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Something to Hide: Writers and Artists Against the Surveillance State

Join international and local guests of the Festival for a special reading designed to provoke reflection on controversial post-9/11 government surveillance programs in the U.S.

As part of PEN’s Campaign for Core Freedoms, they’ve been working with the American Civil Liberties Union and other leading human-rights organizations to challenge some of the government’s most pernicious infringements of basic human rights, working to restore privacy protections for bookstore and library records, fighting to end the F.B.I.’s unchecked use of National Security Letters, and challenging warrantless telephone and internet surveillance by the N.S.A.

Tonight at Joe's Pub, writers will read from works that illuminate the ways government surveillance threatens artistic and intellectual freedom.

With international activists/artists/authors György Dragomán and Péter Esterházy (renowned Hungarian novelists) Chenjerai Hove (award-winning Zimbabwean poet, essayist, and novelist), Asli Erdogan (Turkish essayist), Ingo Schulze (praised German novelist), and Irakli Kakabadze (novelist and poet from the Republic of Georgia).
 

PEN World Voices is a festival of international literature featuring 170 writers, 51 countries, and 82 events coming to venues across New York City, April 29-May 4th, 2008. Don't miss six days of exciting literary exchange with conversations, panel discussions, readings, film screenings, a translation slam and a cabaret night! For a complete schedule of events, go to: http://www.pen.org/festival