Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Banned voices

Pea and I went back to KGB the other night for a reading entitled "Banned Voices," sponsored by PEN World Voices. PEN is an organization dedicated to bringing voice to writers and journalists the world over who are currently threatened or in prison for exercising the right to freely express themselves. Some are in hiding, some officially exiled, others thrown in jail for their words. The evening consisted of eight celebrated writers reading the work of those unable to read for themselves. Egypt, Algeria, China, Iran, Vietnam and Cuba were all represented, and content ranged from stories of attempted escape, calls to action, and plain mourning. One of my favorites was by Chinese poet, Huang Xiang. He was the only writer-of-his-words present, and as he spoke no English, his words were translated by another writer following his delivery of them in Chinese. He read more demonstratively--by far--than anyone I've ever witnessed; it was almost scary. My favorite line began one of his poems: "You look like a big docile sea turtle, China." As he stood, calling on his countrypeople to speak-the-hell-up already, his conviction was enormous. Awesome. Rick Moody and Margaret Atwood, two of my favorite writers, also delivered. Moody's an eccentric, top hat and all, and Atwood's spark really came through. Awesome.

The event, however sobering, made for some great discussion. The strength of the pen is immense, and it's a strength that in many countries is an aggressive threat to the power structure, and is thus frightening and ultimately intolerable. That words on paper are capable of eliciting such intense emotion--be it fear, disgust, sadness or elation--never ceases to amaze me. As a sensitive person, I have been deeply affected by books I've read in the past, and I find it so terrifcally sad that so many are denied exposure--the chance to reach and affect others, the right to exercise their humanity. I want to go to them, pull them away from so much gov't oppression, and take them to a place where people write w/ abandon--outside a jail cell.

Posted by princess kanomanom @ 12:49 PM