David Gergen Joins "Civility" Panel

The Connecticut Forum Announces:

David Gergen to be a Panelist at
The End of Civility?
Saturday, October 2.

Few know the political backroom as well as David Gergen. As an adviser to four U.S. presidents and a senior political analyst for CNN, Gergen has made a career of bearing witness to some of the most compelling political figures of our times. In 2000, he published the best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

These days, Gergen works as a political journalist and analyst. He was the first managing editor of Public Opinion, a magazine affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, and from 1985-1986 he worked as an editor at U.S. News & World Report, where he remains an editor-at-large. Gergen’s career in television began in 1985, when he joined the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour for Friday night discussions of politics. Today, he appears frequently on CNN as an analyst for Anderson Cooper 360 and The Situation Room.

Gergen is also a professor of public service and the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, having joined the Harvard faculty in 1999. He is active as a speaker on leadership and sits on many boards, including Teach for America, The Aspen Institute, and the Center for Global Development. He is a member of the Washington D.C. Bar and the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds 18 honorary degrees.

He graduated with honors from both Yale College (1963) and Harvard Law School (1967), and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. In 1971, Gergen joined the Nixon White House as a staff assistant on the speech writing team, a group of heavyweights that included Pat Buchanan, Ben Stein, and Bill Safire. Two years later, he took over as director. Gergen went on to become the Director of Communications for Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, a counselor on domestic and foreign affairs for Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, and an adviser to the 1980 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign.

For more information on Gergen, visit his website or his Harvard faculty profile.

David Gergen on the issue of civility during the 2008 Presidential Campaign:

Phish's Trey Anastasio at The Forum

Phish is in Hartford this weekend -- for those of you who can't make it, I thought I'd share Trey's amazing guitar solo to tide you over. Or, maybe it's just rubbing in what you are missing. If that's the case, I'm sorry!



Check out the full Power of Music Forum and lots more clips at TheForumChannel.

Recent Forum Panelists Christopher Hitchens, Anthony Bourdain and Samantha Bee Release New Books

If you're keeping up with the book club of past Forum panelists, you have a lot of reading to do this summer. Recent Forum panelists Christopher Hitchens, Samantha Bee and Anthony Bourdain have all released books in the past month.

Hitchens' memoir Hitch 22 tells of his young life, his time in British boarding school, his literary friendships with Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and others and, um, getting spanked by Margaret Thatcher at a party (I can't make this stuff up). As his friend McEwan said, "If Hitchens didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to invent him." Hitchens lived up to his reputation and was a polemical panelist at our 2009 Forum, God: Big Questions... Bigger Questions with Rabbi Harold Kushner and Reverend Peter Gomes.



You can also view the entire Forum conversation at TheForumChannel.

Samantha Bee's collection of funny personal essays is titled I Know I Am, But What Are You? She cracked us up when she appeared with Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Daily Show Executive Producer David Javerbaum at the It's Satire! Forum last Season.



Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw is the follow up to his best seller Kitchen Confidential, which was released ten years ago. Like Confidential, it gives an inside look at the restaurant industry. But unlike Confidential, Bourdain has a lot of famous acquaintances in the food industry, and he doesn't hold back - even on Alice Waters, the mother of the slow food movement. He got his jabs in on her at the Food for Thought Forum in 2009, when Alice Waters told the audience that she would have shark fin soup as her last meal. Bourdain quipped, "That's not local!" to audience laughter and applause.

2010-2011 CT Forum Season Topics and Dates

After reading hundreds of suggestions about Forum topics submitted by our subscribers, volunteers, sponsors, YOUTH Forum members, Friends of The Forum and community members, we are thrilled to share with you this first glimpse at our 2010-2011 Forum Season!

We will be announcing our first round of panelists soon, but we'd still like to hear your suggestions. (And we listen!)

• Who do you want to us to bring to Hartford for a "civil" dialogue about ugly politics, the erosion of public discourse, and the crudeness that pervades our daily lives?
  
  
• Are you an educator? School Administrator? Parent? Concerned citizen? Who do you want to hear talk strategies and solutions to the challenges facing our schools...and our future?
  
  
• The human brain is perhaps the real "final frontier" - a vast unexplored territory about which scientists know relatively little. What brainiacs do you want to hear talk about thoughts, memory, health, science?
  
  
• Mystery. Romance. Historical Fiction. Memoir. Who do you love to read?

Please leave a comment and tell us what you think, and stay tuned for updates and more about our upcoming 19th Season! Cheers!

Behind the Scenes Photos from Forum Music Fest

What happens when you bring three musical greats together for a live, unscripted Forum conversation? Nothing short of magic!

We'll be sharing some highlights and memorable behind the scenes moments from last night's Forum Music Fest over the coming weeks. In the meantime, enjoy these fantastic shots taken by the one and only Nick Caito!

Rock Legend Patti Smith autographs copies of her iconic album covers and new book, Just Kids.


Singer, Songwriter and former Fugees Producer John Forte signs autographs at the panelist meeting.




John and Patti get better acquainted during the panelist meeting.



