Community & Nonprofit

Experts in their fields, these voices lead the charge in supporting environmental protection. 

In Promises of Gold, a groundbreaking new collection of poems from award-winning spoken word artist José Olivarez, every kind of love is explored―self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural. Grappling with the contradictions of the American Dream with unflinching humanity, he lays bare the ways in which “love is complicated by forces larger than our hearts.”

Many of our speakers attribute their opportunities, successes and passion for change to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Founded during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement in 1965, APB is honored to have worked with Dr. King during his lifetime, as well as many other civil rights leaders that who shared his vision. Devoted to spreading positive messages about love and equality, our speakers have fought tirelessly to realize the vision of justice, equality and freedom for our country. During Black History Month, they all provide perspective on how far we have come and how far we have left to go:  

Tara Schuster thought she was on stable ground. For years, she’d worked like hell to repair the emotional wounds inflicted during what she refers to as her “mess-wreck disaster” of a childhood. She’d brought radical healing rituals and self-love into her life. On most days, she was a happy, stable adult. She even wrote a book about it! But then she lost her job, the one on which she had staked her entire identity. Cue a panic-attack-doom-spiral that brought her harshest childhood traumas to the surface. Isolated at home during a global pandemic, she felt piercing loneliness and a lack of purpose like she had never known.

Many of our speakers attribute their opportunities, successes and passion for change to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Founded during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement in 1965, APB is honored to have worked with Dr. King during his lifetime, as well as many other civil rights leaders who shared his vision. Devoted to spreading positive messages about love and equality, our speakers continue to honor Dr. King's legacy. Read their reflections below.

A feature film depicting the life of APB speaker Coach Keith Adams and his two sons has been greenlighted by MGM’s Orion Pictures. Adams, who is deaf, is a football coach for the California School for the Deaf, Riverside. Both of his sons play for the school. After seven losing seasons, his team—the only deaf school in the division—made it to the state championship in 2021, where they lost. In 2022, they won it all—beating the same team. It is the only deaf school to win the state championship.

Chronic, unmanaged stress—at work, at home, or in other areas of life—can lead to burnout. Dr. Eva Selhub, former medical director for the Benson Henry Institute of Mind Body Medicine at Mass. General, is here to help. In her acclaimed new book, Burnout For Dummies, she shows you how to understand and overcome this all-to-common condition of modern life.

APB speaker and bestselling author Nora McInerny is on a mission: to help people stop trying to overachieve. It’s a lesson she learned the hard way. During six hellish weeks in 2014, McInerny miscarried her second baby, lost her dad to cancer and became a widow at age 31 when her husband died from brain cancer. It taught her what’s important—and it’s not trying to be perfect for anyone.

APB would like to congratulate exclusive speaker Wes Moore for making history after being elected the first Black governor of Maryland. He is only the third Black person to achieve this position in American history. The Democrat defeated far-right Republican Dan Cox. A political newcomer, Moore’s campaign focused on a message of inclusion and progress with equal opportunity for everyone in the Old Line State.

APB is excited to announce the exclusive signing of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and women’s rights activist who gained worldwide attention when she removed her veil, or hijab, and posted a photo on her Facebook page standing proudly with her hair blowing in the wind. From that, My Stealthy Freedom was born, her viral social media campaign against compulsory hijab that became the biggest civil disobedience movement in the history of the Islamic Republic. Today, she is one of the most prominent and vocal opposition figures challenging the Islamic Republic of Iran.