Award-winning journalist Anderson Cooper will make a rare South Florida appearance at the Hard Rock Live this Thursday, September 20 (8 PM). Cooper will lead an intimate discussion on current events, while also touching on his recent projects and stories from his travels, many of which are documented in his memoir, Dispatches from the Edge, which he began writing after covering the harrowing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Of that time and his decision to write a memoir, Cooper reasons, “In those dark, difficult days in New Orleans, I started to worry that when the floodwaters receded, and the convention center was cleaned up, people would move on and forget what had happened.”

Throughout his career as one of broadcast news’ pre-eminent disaster correspondents, Cooper, who is the son of designer Gloria Vanderbilt, has reported from the frontlines of everything from the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to famine in Somalia. At his Hard Rock appearance, Miamians can get a firsthand account of what it was like to witness these events, the responsibilities, and at times danger, of reporting on some of the world’s most unprecedented crises, and the impact seeing these things leaves on one’s life. Tickets are $40. 5747 Seminole Way, Hollywood; ticketmaster.com