Events

• October 19, 7:00 PM

  Speaking Truth to Power: Confronting Authoritarian Regimes

  How is resistance possible when reality itself is obscured? In an era of "fake news" and more facts than anyone could hope to grasp, authoritarians rely on this uncertainty to consolidate their hold on power. Legendary journalist Raissa Robles joins us from the Philippines to share her new work, Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, which reappraises the era of Marcos and applies it lessons to what is unfolding today. Communications specialist for human rights advocacy and journalist Raad Rahman will share her research on state repression in Bangladesh, from the Rohingya refugees fleeing attacks in Myanmar to the persecution of LGBTQ Bangladeshis, and writer and translator Tenzin Dickie will discuss writing and translating work about Tibetans navigating the ongoing Chinese occupation. Moderated by AAWW’s Literary Editor Jeremy Tiang, our panel discusses the difficulty of telling stories that those in power would rather stay hidden. RESERVE A SEAT! $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Old Demons, New Deities: Twenty-One Short Stories from Tibet (OR Books, 2017) edited by Tenzin Dickie is the first English-language anthology of contemporary Tibetan fiction available in the West. The book collects 21 short stories by 16 writers in Tibet and the diaspora who write in Tibetan, English, and Chinese, creating a wide-ranging portrait of Tibetan writers who navigate occupation and exile. Tenzin’s writing has been published in Indian Literature, Apogee Journal, Tibetan Review, Himal SouthAsian and Cultural Anthropology. A 2014-2015 ALTA Fellow of the American Literary Translators’ Association, she holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Harvard University. She is an editor at treasuryoflives.org, a biographical encyclopedia of significant figures from Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalayan Region. Raad Rahman is a 2017 Open City Muslim Community fellow who writes about Muslim and immigrant communities in New York City and state repression in Bangladesh. Her June 2017 op-ed in the New York Times, “No Country for Bangladesh’s Gay Men,” follows the lack of justice for Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, two prominent LGBT activists in Bangladesh who were murdered by terrorists in 2016. She has written about politics, human rights and literature in VICE, the Guardian, the Paris Review, and more. In addition to writing, Raad has consulted on communications with human rights groups such as iProbono, UNICEF, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. Raad’s first novel, Framed Butterflies, was published by Bard College Press in 2005. She is currently working on a novel. Celebrated Filipina journalist Raissa Robles’s new book Marcos Martial Law: Never Again: A Brief History of Torture and Atrocity Under the New Society, is a critical success in the Philippines, where it remains taboo to speak about torture and atrocities under Marcos and the growth of authoritarianism under President Rodrigo Duerte. Published in 2016, Marcos Martial Law is a finalist in the Philippines’s 2017 National Book Awards, and the winner of the International Award for Excellence in Journalism. Raissa is the senior Manila correspondent of the South China Morning Post and the publisher of the investigative newsblog of Philippine politics, RaissaRobles.com, which was judged “Best Society and Politics Blog in the Philippines” in 2015. Raissa’s reportage has also been published in the Times of London, The Mail Online, BBC Radio, and Reuters. Jeremy Tiang is the AAWW's Asia Literary Editor. He is the author of State of Emergency (Epigram Books, 2017) and It Never Rains on National Day (shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize). Jeremy is also a playwright, and has translated more than ten books from Chinese, including novels by Chan Ho-Kei, Zhang Yueran, Su Wei-chen and Yeng Pway Ngon. He is the recipient of a PEN/ Heim Grant, an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship, and a Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship. The Transpacific Literary Project is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. /\ /\ \/\/ \/\/..
  
• October 24, 7:00 PM

  The Witching Hour: A Night of Poetry

  Details TBA...
  
• October 31, 6:00 PM

  Workshop: Start and Finish

  Five Sessions, 2.5 hours each (6-8:30pm) Tuesdays October 31st, November 7th, November 14th, November 21st, November 28th Fees & Payment Options: $350 General / $320 AAWW Members (Join the Fanclub!) Full payment due before first class. Maximum of twenty students. Why You Should Take This Class: This workshop lives in the terrifying space between the aspirational (dreams, wishes) and the practical (goals, time). Collectively, we will map our visions, examine our roadblocks and design honest work practices that sustain us for many long hauls. Along the way, participants will start and finish many-a-project, and ready ourselves to tackle our biggest ambitions. We’ll get it done, whatever it is. Class Description: “Starting’ and ‘finishing” are muscles; together we will train them. This five-session workshop will include improv, design, and writing exercises, and is open to participants of any creative practice. REGISTER HERE “From my youth on, my personal motto has been the old Latin tag, Festina lente, hurry slowly.” — Italo Calvino Janani Balasubramanian is a writer of speculative fiction whose work has been presented at more than 160 stages across North America and Europe, including The Public Theater, MOMA, Red Bull Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most recently, Janani premiered Heisenberg (an audio augmented reality game on uncertainty and chaos) at the New York High Line. Janani is currently working on Sleeper, a dystopian trilogy about sleep and physics. See more at sleepertrilogy.com. Questions? Contact Tiffany Le at tle@aaww.org /\ /\ \/\/ \/\/..