Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be in conversation with Hillary Clinton at the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival, where Clinton will be delivering the 12th Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture on April 22. Their dialogue—“about the future of women and girls around the world”—will take place after the Lecture, which Adichie herself delivered in 2015.
Themed “Resist and Reimagine,” the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival will feature “more than 165 writers of over 50 nationalities” from April 16–22. Clinton’s Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture will be given at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in Manhattan.
Here is the announcement on PEN’s Website:
At a time of unprecedented threats to free speech, open discourse, and the rights of historically marginalized groups, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton will draw on her time as the nation’s top diplomat and her career in politics to underline the centrality of free speech — broadly defined and vociferously defended — in sustaining healthy democracies and vibrant societies. Secretary Clinton has shown a life-long commitment to amplifying lesser-heard voices and buttressing safeguards for free expression.
Following the lecture, celebrated Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, and We Should All Be Feminists, among others), a champion of unheard stories, and a feminist, will engage Clinton in conversation. This dialogue between two strong advocates for women and girls—one from politics and diplomacy, the other from world literature—promises unique insights into how we might imagine a better future for women and girls around the world.
Named after the late American playwright and essayist Arthur Miller, longtime leader of PEN and powerful advocate for free expression, the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture has become “a hallmark of the World Voices Festival.”
Before Adichie in 2015, Wole Soyinka had been invited to deliver the sixth Lecture in 2011. Other Lecturers have included novelists Orhan Pamuk and Salman Rushdie, and the feminist Roxane Gay last year. After her own Lecture, Adichie had been in conversation with PEN American Center president Andrew Solomon.
Tickets to the event are available HERE.
Watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2015 Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture HERE.
moo February 28, 2018 11:43
@peterdann also true.but if nobody or rather people with a lot of credibility never speak publicly to people like clinton then their contradictions are never exposed.not to say thats what its about but a conversation can be enlightening and telling.i dont think you can hold your centre if ur speaking to someone who speaks truthfully.its not justice but i think its important.thats the wonder of artists and public intellectualls...its in a way a more equal and honest conversation because theyre speaking on terms that arent (generally) about vying for political office or ratings.dunno.just interested to see the dynamics.really huge fan of adichie even though i have some questions about some things lol but i think because she never really takes moral high ground which is where i feel a lot of western left politics go wrong..e.g "im better than yiu because i have never done or thought xy" as opposed to "irrespective of how better or worse i am or how better or worse you are lets just agree that this is wrong".like she just comes with truths and facts irrespective of how they make her or people she otherwise respects looks .or in this case questions...lets see:)