Join us for the PEN World Voices Festival!!
Schedule of Events:
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm: Disappearing Acts: Censorship in american Theater
Since theater emerged as an art form it has been a battleground for free expression. In today's climate, the pressure to censor is stronger than ever-whether through rewriting history to erase conversation on racial inequities,or the rising tide of book bans targeting discussions of sexuality and identity. Across the U.S., theater producers and schools are facing mounting pressure to cancel, rewrite, or silence bold artistic voices.
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage as she moderates an eye-opening conversation with Carlyle Brown (Down in Mississippi), Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project), and Lisa Kron (Fun Home), all award-winning playwrights who have personally faced attempts to censor their works.
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm: The Winds of History - Bernhard Schlink and Claire Messud
The convulsions of the twentieth century can be traced through the trajectory of individual lives scattered across the globe. In Bernhard Schlink's The Granddaughter and Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History, the repercussions of the schisms of the Berlin Wall and Algerian Revolution are felt generations later as far away as Australia. How do characters reconcile with their families' hidden histories? How do they unearth long-buried secrets and what does it mean to reconcile with a past that feels both distant and immediate? Join Bernhard Schlink, Claire Messud, and moderator Sam Sacks of the Wall Street Journal, for a captivating conversation exploring how fiction illuminates the long shadows of history.
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm: The Past and Future of Jamaican Literature
Jamaican literature is as vibrant and rich as the island's history. Join award winning Jamaican authors, Olive Senior (Paradise Once) and Marcia Douglas (The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive) for a fireside chat exploring their latest works and the past and future of Jamaican literature. In Paradise Once, former Jamaican Poet Laureate Olive Senior, delves into the aftermath of a fictional massacre of the indigenous Taíno people by colonizing Spanish forces. In Marcia Douglas' The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive her characters search through history for something or someone lost to the island. In this intimate conversation, these acclaimed authors will discuss how their works fit into the storied canon of Jamaican literature.
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm: Opening Night: The PEN and the State: The Role of Novelists in Times of Crisis
As the current U.S. presidential administration marks its 100th day, the landscape of free expression faces unprecedented challenges. Book bans are on the rise, college campuses are canceling events for fear of political reprisal, and the right to protest is increasingly under threat. Simultaneously, authoritarian regimes are gaining ground worldwide, eroding the foundations of liberal democracy. In this critical moment, PEN america brings together three of today's most acclaimed novelists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (Dream Count), Jennifer Egan (The Candy House), and Burhan Sönmez (Lovers of Franz K.)-for an urgent conversation on the role of novelists in times of political turmoil. Novelists do not merely reflect the world in their works, but they shape and expand a reader's understanding of it. Does a writer have a responsibility to respond to the political climate around them? Are they only beholden to their craft, aesthetic, and own political concerns? Join us for an inspiring and thought-provoking evening as these literary giants explore the intersection of art and activism, and what it means to be a novelist in an age of political crisis in a conversation moderated by PEN america interim Co-CEO and Chief Program Officer of Literary Programming, Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf.
