Headlines

APB speaker Heather Abbott, Boston Marathon bombing survivor and amputee, was recently featured on the Today show reflecting on the 10^th anniversary of the horrific tragedy. On April 15, 2013, what is referred to as Marathon Monday in Boston, Abbott of Newport, R.I. set out on an annual tradition with six friends. They would attend the Red Sox game, followed by a walk over to the finish line to watch the runners. Abbott would never have dreamed this day would change her life forever.

Award-winning journalist and author Charlayne Hunter-Gault was just honored by The Cleveland Foundation as one of the winners of its Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The award is the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity. Hunter-Gault was recognized for her lifetime achievements.

Debra Lee, former CEO of BET Networks and an APB speaker, has just released her new memoir, I Am Debra Lee. One of the few Black women to achieve the position of a chief executive in corporate America, Lee shares her remarkable journey from a girl raised in the segregated South to leading the first Black company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and how she juggled social responsibility while managing a company targeted toward the Black community. And as she has done for the majority of her life, Lee also offers lots of advice along the way.

Iranian Activist and APB Speaker Masih Alinejad was recently named by Time magazine as one of its 2023 Women of the Year. Alinejad was selected along with 11 others who Time says are "using their voices to fight for a more equal world."

In 2016, Tim Urban, author and creator of the wildly popular blog, Wait But Why, looked at American society and knew something was off. Political tribalism was on the rise, anger was overflowing on social media and productive discussions seemed impossible. Why was everything such a mess? Why was everyone acting like babies? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff?

Named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy, Vaclav Smil is an acclaimed author, scholar and thought leader who has quickly become one of APB's most requested speakers of 2023. Having spent his career exploring new ground in the fields of energy, environment, food production, technical innovation, risk assessment and public policy, he is a larger-than-life figure in scientific discussions around our society’s response to climate change—especially the potential of energy transitions.

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.