Global bazaar meets county fair at “The Literary Mews,” NYU’s fourth-annual showcase of literature, performance, and music that is part of the Pen World Voices Festival, on April 19 and 20.
Global bazaar meets county fair at “The Literary Mews,” NYU’s fourth-annual showcase of literature, performance, and music that is part of the Pen World Voices Festival, on April 19 and 20.
All events, which take place on NYU’s Washington Mews (between University Place and Fifth Ave. [below Eighth St.]) and the university’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, are free and open to the public and require an RSVP, unless otherwise specified. RSVP info is available at the PEN World Voices site.
For more information, contact Joanna Yas, NYU’s Creative Writing Program, at joanna.yas@nyu.edu or 212.992.9685.
Thursday, April 19, 7 p.m.: Cave Canem Presents: New Works
Featuring Safia Elhillo, Adrian Matejka, and Ife-Chudeni Oputa
Co-sponsored with Cave Canem Foundation
Location: Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street
Friday, April 20, 4 p.m. – 8 p.m.: CLMP Press Fest
Featuring readings from the selected publications with author signings.
Discover small press books and literary magazines, meet with publishers, and take home exceptional literature you are not likely to see anywhere else.
Presented by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
No RSVP required
Location: Washington Mews
Friday, April 20, 6 p.m.: “Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like”
A Conversation among Siri Hustvedt, Marion Brasch, and Zetta Elliott
This conversation will focus on the current crises that democratic institutions and governments are facing around the world as part of the rise of strong populist movements and will examine the power of everyday citizens to effect change through protest and resistance. Moderated by Marcia Pally.
Location: Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews
Friday, April 20, 6 p.m.: Meditations on Exile
With Xiaolu Guo, Dunya Mikhail, Hossein M Abkenar, and Dinaw Mengestu.
Being forced to leave one’s country involves profound physical dislocation as well as the emotional upheaval of being separated from family, friends, and the very roots of our existence. Often accompanying this change is the need to adjust to a new place, the strangeness and the stresses of crossing into a different world. The panelists, who have all experienced this, will talk about why they needed to upend their former lives and how they have adapted to their new ones.
Location: La Maison Francaise of NYU, 16 Washington Mews
Friday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.: Blurring Borders: Reimagining Strangers
A Conversation among Raquel Abend, Ibi Zoboi, and Négar Djavadi.
Moderated by Rebecca Falkoff.
Through the lens of their literary work and personal perspectives, these international authors consider society reimagined in the context of global immigration, migratory movements, political exiles, and the challenges of assimilation and integration.
Location: La Maison Française of NYU, 16 Washington Mews
Friday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.: Kexaptun
Kewulay Kamara, Nino Prvenzano, Zenaida Cantú, and Karen Mosko
With speakers of as many as 800 languages, today’s New York City is the most linguistically diverse place in the history of the world. Kexaptun — “a few words” in Lenape, the endangered indigenous language of New York City — is an ongoing project of the Endangered Language Alliance. Its aim is to collect and create poems about or set in the City, in as many of its languages as possible. Kexaptun contributors from four continents who live in New York will perform and discuss their work, reflecting on their adopted home and the distance they have traveled to reach this “Babel in reverse,” a last-minute outpost for languages and cultures in an age of extinction. Moderated by Ross Perlin.
Location: Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews
Friday, April 20, 7 p.m.: West 10th Launch Reading
Readings by author Min Jin Lee and student contributors to the NYU Creative Writing Program’s undergraduate literary journal.
Min Jin Lee's Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017, a USA Today Top 10 Books of 2017, and an American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Great Reads. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (2007) was a No. 1 Book Sense Pick, a New York Times Editor's Choice, a Wall Street Journal Juggle Book Club selection, and a national bestseller; it was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air, and USA Today.
Location: Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street