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Join a panel of activists and experts in discussing the global impact of the disaster as well as the reactions of New York City’s Haitian population. Featuring Soraya Darabi, Ryan Charles Mack, Rose Pierre-Louis, April R. Silver and Christopher C. Stout. Journalist Farai Chideya moderates with Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor of The Haitian Times.

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On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 4:53 pm, a major earthquake struck southern Haiti, leaving the country in devastation with a death toll at an estimated 150,000. The Greene Space presents an intimate dialogue to explore the future of Haiti and the multi-faceted and complex implications that have global resonances.

We will partner with community and cultural partners throughout New York City and turn the tables by passing the mic to our Haitian-American community and everyday New Yorkers. We want to hear their thoughts, reflections, and solutions for how the global community has addressed and will continue to address this devastating and significant historical moment that has, in fact, impacted us all. We will be joined by numerous experts from diverse fields who will frame the evening with analysis. The conversation will be followed by a post-reception, providing New York Artist(s) a moment to offer Expressions of Hope.

Co-moderators: Farai Chideya and Garry Pierre-Pierre
Participants: Soraya Darabi, Ryan Mack, and April R. Silver

Farai Chideya, has combined media, technology, and social justice during her 20-year career as an award-winning author and journalist.. From 2006 to early 2009, she hosted NPR’s News and Notes, a daily national program about African-American and African diaspora issues. She and the teams she has worked with have won awards including a National Education Reporting Award, a North Star News Prize, and a special award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association for coverage of AIDS. Chideya’s novel Kiss the Sky is nominated for a 2010 NAACP Image Award. She is a contributor to The Takeaway, a morning drive news program co-produced by WNYC and Public Radio International, in editorial collaboration with the BBC World Service, The New York Times, and WGBH Boston.

Garry Pierre-Pierre is the editor and publisher of Haitian Times, which he founded in 1999. The English language weekly serves New York’s 500,000-strong Haitian community. Pierre-Pierre has 20 years of experience as a journalist, including six years as a staff writer at the New York Times. While there, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also worked as a reporter at The Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Soraya Darabi believes in the power of strategic social-media for social-change movements.  She volunteers for major New York City non-for-profits, including Charity: Water, Robinhood and Goods4Good launching new media boards and creating viral fundraising campaigns.   During the day, Soraya is Product Lead at drop.io, a real-time sharing, collaboration, presentation web site based in New York City, and works on PressLift.com, the first drop.io vertical application.  Recently, Soraya was the Manager of Digital Partnership and Social-Media Marketing at The New York Times, where she oversaw The Times’s use of social-media platforms for marketing purposes.   Soraya earned her B.A. in English Literature at Georgetown University.  She was named one of AdAge Magazine’s “25 People in Media to Follow” on Twitter.com.  In 2009, a multimedia Facebook campaign she organized on behalf of The New York Times on Inauguration Day won first prize at the INMA Awards, for excellence in marketing.  Soraya was named 1 of the Silicon Alley 100 in 2010. Follow her at twitter.com/sorayad.

Ryan Mack has a life mission to build and develop a durable financial empire geared towards educating his community and beyond. In addition to being a financial advisor working with many prominent clients across the US, he charitably lends his support to inner-city communities by coordinating workshops and creating economic empowerment initiatives that teach the principles of understanding the power of financial literacy. As a renowned public speaker he has provided many keynote presentations to organizations across the country such as NAACP, National Urban League, National Black MBA Association, and many others. With a strong sense of philanthropy he flew to South Africa to teach economic empowerment principles to those in need. He appears regularly on CNN and BET to discuss financial issues that impact the economy.

April R. Silver is a social entrepreneur, activist, and writer. She heads AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. (AW), a communications agency that services the unique needs of progressive artists, activists, advocates, and organizations. Since 1993, AW has provided a variety of premium services to a diverse roster, ranging from emerging poets to hip hop artist/actor Mos Def to The Ford Foundation. The company is also known for creating Put On BLAST!™, a widely trusted email marketing service that houses over 32,000 subscribers nationwide.

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