MEMBER BLOG TAG: opening night
| Tuesday, April 26, 2011 7:45PM | | | | Opening Night | Tags: Salman, Rushdie, opening night, liao yiwu, censorship
| | | It was a potent moment: Salman Rushdie, a man who knows a thing or two about the personal impact of censorship, placing an empty chair on a spotlit stage.
‘We founded the Pen Festival in a different America, at a moment in which it seemed as if the relationship between America and the rest of the world was breaking down,’ he said. ‘There was a failure of dialogue we wanted to reopen.’ He paused and smiled. ‘And now we can celebrate that thanks to all of you this has been ... a valuable addition to the cultural program of New York City.’
He meant, I think, that bringing a selection of great writers from around the... | | | | | | | Tuesday, April 26, 2011 7:54AM | | | | Written on Water | Tags: Written on Water, Opening Night, Gioconda Belli, Prison Writing Program, writers in peril, freedom, Salman Rushdie, Liao Yiwu, Abdelkader Benali, Hanif Kureishi, Malcolm Gladwell, Andrea Levy, Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg
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The Opening Night Reading "Written on Water" was held in The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, which peered over a very foggy Hudson River last night. The lights from New Jersey seemed brighter than usual.
As water rippled outside against the docks, a giant screen with projected water lapped behind the stage. Water on plasma, noted the Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli.
Belli had perhaps the best interpretation of the "Written on Water" theme that all writers were asked to respond to in their fashion. "My name will be written in lights," Belli read, from a series of poems that discussed the ephemeral nature of each individual life.
| | | | | | | Monday, April 25, 2011 8:56PM | | | | Opening Night: Impressions | Tags: pen world voices, opening night, chelsea, hanif kureishi, Mircea Cartarescu, salman rushdie, giconda belli
| | | The PEN World Voices Festival had already begun, as director Laszlo Jakab Orsos observed, with a lecture on the role of the public intellectual. By the time the opening night started at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, a literary celebration was already well underway.
The re-centering of this year's festival towards the High Line means a lot of hoofing it, so prepare yourself for some long walks, with ample rewards: skyline views, sights of ferries crossing the Hudson River, and the nautical oddity that I will never really get tired of, the tugboat.
Opening Night abounded with stars, from Wallace Shawn to Malcolm Gladwell, and superstars that you may not be aware of, such as Belgian writer Amelie Nothomb, who publishes a... | | | | | |
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