George W. Bush, Pete Buttigieg, Ava DuVernay to appear at SXSW 2021
South by Southwest on Wednesday announced one last round of big names for the 2021 event, including the third U.S. president to appear as part of the festival.
Former President George W. Bush will participate in a featured session conversation with Texas Tribune founder Evan Smith about Bush's upcoming book, "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants."
SXSW, which runs March 16-20, also announced new keynote speakers on Wednesday: Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, author and "Together Apart" podcast host Priya Parker and "Interior Chinatown" author Charles Yu.
Also added as featured session participants:
• Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, in conversation with producer Franklin Leonard
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• Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood
• Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi in conversation with Naoko Yamazaki, the second Japanese woman in space
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• "Saturday Night Live" and "Kenan" star Kenan Thompson, in conversation with Chance the Rapper
• CNN anchor Don Lemon, in conversation with journalists Jemele Hill and Malcolm Jenkins
• Producer Swizz Beatz, in conversation with Grammy winner Timbaland, music industry vet Fadia Kader and journalist Lucas Shaw
• "The Daily Show" personalities Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan and Roy Wood Jr.
• A panel featuring Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone, Snap Inc. chief business officer Jeremi Gorman, Peloton marketing and communications exec Dara Treseder, Twitch chief marketing officer Doug Scott and MediaLink founder and exec Michael E. Kassan
• Facebook chief diversity officer Maxine Williams, in conversation with Jason Wright, president of the NFL's Washington football team
• CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in conversation about COVID-19 with virologist Dr. Keith Chappell
• Astronauts Victor Glover and Kate Rubins
This year's SXSW will take place online, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which was responsible for the cancellation of last year's conference and festivals. To see the rest of the lineup for 2021 and to get information on attending the virtual conference and festivals, go to sxsw.com.
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