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Black Tie
International:
PEN America
Annual Literary Gala |
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John Sargent, Rita Dove, Andrew Solomon, Meryl
Streep, Stephen Sondheim, Audra McDonald, Suzanne Nossel, Markus
Dohle2017 PEN Literary Gala, April 25, 2017, American Museum of
Natural History @Ed Lederman/PEN America |
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PEN America Annual
Literary Gala Honors Stephen Sondheim, The Women’s March, and
Imprisoned Ukrainian Filmmaker Oleg Sentsov
$2 Million
Fundraiser Marks Biggest Year Ever for Free Expression Advocate
NEW YORK—New York’s
literary community gathered
Tuesday night at the 2017
PEN America Literary Gala to
honor master composer
and lyricist Stephen Sondheim , Macmillan
CEO John
Sargent, The
Women’s March, and imprisoned Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleg
Sentsov for their
contributions and sacrifice in defense of free expression.
Beneath the famed
blue whale of the American Museum of Natural History’s Millstein
Hall of Ocean Life, guests enjoyed what felt like intimate
dinner parties, hosted at each table by literary celebrities
including Ayad
Akhtar, Alan
Cumming, Rita
Dove, Masha
Gessen, Salman
Rushdie, and Zadie
Smith.
Academy
Award-winning Actress Meryl
Streep, who starred in the 2014 film adaptation
of Sondheim’s Into the Woods, presented the 2017
PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award to Sondheim.
"When we debate
whether and how to hold onto the America we know and love, we
are thinking of the America that Stephen Sondheim has revealed
to us," said Streep. "A place that’s vibrant, expressive,
dissonant, and dramatic, moral/immoral, yearning, despairing,
fanciful, and always, funny. An America that is far from
ideal—that grapples with its flaws earnestly, if imperfectly. An
America that is empathic, mindful of the vulnerable and broken,
honest. That America, Sondheim’s America, is at stake as we
gather tonight. Because the truth, the arts, the standards,
honor, and freedom that Stephen Sondheim has embodied in his
work and his life are at the forefront of the struggle that PEN
and all of us now engage in, trying to steady a ship of state
that feels as if it’s tipped pretty weirdly all to one side."
Toni and James C.
Goodale presented
the 2017 PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression
Courage Award to The Women’s March, accepted by co-chair Bob
Bland. The Award
celebrated and honored the
role Bland, and her fellow national co-chairs—social justice and
civil rights leaders Tamika
D. Mallory, Carmen Perez,
and Linda Sarsour—along
with a dynamic, powerful, and diverse group of national
organizers, played in driving a contemporary resistance movement
that inspired millions. Bland appeared on stage in a red "pussy
hat" matching her red dress, proclaiming, "This is a very
unique opportunity to be at the forefront of leading and
birthing some healing in this nation."
The 2017 PEN/Barbey
Freedom to Write Award honoring imprisoned Ukrainian writer and
filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, was presented by Suzanne
Nossel, executive director of PEN America to Sentsov’s
cousin, Natalya
Kaplan,
who was accepting the award on his behalf. Sentsov, an
outspoken critic of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and
takeover of Crimea, is serving a 20-year sentence in a Siberian
penal colony after his arrest on terrorism charges that have
been condemned by human rights groups as fabrications by a
Russian government intent on silencing dissent.
Reading a letter
from Sentsov, acclaimed actor Alan
Cumming said,
"The last time I went to the Maidan, where people had already
begun perishing, my mother said, “Why are you going there? You
have two children!” I answered that it was precisely because of
that that I was going there—I don’t want them to live in a
country of slaves."
New to the 2017
Gala, PEN America welcomed Christie’s auctioneer, Robbie
Gordy, for a paddle raise to bid on a First American Edition
of George Orwell’s 1984 signed by Meryl Streep, Stephen
Sondheim, Audra McDonald, other special guests and the literary
hosts, which sold for $28,000. The total amount raised by the
annual gala topped $2 million, a new record for the annual Gala,
a critical fundraiser which ensures that PEN America can
continue its mission year-round to support freedom of expression
in the creative community both in the U.S. and abroad. |
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PEN America stands
at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect
open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion
the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to
transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their
allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties
that make it possible. |
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