May 5
TiTus TheaTre aT The MuseuM of
Honorary Chairman: Philippe Petit
Chairwoman: AngÉlica Fuentes
Founding Chairman oF the americas Business Council:
Emilio Azcárraga Jean
THE EVENT
The event will unite some of the Americas’ most prominent activists, architects, artists, athletes, bloggers, business leaders, change agents,environmentalists, explorers,filmmakers, iconoclasts, idea generators, journalists, lawyers, media tycoons, musicians, opinion leaders,philanthropists, and performers.
The 2010 Courage Forum will celebrate the power of individual courage and willpower. Each of the speakers have overcome difficulties, hardships, and injustice with a creative mind, and a desire to pursue what they believe is right. featured eclectic mix of speakers.
Jon lee anderson
Anderson began contributing to The New Yorker in 1998 and became a staff writer in 1999. He has reported frequently from Iraq and has covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, and Lebanon. Anderson is the author of several books, including “The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches From Afghanistan,” “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life,” “Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World,” and, most recently, “The Fall of Baghdad.”
isaBel Miranda de Wallace
Wallace is the President, Asociacion Alto al Secuestro. She founded the group after her own son was kidnapped in 2005. Since then, she has dedicated her life to helping victims of kidnapping in Mexico, all the while continuing the investigation of her long lost son.
loPez loMong
Lomong is a Sudanese-born American track and field athlete and a member of the U.S. Olympic team. Lomong was a victim of the Second Sudanese Civil War. A Catholic, he was abducted at age six while attending Catholic Mass and assumed dead by his family and buried in absentia. He nearly died in captivity, but was helped to escape by others from his village. The four of them ran for three days until they crossed the border in Kenya. Lomong spent ten years in a refugee camp near Nairobi before being moved to the United States through Catholic Charities.
BoB siMon
CBS News correspondent for 60 Minutes who was captured and spent 40 days in Iraqi prisons during the Gulf War 1991. Simon chronicled the experience in the book, Forty Days. Simon is one of the most honored international journalists in the world.
Jose Junior
Junior is the founder of the AfroReggae Project. Appalled by the violent drug industry, police oppression and gang violence in the slums of his home in Rio, Brazil, Jose gave up his job as a taxi driver and began to organize beach parties where people could come together to discuss how to change things. Since then, the AfroReggae Project has been conducting initiatives designed to invest in the potential of underprivileged teenagers. Through music, the AfroReggae Project has given the young people of Rio a chance to occupy themselves with things other than drugs and violence, and has created a close knit community that provides youth with an alternative to the dangerous gangs that so often steal their lives.
Confirmed Speakers
PhiliPPe PeTiT
On August 7th, 1974, a young Frenchman captivated the world by walking between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on a high wire. The intrepid crossing was the culmination of Petit’s tireless journey in pursuit of his dream.It was this incredible act of courage that inspired the 2010 Courage Forum. His story was retold in “Man on Wire”, which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2009.
sir richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson, the visionary Chairman of Virgin Group, repeatedly stunned the business world with his unconventional flair and ground-breaking ideas. Branson’s innovation and courage to take risks have made him a true pioneer and one of the most widely admired business leaders in the world today.
eMManuel Jal
Accomplished MC who grew up in Sudan and became a soldier in the country’s vicious civil war at age seven. After escaping five years of battle and unimaginable atrocities, he trekked to Kenya, where he began to channel his emotions and experiences into rhymes.
caPTain Paul WaTson
The founder of The Sea Shepherd Conservation society, and the star of Whale Wars, a show on Animal Planet that follows him and his crew aboard the Steve Irwin, as they ram boats, hurl stink bombs, and try to otherwise spoil the whaling convoys in Arctic waters.
Juan eMilio cheyre
The Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean army who attempted to distance the Army from former dictator General Augusto Pinochet, and condemned the human rights abuses of Pinochet’s dictatorship. In 2003, Cheyre as Commander-in-Chief of the Army issued an historically relevant document titled “Chilean Army: End of a Vision,” in which he stated that the military would “never again” subvert democracy in Chile.
coMMiTTee To ProTecT JournalisTs
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect freedom of press around the world. ABC is partnering with the CPJ to produce a session featuring a group of journalists who have gone to extreme lengths to report in conflict zones. Every day, journalists risk their lives to uncover the truth, expose injustice, and fight tyranny. Their service is of unspeakable value to humanity, and their cause is a pure example of true courage.