Event
ARC @ 2019 PEN World Voices Festival
New York
PEN America presents the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival: Open Secrets, this year’s incarnation of the renowned international literary festival, which will bring together the world’s foremost authors and other luminaries at a time when many are turning to literature and the arts, not for escapism, but as a guide to navigate contemporary crises. Salman Rushdie founded the festival in the isolationist aftermath of September 11, 2001, to fortify links with the rest of the world; now again the need to connect and draw inspiration from beyond America’s borders is pressing. PEN America Festival Director Chip Rolley and CEO Suzanne Nossel explain, “The voluntary surrender of privacy in return for convenience, access, and human connection is fast reshaping expectations of what remains personal. As digital technologies steamroll forward, we aim through this Festival to hit the pause button to examine why these borders are being redrawn and how writers, creators, thinkers, and individuals can influence what aspects of our lives remain truly our own as well as how to shape narratives once they enter the public sphere.”
Programming Highlights for 15th Anniversary Edition of United States’ Leading International Literary Festival Include Events with Bridgett M. Davis, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Rodrigo Fresán, Sue Halpern, Isabella Hammad, Mohammed Hanif, Sheila Heti, Christos Ikonomou, Shiori Ito, Marlon James, Édouard Louis, Ma Jian, Emiliano Monge, Scholastique Mukasonga, H.M. Naqvi, Joyce Carol Oates, Tommy Orange, George Packer, Inês Pedrosa, Philippe Petit, Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Arundhati Roy, Sonia Sanchez, Elif Shafak, Dani Shapiro, Pajtim Statovci, Kara Swisher, Miriam Toews, Colm Tóibín, Tara Westover, Liao Yiwu, Shoshana Zuboff, Raúl Zurita, and Many More.
ARC is presenting two events during the Festival this year, made possible thanks to the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.
Film screening and New York Premiere: “Leto”, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Friday, May 10, 2019 7 p.m Museum of Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria, NY 11106 A defiant pioneer of hard-edged Russian music, Viktor Tsoi embodied the rock culture of early ’80s Leningrad and wrote impassioned anthems that helped fuel the USSR’s Perestroika transformation. The iconic singer-songwriter’s early journey from underground experimentation towards Soviet Union-wide stardom is recreated in Leto, a film that was described by Variety as “wild, whirling” and was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or in 2018’s Cannes Film Festival. While the movie screams in support of free artistic expression, its accomplished director, Kirill Serebrennikov, who spent almost two years under house arrest in Russia, awaits judgment on dubious claims of corruption. Join us for this cinematic celebration of uninhibited creativity in the face of institutional oppression. Talkback with Bilge Ebiri, journalist and filmmaker and Mikhail Idov, scriptwriter of Leto. Co-presented with the Museum of The Moving Image. General Admission: $20
Elyla Sinvergüenza: Countering Colonialism: A Queer Ritual of Healing
Performance Saturday, May 11, 2019 8:00 p.m BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, 2474 Westchester Ave, Bronx, NY 10461 Growing up in rural Nicaragua, queer performance artist Elyla Sinvergüenza (Fredman Barahona) endured the country’s toxic and ongoing legacy of colonialism. In their visceral new performance piece Saint Peter Goose/Duck Pulling, Sinverguenza transforms a violent and hyper-masculine ritual from the country’s patriarchal tradition into an immersive experience of healing for artist and audience members alike. Join Sinvergüenza and rope designer and performer Master Kinkbaku Ming for the world premiere of this participatory act of creativity, as a country’s troubled history is revisited through a cathartic and engaging ceremony. Sinvergüenza uses performance as the fundamental resource of their artistic practice, aiming to give birth to queer imaginaries intersecting with contemporary art, activism, and life itself in the Americas. Some of these explorations are based on readings of mestizo/indigenous rituals in Latin America through a cochon (queer) lens and work based on a local Nicaraguan political context. Monologue actoral direction by Rene Medina. Sound design by Luigi Bridges. Co-presented with the BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. This performance is presented in collaboration with National Sawdust, The Federation, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), Howl Arts, and the Artists Protection Fund. General Admission: $20