Festival Headlined by Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer in Central Park on September 28

Celebrities, Philanthropists, Political Figures to Host 2013 Global Citizen
http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/09/05/5179009/celebrities-philanthropists-political.html

Festival Headlined by Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer in Central Park on September 28

By The Global Poverty Project NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2013

Today, The Global Poverty Project, in proud partnership with the Cotton On Foundation, announced that the official host committee for the 2013 Global Citizen Festival will include lead host Soledad O'Brien, with: Rachel Brosnahan, Barbara Pierce Bush, Gerard Butler, Jake Clemons, Deborra-Lee Furness, Erin Heatherton, Katie Holmes, Karolina Kurkova, Bridget Moynahan, Freida Pinto, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Russell Simmons, Olivia Wilde, will.i.am, and Professor Mohammad Yunus.

The 2013 Global Citizen Festival is part of the worldwide movement to end extreme poverty. The free ticketed concert will take place on the Great Lawn of New York's iconic Central Park, with performances by Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer on September 28, 2013.

The Global Citizen Festival is once again timed to provide world leaders with a clear and compelling mandate to help end extreme poverty by 2030, as they gather at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

These musicians and hosts will dedicate their time to encourage fans and friends to become 'Global Citizens' and raise awareness and take actions to end extreme poverty. This year, The Global Poverty Project's four main themes of focus are: education, women's equality, global health, and global partnerships. Through the Festival, The Global Poverty Project aims to achieve the specific policy objectives including ensuring every child can go to school, funding the training and deployment of hundreds of thousands of Community Health Workers in the global south, making equality for girls and women a global priority, and supporting public and private partnerships committed to ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Lead host, Soledad O'Brien stated, "I'm proud to be the lead host of the Global Citizen Festival because, addressing the issue of global poverty needs to be our priority. This is an issue that I care deeply about and report on often."

Free tickets to the Festival can be earned at www.globalfestival.com where fans can take online "action" to earn their admission. Fans simply register to become a Global Citizen, choose from a variety of actions to earn points, like watching videos, signing petitions, sending emails to world leaders, and use their earned points to qualify for free tickets to the Festival.

The 2013 Global Citizen Festival, in proud partnership with the Cotton On Foundation, is produced by DPS in partnership with AEG/Goldenvoice, and is generously supported by global technology partner HP, as well as Kidnected World, The Pratt Foundation, FedEx, Coca-Cola, Citibank, The Color Run, and The Riot House. The Festival is only possible because of critical funding from the Sumner M. Redstone Foundation. Media partners include Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, Forbes, ReverbNation and others.

People everywhere are invited to sign-up and take actions to be entered in the ticket lottery.  More information about the bands, artists, and event can be found here: www.globalfestival.com. In total, 54,000 free tickets to the Festival will be awarded to Global Citizens.

SOURCE The Global Poverty Project Copyright 2013 .

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/5679983/mlb-to-co-produce-new-yorks-global-citizen-festival-with-aeg-live


MLB to Co-Produce New York's Global Citizen Festival with AEG Live

Major League Baseball is dipping into the music business after buying the distribution rights for an upcoming concert in New York's Central Park.

Through its digital media company, MLB Advanced Media, the league will co-produce this year's Global Citizen Festival on Sept. 28 with AEG Live and stream the event through websites such as the New York Times and YouTube.

The New York Times reports there are currently negotiations underway to condense the concert into a two-hour special that will be aired on a major television network. The festival lineup includes Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Kings of Leon and John Mayer.

For MLB Advanced Media, which is co-owned by the league’s 30 clubs, this is the beginning of a larger effort to distribute many kinds of live events on both free and subscription platforms.

The company already streams hundreds of baseball games through its mlb.tv website and provides the back-end technology for a number of television programs, including Glenn Beck's Internet channel, ESPN3's sport streaming and in-flight services on Southwest Airlines.

Interesting article/observation in The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/biz-ghormley/global-citizen-festival_b_3997615.html

Everywhere But Here -- Rocking Our Perception of Poverty


Stevie Wonder. Alicia Keyes. Neil Diamond. Kings of Leon. Close to 60,000 people. Celebrities including Russell Simmons, Gerard Butler and Olivia Wilde. They're all coming together on Saturday in Central Park to end extreme poverty.

