Dinner parties benefit urban youth

Several hosts throughout the New Haven area will open their homes on Wednesday, Feb. 29, for an evening of intimate dinner parties, bringing together distinguished guests and supporters of LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership).

The eminent guests of honor at each of the dinners will lead conversations on diverse subjects from cheese to China, dogs to dogma, economics to Egypt, museums to the military, and Josef Stalin to J. Edgar Hoover.

Among this year’s luminaries are Egyptian Ambassador Sallama Shaker, iconic poet and human rights activist Rose Styron, sports writer and broadcaster Jon Wertheimer, PBS economics correspondent and Yale professor Paul Solman , and many eminent writers, performers, academics, and activists.