New York – New York (AP) – Amber Ruffin He observed hundreds of writers, editors and editors gathered to Pen America’s Annual gala and shared his experience of being at the end of censorship.
“I am officially a forbidden book,” joked the comics writer, referring to him to abandon her as a speaker at the correspondent dinner of the White House of April. “They reserved me and then banned me.”
The event on Thursday night at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City was a protest against the suppression of discourse and a celebration that it would be allowed to say what they wanted.
Ruffin presided over a dinner-foundationist who included a tribute to the actor-publisher-bibliophile Sarah Jessica ParkerEgyptian poet and Egyptian composer Galal El-Behairy, the president of the University of Wesleyan, Michael Roth, and the CEO of Macmillan, Jon Yaged.
One of the greatest cheers was for a non -talk, the governor of Maine Janet Mills, who During a White House meeting in February Challenged president Donald Trump Regarding its support for transgender athletes, when Trump suspended the funds for a Maine Child Nutrition Program, Mills demanded in the Federal Court and prevailed.
Pen America, the centennial organization of freedom of expression, brought Ruffin to be host shortly after Whca withdrew his invitation, holding that he wanted to focus on the achievements of journalism. Ruffin is a blunt critic and Trump’s profane and properly pursued him on Thursday, calling him “disgusting”, “incompetent”, “racist” and “sexually diverted.” He also praised Pen for the opportunity to speak.
“Thanks to Pen America for asking me to be host and, more importantly, thanks, Pen America, for looking on Google at least once before asking me to organize,” he said. “I’m looking at you, White House correspondent Association.”
Parker received the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, awarded in previous years to Patti Smith, Robert Care and Stephen Sondheim inter alia.
Parker has been a book champion and literacy for a long time and directs the editorial impression SJP Lit, where the authors include Lucy Caldwell, Linda Grant and Elysha Chang. At the Sundance Film Festival in January, he premiered a documentary film for which he served as executive producer “The Library”, about the fight against the book Bans.
“Censoring a book is to limit imagination, curiosity, connection, empathy and inspiration,” Parker said during his acceptance speech. “Libraries are not just shelves. They are a lighthouse. They are warm in winter and fresh in summer, and are sanctuaries of possibilities. They are a beat of the neighborhood.”
El-Behairy, who has been imprisoned since 2018 for terrorism positions and “spreading false news,” won the PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write award, awarded to dissidents who have been imprisoned. The prize was accepted by his sister, Naiera, and the father, Abdelfattah, who said that his son “paid the price of his opposition to the best years of his life wasted in prison.”
Taye Diggs presented the Visionary Business Award to Yageed and joked that he liked Macmillan’s executive because he did not publish his children’s books just because Diggs was an extremely handsome and successful black actor.
The president of Wesleyan, Michael S. Roth, a main critic of Trump’s threats to cancel research funds at Columbia University and other schools, won the Pen/Benenson Courange Prize. During a speech that was encouraged aloud, he recalled a happy, open and certainly privileged childhood during which threats to democracy were rarely considered.
“We are going to have to take advantage of love and support if we want to resist the slide towards authoritarianism that has gathered impulse on earth,” Roth said.
Pen is still recovering from a tumultuous 2024. Allegations that leadership was reluctant to critic Both were canceled. The executive director of Pen, Suzanne Nossel, started at the end of the year and has not yet announced a permanent replacement.
The awards night and world voices returned this month, although with reminders of the continuous War in Gaza. Several awards nominated for the competition, including two of the five finalists for the Jean Stein Book award of $ 75,000 for a work of “originality, merit and impact.” Stein’s daughters, the late author, editor and philanthropist, decided that the prize money would be donated to the Palestinian Palestinian Help Fund already Legal Palestine, a defense organization based in the United States.