In Africa. In Asia. In places very far from Central Park. This is a far-sighted approach. We need to broach the reality of poverty at home, too.

Just beyond the reservoir and running paths there are 227,000 people waiting for public housing in New York. There are thousands of runaway and homeless youth fighting for only hundreds of beds in shelters to survive (probably living in the park in the meantime). And, Congress has assaulted food stamps.

The "Global Citizen Festival" is hosted by Global Poverty Project. In partnership with the Cotton On Foundation (whose work is focused in Uganda) and with support from HP, FedEx, Coca-Cola, CitiBank and Clear Channel Media, GPP is working to raise awareness and build a movement to end global poverty" -- characterized as "those living on less than $1.25 a day."

All signs point to the music and messaging being powerful. It seems there will be a big focus at the show on "eradicating extreme poverty in this generation." Why, though, is this conversation on global citizenship focused far from here?

Signs do not point to stars on stage mentioning homeless youth in New York, many of whom live on less than $1 a day. It does not seem awareness will be raised about increasing number of families living in New York City in poverty -- 30 percent of Bronx residents living on less than $15 a day. Or the over 46 million living in poverty, including 41 percent of women living in poverty or on the edge of it here in the United States.

While the consequences poverty has on the education, health or wellness of people half a world away will most likely be covered, the way it changes the lives, and fabric of our own city and country seems less likely to be discussed.

Instead, examples of what that might be said on stage come from a video starring supermodel Erin Heatherton explaining, "the real sexy is standing for something significant." She says the movement "isn't about charity, it's about justice. 1.4 billion of us are stuck in broken systems."

I cheerlead justice, sexiness and standing for something significant. I don't believe only 1.4 billion of us are stuck in a broken system, though. Over seven billion of us are. And it may not be sexy to do work that involves being wrong and messy. But, that is the point of global citizenship. And global citizenship starts where you lay your head.

Though some attendees may travel to the places discussed on stage and may even live in Southern Uganda -- who knows -- I bet the majority will not. Instead, they'll be pushed up against me on the L train as we ride back and forth through life here in New York City on subway cars full of people fighting poverty, homelessness, misinformation about birth control and sexual health. The issues GPP is fighting globally are alive here.

By attending the show and raising awareness and educating ourselves about the places -- near or far -- that we do not identify as being part of, a sense of a clear conscious is created that is really an inverted fog, creating space for a different kind of injustice and disrespect -- one that comes from thinking we can fix other people's problems when we shy from even stating our own.

Perhaps we are best served by being local citizens first -- by focusing on our values and being our best selves, by dedicating ourselves to things like an eradication of racism or police brutality or hunger in our own city.

New York is an international city, a city of great complexity, a city of resilience and passion. We can deal with the complexity of maintaining respect for each other while recognizing the suffering in our own zip codes. We can address issues in multifaceted ways, approach the challenges from many angles, not hope only for quick fixes and eradication, but empowerment and balance. We can also create value and support each other as neighbors in a way that does not solidify the power system that everyone was so excited to overthrow this summer when Peter Buffet challenged the paradigm of philanthropy.

Our international city is increasingly host to some of the most affluent in the world. Our international city is home to some of the most resilient and determined folks in the world. Our international city is home to real injustices. On a level we don't like to admit.

Here, in New York, I have watched teenagers who could not post bail wait on Riker's Island for up to three years to be tried... acquitted... and set free having lived from 16 to 19 in a jail. Yes. An innocent teenager in jail for three years due to trial delays. The injustice he faced may have been stark but it is not an anomaly.

The thing about being a community member is it's not about finding problems you are connected to only distantly. It's about noticing how you fit in the system and what you can do to make it better.

I am challenged by the lack of "solution" to local problems, by the fact that no politician I can vote for is perfect. We don't fix social problems; we adjust to address them as best we can. We listen and respond to each other and ourselves.

Hat tip to the impressive mobilization and organizing by GPP. I hope we can expand the vision and use the momentum to do good, to end poverty in our communities, too.

Let's acknowledge how much we don't know. Ask questions and explore how injustice exists where we have more power and responsibility - at home. Pick up some trash. Hold a door. Vote. Listen. Be wrong.Learn. Advocate. Get messy. Respect.