PEN 2010: Writer as Activist
Tucked away down under Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn, the Powerhouse bookstore cum arena cum gallery played host to the latest PEN World Voices Festival offering: "The Writer as Activist." The Powerhouse’s large airy space and piped acid jazz music gave it a very contemporary feel, perhaps not surprising given its location in the heart of New York’s hippest borough. The snarled up traffic due to the Five Borough Bike Ride meant the event started 30 minutes late.
PEN 2010: A Night of Torture
As I sat sipping my slightly too expensive, slightly too small beer in Joe’s Pub, the venue for yet another PEN World Voices event, I resorted to my new time killing device: my smart phone. A BBC news tweet popped up announcing the arrival of the UN’s top humanitarian official in the deeply, and seemingly continually, troubled Democratic Republic of the Congo. The social scientist buried beneath my software engineer exterior reflected on the point of tonight’s event.
