This year’s 26th Annual Americans for the Arts Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy by acclaimed cellist and arts educator Yo-Yo Ma takes place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts onMonday, April 8 at 6:30 pm EDT. While this ticketed, free event is now “sold out,” you can still watch the lecture and performance live online! For the first time ever, Google will be live streaming the Nancy Hanks Lecture beginning at 6:30 pm EDT online at the Americans for the Arts’ YouTube channel. Yo-Yo will be joined on stage at the Kennedy Center with accompanying performances by Galician bagpiper and pianistCristina Pato, jookin dancer Lil Buck, and members of MusiCorps, a music program for wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital led by Arthur Bloom.
We will continue the discussion that Yo-Yo Ma begins at the Nancy Hanks Lecture the next day on Arts Advocacy Day, Tuesday, April 9 at 10:30 am EDT. Yo-Yo will take a break from his Arts Advocacy Day visits on Capitol Hill to participate in an Americans for the Arts Google Hangout (aka video chat) about arts education. He’ll be joined by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer (formerly of Guns N’ Roses) Matt Sorum, former New York City Ballet principal dancer and Aspen Institute Arts Program Director Damian Woetzel, and Lisa Phillips, author of “The Artistic Edge: 7 Skills Children Need to Succeed in an Increasingly Right Brain World.” To watch the Google Hangout online live, visit the Americans for the Arts’ YouTube channel at 10:30 am EDT on Tuesday, April 9. The Hangout will be moderated by Americans for the Arts President and CEO Bob Lynch.
Questions for the Americans for the Arts Google Hangout can be submitted in advance by tweeting them with the #AskYoYo hashtag or by emailing ArtsEducation@artsusa.org.