PEN America World Voices Festival 2023: History, Power & Struggle

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Literature

Published on Tuesday, 02 May 2023 15:14

Written by Brad Balfour

Featuring more than 100 writers from 27 countries, the PEN America World Voices Festival is a celebration of writers and performers from around the world making their voices heard against the forces of censorship and oppression. Running May 10 to the 13th the festival includes performances in NYC and the greater Los Angeles area. The opening night festivities on May 11 features An Evening with Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah at the NYU Skirball Center. Known for his work chronicling an Africa on the brink of change while shedding light on the legacies and consequences of European colonialism, Abdulrazak Gurnah will be there along with with Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Nadifa Mohamed, Windham Campbell Literature Prize winner Aminatta Forna, acclaimed actor Esau Pritchett, Sudanese American musician Alsarah, and others.

PEN Letters: A Centenary Celebration is a 100-year journey through archival letters, notes, and speeches detailing PEN America's history held at Joe’s Pub. Los Angeles events include Writer/Scholar/Target: Online Harassment and the Threat to Free Expression on May 13th and Woman, Life, Freedom: The Role of Art in the Struggle For Human Rights on May 10th.

Speakers across the festival include:

• Natalie Diaz
• Jennifer Egan
• Abdulrazak Gurnah
• Saidiya Hartman
• Sheila Heti
• Andrey Kurkov
• Eileen Myles
• Jason Reynolds
• Gary Shteyngart
• Leïla Slimani
• Alejandro Zambra

And many more.

The closing night event is An Evening of Forbidden Books. In response to the recent onslaught of book bans across the country, PEN America is convening a celebration of the freedom to write, read, and think featuring dramatic readings from some of the most “dangerous” texts ever printed, from writers including Toni Morrison, Art Spiegelman, Kurt Vonnegut, and more.

To learn more, go to: https://worldvoices.pen.org/

PEN America World Voices Festival
May 10 - 13, 2023

New York City & Los Angeles

Banned Book Week 2022: Defend Books Across America With Special Events

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Literature

Published on Friday, 16 September 2022 15:38

Written by Brad Balfour

Across the country books are under attack, with book bans sweeping America, and silencing diverse and ground breaking literary voices. As PEN America, celebrating its 100th anniversary defending the freedom to read and write,invites readers, authors, educators, librarians, and everyone who opposes censorship in America to get involved during Banned Books Week 2022 (Sept. 17-24, 2022) with events both in person and online across the US.

At the New York Public Library (476 Fifth Ave New York, NY) on Wednesday, September 21, MSNBC's Ali Velshi presents Restricted Access: an American History of Book Banning. A panel of authors, scholars, and critics reflect on the current climate around book bans and to understand this wave of hostility hitting books across America. Actor André De Shields, one of the stars of the upcoming revival of Death of a Salesman, will open the evening reading a passage from Toni Morrison.

In Florida there’s the panel The Assault on Black Thought: Book Banning in Florida. Running Saturday, September 17 at Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL), this in-person conversation will examine the recent censorious threats in Florida and the power of Black literature to spur important cultural conversations.

On September 19 the virtual event Banned Books, Fahrenheit 451, and the Division Censorship Creates. The discussion features PEN Across America, Mount Vernon Public Library, and Banned Book Week Chairs  Alyssa Gómez Lawrence and Debbie Nabubwaya Chambers in an online discussion of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, Fahrenheit 451, and the issues the book raises around censorship and free expression. This discussion will examine the history of banned books, our current censorious moment, and the path toward a free and enlightened culture. 

This is a sampling of events happening across America for Banned Book Week, and PEN America invites people to spread the word with #FreeTheBooks!.

To learn more, go to: https://pen.org/campaign/banned-books-week-2022/

Banned Book Week 2022
September 17 - 24, 2022

Various Locations Across America and Streaming Online

Poetry, Comedy, Politics, & Progress at the 2021 IAAC Literary Festival

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Literature

Published on Thursday, 02 December 2021 11:17

Written by Brad Balfour

The Indo-American Arts Council (or IACC) will be having their 2021 Literary Festival online and in person this year. The event features an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. The week-long festival will be held live in New York City for local authors and on an on-line platform for global authors that will host book readings, keynote speakers, thought leaders and podcasts followed by virtual interactive sessions.

Author, comedian, speech writer, and actor Kal Penn will be talking about his new book, You Can’t Be Serious, on December 12 at the DAG Fuller Building (41 E 57th St Suite 708, New York, NY). Streamed online, author Yatindra Mishra will be in conversation with musician Amjad Ali Khan about his book Akhtari. Author Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain will be in conversation with moderator Rakesh Kaul about their book Nehru: The Debates that defined India.

Engineer turned comedian and speech-maker, Dan Nainan, talks about his new book, Accidentally Funny. A Poetry Session will feature Arundhathi Subramaniam, Purvi Shah and Ralph Nazareth, among others. Former CEO and Chairman of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, will be about her ambitions, career, and her new book My Life in Full.

Film director, Suman Ghosh, will discuss his new book Soumitra Chatterjee: A Film-Maker Remembers, which is an intimate look at the life and works of the late cinematic legend, Soumitra Chatterjee.

And this is only a sampling of the events going on during the Festival.

To learn more, go to: https://iaac.us/iaac-literary-festival-2021/

IAAC Literary Festival 2021
December 4 - 12, 2021

Various locations & online