PEN America Hosts Essential Discussions Ahead of Midterm Elections
By: A.A. Cristi Aug. 24, 2018
PEN America has a packed roster of events this September, from the first couple in a series of essential cultural conversations ahead of the 2018 midterms, to celebrations of the winnings works from our Prison Writing Contest, and more. You can find out more about a few of them below, and all our upcoming events here.
Sunday, September 16, 2018 | 1-2 pm
Brooklyn Law School
250 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Since the early days of the #MeToo movement debates have been raging about what to do with the works of those accused of sexual misconduct, from those yet to be created to those that have adorned museums and library shelves, receiving accolades and critical acclaim for decades. How do we reckon with the work of creatives with violent or contentious personal lives? Should their actions affect how we see the work? Should it color our reasons for engaging with it? These are the questions about power, spectatorship, violence, gender, labor, and media consumption we must ask.
WNYC art critic Deborah Solomon; New York Times film critic A. O. Scott; author, producer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam; and the New Museum's Maggie Mustard will offer their insight and discuss their own experiences with the "art of the accused."
More information at pen.org/event/the-art-of-the-accused
Toxic Masculinity: Where Do We Go From Here?
Friday, September 14, 2018 | 7-8 pm
Celeste Auditorium, NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018
Brendan Kiely, author of recently released Tradition; Yahdon Israel, writer and creator of Literaryswag; and Lynn Melnick, author of the new poetry collection Landscape with Sex and Violence, discuss the ways they as writers and activists have reckoned with #MeToo, toxic masculinity, rape culture, and privilege, as well as where they think we need to go from here. Panelists will consider the literary world and the roles authors and journalists have to play in giving voice to and supporting those who have been silenced and are now speaking up.
More information at pen.org/event/toxic-masculinity-where-do-we-go-from-here
Breakout: Voices from the Inside
Thursday, September 13, 2018 | 7-9 pm
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Join us for an electric night of award-winning work from the 2018 Prison Writing Contest, staged by Joshua Bennett (The Sobbing School), emerging poet Ammayeah Benton, Sergio De La Pava (Lost Empress), Baz Dreisinger (Incarceration Nations), Brendan Kiely (Tradition, All American Boys), Ian Manuel (featured in Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy), Jackie Wang (Carceral Capitalism), and Rehabilitation Through the Arts' alumni theater group. Currently incarcerated artists have been commissioned to score collaborative movement and song through Dances For Solidarity and Musicambia.
More information and RSVP at pen.org/event/break-out-voices-from-inside-2018
Since 1971 PEN America's Prison Writing Program, with its annual Contest, has provided hundreds of imprisoned writers across the country with free writing resources, skilled mentors, and audiences for their work. Our program supports free expression, and encourages the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. You can find out more here.
The Art of the Accused, Toxic Masculinity: Where Do We Go from Here? And Breakout: Voices from the Inside are all part of PEN America's events at the Brooklyn Book Festival, from September 11 to 16.
Thursday, September 20, 2018 | 7-8:30 pm
SubCulture
45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas is in conversation with Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa for the launch of his riveting and deeply personal new book, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. Blurring the line between memoir and criticism, Dear America offers both an analysis of the condition of immigration and the quest for citizenship, and debunks what it means to be undocumented in America. In conversation, Vargas will challenge notions of home and national identity and discuss the importance of expression in the face of a state that demands assimilation.
More information and tickets at pen.org/event/pen-out-loud-dear-america
The PEN Out Loud event series is a year-round series amplifying diverse voices, convening vital conversations on the issues of the day with authors, poets, journalists, and activists. Presented in conjunction with the Strand Bookstore. Fall line-up available at pen.org/event-series/pen-out-loud
Book Launch: PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018 | 7- 9 pm
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St, New York, NY 10012
PEN America and Catapult celebrate the publication of PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018, an anthology of fiction by the recipients of the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, judged this year by Jodi Angel, Lesley Nneka Arimah, and Alexandra Kleeman. Copies of the anthology will be sold to benefit Housing Works.
More information at pen.org/event/book-launch-pen-america-best-debut-short-stories-2018
The publication of PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 is made possible with the collaboration of Catapult and the generous support of the Dau family.
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