the world.

“We are thrilled to welcome so many creative minds and brilliant thinkers who will educate, enrich and elevate us for our next season,” said Mana Zarinejad, executive director of The Connecticut Forum. “We hope that audiences around the world Connecticut will leave Forum with swollen hearts, inspired to improve the world around them.

THE Connecticut Forum season takes place at the Bushnell in Hartford, with Forums from 7:30 p.m. Seasonal subscriptions include all four ForumEvents for the 2024-25 season start at $130. Season passes can be purchased online at www.ctforum.org or by calling 860-509-0909.

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