Forum Founding President Richard Sugarman admiring Patti's poetry.



Connecticut YOUTH Forum members pose with panelists and moderator Bill Flanagan after the YOUTH Forum press conference. Check out this clip from their press conference!



Patti and John Forte swap their guitars during the sound check.


The panel takes the stage.


Patti is a Rock Star...from head to toe!



Patti looks on as John Forte wows the crowd with a powerful, inspirational performance.



John Legend's beautiful performance left the Forum audience speechless.


Patti Smith was so moved by her experience with members of our YOUTH Forum that she dedicated her performance to them. Rock on!



The perfect ending to an incredible evening-and season!


Check back soon for video clips from the conversation, and performances!

CT Forum Brings Music to the Streets of Hartford

Don't forget your dancing shoes this Saturday! We're bringing music to the streets as part of our Forum Music Fest celebration, with live performances by more than a dozen local musicians including jazz and brass ensembles, Haitian music, salsa, classical musicians and others. See them live on Pratt Street, Capital Avenue and in and around the Bushnell theater, beginning at 5PM.

The Brian Bartus Quartet

The schedule of musicians is as follows:

4:45pm, Pratt Street: The Sweetest Key
The Sweetest Key is a female acapella group from the Greater Hartford area. They arrange their own work and sing music of all genres and styles!

7:00pm, The Courtyard at The Bushnell: D'Tay
D'Tay is a group of talented musicians who perform Haitian Kompa. Their main focus and goal is to make a difference and touch people's lives through their music.

7:00pm, The Founders Lobby at The Bushnell: The Brian Bartus Quartet
The Brian Bartus Quartet is a modern jazz quartet made up of collegiate level musicians. The quartet is made up of a bass, guitar, tenor sax and drums.

7:00pm, Seaverns Room at The Bushnell: Modern Masters from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Two masters from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra - Jason Vieaux on guitar and Leonid Sigal on violin, under the artistic direction of Leonid Sigal.

7:00pm, Belding Staircase at The Bushnell: WEBQ (West End Brass Quintet)
The West End Brass Quintet has performed regularly in performance halls at The University of Hartford, as well as other performance venues around Connecticut. It is made up of a French horn, trombone, tuba and two trumpets.

7:30pm, the Mortensen Theater at The Bushnell: Kris Allen
Kris Allen is a saxophonist and composer who was the young protoge of the great Jackie Mclean, with whom he studied at the Artists Collective and The University of Hartford. Allen is the director of The Hartford Jazz Society New Directions Ensemble.

In collaboration with the Haitian Health Foundation, we will also be collecting items in The Bushnell lobby to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake, specifically: multi-vitamins with iron for children, adult multi-vitamins, new children's underwear, and protein-rich fatty foods like Spam, tuna in oil, and peanut butter.

At 8PM, we will welcome renowned musicians Patti Smith, John Legend, and John Forte to the Bushnell stage for a live, unscripted panel conversation about everything from performing and creating, to their personal lives and causes, to the power music has over us all. The evening will include a lively audience Q&A exchange, surprise musical moments from the panelists, and so much more! See you there!

John Forté to join Patti Smith and John Legend at Forum Music Fest

We are excited to announce that John Forté
will join us at The Forum Music Fest on May 1.

John Forté's life has been an amazing story of twists and turns, major accomplishments and hard knocks. Today he tells his story and the lessons learned with music as his vehicle for sharing and healing.

John Forté is famous for his work with the multi-platinum group The Fugees. He wrote and produced two songs on their Grammy winning album, The Score. After the breakup of The Fugees, he recorded two solo albums, PolySci and I, John, which featured industry legends Herbie Hancock and Carly Simon, and will soon release an album titled Water Light Sound.

Few understand second chances better than John Forté.

After serving seven years of a 14-year sentence following a conviction on drug charges, he was granted a rare commutation of his sentence by President George W. Bush. His strong advocates included Carly Simon and Sen. Orin Hatch. Recognizing prison as an opportunity to redeem himself, Forté created a music program, conducted weekly round table forums for inmates and began pursuing his degree at the London School of Economics.

Released from Fort Dix on December 22, 2008, Forté resumed his career by starting to record in the studio, writing a book and serving as the subject of a feature-length documentary about his life. He teaches a music course to teenagers at In Arms Reach, a Harlem-based initiative committed to promoting a positive environment for children of incarcerated parents and at-risk youth. Forté uses music as a therapeutic means of addressing anger, stress and pain, and hopes that the catharsis of song composition will help children deal with the stigma of having an incarcerated family member. His historic commutation has also made him an ardent supporter of prison reform. He argues that a sentence need not be unreasonably long to provide just punishment, deter criminal conduct and protect the public from harm.

Raised by a single mother in Brooklyn, John was a brilliant young musical prodigy. A dedicated student, Forté was awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy and attended New York University until his career in the music industry took off. He is a classically-trained violinist.

Hear John tell his story in his own words...

Other Links

Live @ Joe's Pub-NYC

Blog @ The Daily Beast-How I Went From Prep School to Prison