A New Yorker Festival Community Event with Bryan Stevenson and Elizabeth Alexander

Bryan Stevenson talks with Elizabeth Alexander: On equality and justice.

To submit a question for the panelists during the broadcast, visit the event page here

This session is offered as a free community event. If you wish to make a contribution to the Equal Justice Initiative, we encourage you to learn more here

To learn more about The New Yorker Festival, please visit

About the panelists:

Bryan Stevenson, an attorney, author, and legal scholar, is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which has won numerous significant legal challenges centered around the U.S. criminal-justice system. He is also the author of the acclaimed best-seller “Just Mercy” and a professor at the New York University School of Law. Stevenson has received a MacArthur “genius” grant, the American Bar Association’s A.B.A. Medal and Thurgood Marshall Award, and the A.C.L.U.’s National Medal of Liberty, among many other honors.

Elizabeth Alexander is a decorated poet, playwright, essayist, and educator. She is the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. She has also held distinguished professorships at Columbia and at Yale, where she served as the chair of the Department of African American Studies. Her books include the poetry collection “American Sublime” and the memoir “The Light of the World,” both of which were Pulitzer finalists.