Melinda Gates

Tuesday, May 7, 2019
8pm


Melinda Gates
in conversation with John Legend

discussing her book,
The Moment of Lift:
How Empowering Women Changes the World

Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012

PURCHASE TICKETS
$75.00
 first three rows (includes book) — SOLD OUT
$55.00 orchestra section (includes book– SOLD OUT
$45.00 balcony section (includes book)– SOLD OUT
$20.00 balcony — SOLD OUT
 

Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. As the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda sets the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropy. She is also the founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company working to drive social progress for women and families in the United States. Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Duke University and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School. Melinda spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, Bill. They have three children, Jenn, Rory and Phoebe.

John Legend, critically acclaimed and multi-platinum singer-songwriter, has garnered ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award among others. He is the first African-American man to earn an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award and one of only 15 people in the prestigious “EGOT” club. John has released six celebrated albums over the course of his career including, Get Lifted(2004), Once Again(2006), Evolver(2008), Love in the Future(2013), Darkness and Light (2016), and A Legendary Christmas(2018). John starred as Jesus in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live!in April 2018. That year, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor (in a Limited Series Or Movie) and won an Emmy as a producer in the category of Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for the show. It was announced that John would be a coach for season 16 of NBC’s The Voice, airing in 2019. In October 2018, John released his first Christmas album, A Legendary Christmas, and closed out the year with his A Legendary Christmastour. Beyond his music career, he is a principle partner in Get Lifted Film Co., a film and television production company based in Los Angeles. Get Lifted Film Co. served as Executive Producers on NBC’s live production of Jesus Christ Superstar Live!,the HBO documentary Southern Rites, 2018 Tribeca Audience Award Winner Documentary United Skates, WGN America’s series Underground, and films such as Southside with Youand La La Land. As a philanthropist, John initiated the #FREEAMERICA campaign in 2015 to change the national conversation surrounding our country’s misguided criminal justice policies and to end mass incarceration.

For the last twenty years, Melinda French Gates has been on a mission. Her goal, as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, invest in women.

In The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, Melinda traces her awakening to the link between women’s empowerment and the health of societies. She shows some of the tremendous opportunities that exist right now to “turbo-charge” change. And she provides simple and effective ways each one of us can make a difference. Convinced that all women should be free to decide whether and when to have children, Melinda took her first step onto the global stage to make a stand for family planning. That step launched her into further efforts: to ensure women everywhere have access to every kind of job; to encourage men around the globe to share equally in the burdens of household work; to advocate for paid family and medical leave for everyone; to eliminate gender bias in all its forms.

Throughout, Melinda introduces us to her heroes in the movement towards equality, offers startling data, shares moving conversations she’s had with women from all over the world―and shows how we can all get involved.

A personal statement of passionate conviction, this book tells of Melinda’s journey from a partner working behind the scenes to one of the world’s foremost advocates for women, driven by the belief that no one should be excluded, all lives have equal value, and gender equity is the lever that lifts everything.

Melinda will be donating all the amounts she receives from this book to charity.

Photo Credit: Pivotal Ventures–Jason Bell