Honoring a shared mission to change the world through the power of storytelling, award-winning author, poet, producer and educator Kwame Alexander returns to the Amphitheater stage to lead a series of conversations on making a positive difference. He launches this week for the Chautauqua Lecture Series with LeVar Burton — pop culture icon and champion of books, words and the right to read.

LeVar Burton is an actor, author, director, producer and podcaster whose decades-long body of work includes “Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and “Reading Rainbow,” for which he served as host and executive producer. The beloved PBS children’s series aired from 1983 to 2009; one of the longest-running children’s television shows in history, it is also one of the most acclaimed, earning over 200 awards — including multiple Emmys and a Peabody.

As a lifelong literacy advocate, Burton has dedicated decades to encouraging children to read. In 2017, long-standing literacy non-profit Reading is Fundamental acquired Burton’s Skybrary reading app in order to provide access to millions of children both at home and at school. In 2023, Burton premiered his first documentary, “The Right to Read,” a film that positions the literacy crisis in America as a civil rights issue. His production company, LeVar Burton Entertainment, develops projects in the film, television, podcasting and publishing space with the mission to share stories that foster empathy, champion diversity and build community. His “LeVar Burton Reads” podcast has over 175 episodes in its catalog, boasting 25 million downloads.

He is the honored recipient of seven NAACP Awards, a Peabody, a Grammy, 15 Emmys — including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Inaugural Children’s & Family Emmys — and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In October 2024, President Joe Biden awarded Burton the National Humanities Medal.

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.

His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

Amna Nawaz serves as co-anchor of the PBS News Hour, for which she has reported across the country and around the world on a range of topics including politics, immigration, foreign affairs, education, gun violence, criminal justice reform, the climate, culture and sports. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series during the “Kwame Alexander and Friends” week to share stories from her reporting career that showcase the best in human values, highlighting our capacity for strength, resilience, love and inspiration.

Nawaz has also received four Peabody Awards for News Hour team coverage of some of the biggest stories of our time: in 2024 reporting from Israel after the Hamas Oct. 7 attack; in 2023, reporting from Uvalde, Texas, after the mass school shooting, as part of a gun violence series; in 2021, reporting from outside the U.S. Capitol during live coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection; and in 2019, for an in-depth look at our global plastic pollution problem. Prior to joining PBS News Hour in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News; prior to that, she served as foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform.

In 2024, Nawaz was the recipient of the Diversity Woman Media’s Pioneer Award, as well as the Women’s Foreign Policy Group’s Breaking Barriers in Journalism Award. In 2023, she was named an A100 honoree by Gold House. She was the recipient of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies’ Vision Award and the Media Award from the Muslim Affairs Public Council’s Media Award in 2022. Nawaz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her master’s degree from the London School of Economics.