Organizer: PEN America

Type/Location: In Person / New York, NY

Description:

Join PEN America for a screening of the short documentary film The Art of Exile, co-presented by Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) & City of Asylum, and a conversation featuring Sudanese activist and writer Rania Mamoun (Something Evergreen Called Life), Algerian novelist and human rights defender Anouar Rahmani, and Vietnamese pop star and dissident Mai Khôi, moderated by ARC’s executive director, Julie Trébault.

Art of Exile, brings together three documentary shorts from directors Dara Kell and Veena Rao that recount the stories of a visionary, self-taught artist, a boundary-pushing novelist, and a defiant musician who challenge the status quo, preconceived notions, and the boundaries of the permissible. The discussion will highlight the work of each writer and ask, what does it mean to make art while navigating the creative, personal, and logistical challenge of living in exile.

About the Speakers:

Mai Khoi is a Vietnamese artist and activist. At the age of 12 she wrote her first song and joined her father’s wedding band the same year. Mai Khoi rose to stardom in 2010 after winning the Vietnam Television song and album of the year awards. Several years later she became increasingly uncomfortable having to submit her work to government censors and, thinking she could reform the system from within, nominated herself to run in the National Assembly elections. Her campaign sparked a nationwide debate about political participation and culminated in a meeting with Barack Obama. Shortly after Mai Khoi started an avant-garde dissident trio (Mai Khoi Chém Gió) and the group released their debut album “Dissent” in 2018. Working at the interface of art and activism Mai Khoi has developed her most unique art form to date. Her new sound is an emotionally-charged fusion of free jazz and ethnic Vietnamese music, with her most political, yet personal, song lyrics ever. Today, she leads efforts to promote freedom of artistic expression in Vietnam for which she was awarded the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent and Freedom Of Speech Award from the Roosevelt Four Freedoms. Her activism has, however, come at a high price. She has had her concerts raided, been evicted from her house, and has been detained and interrogated by the police. She was forced to leave Vietnam at the end of 2019. Mai Khoi has created and performed an autobiographical-multimedia -musical performance called Bad Activist with her band Mai Khoi & The Dissidents in the past 5 years living in exile.

Rania Mamoun is a Sudanese activist and writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She completed Something Evergreen Called Life, a poetry manuscript written during COVID-19 quarantine, translated into English by Yasmine Seale and published by Action Books in March 2023. Rania has published two novels to great international acclaim, Green Flash and Son of the Sun, and Thirteen Months of Sunrise, a short story collection shortlisted for the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. In January 2024, she published her second book since she came to the US, A Woman Alone under the Neem Tree in Arabic, by Elmosawarat Publishing. Her writing has appeared in English, Korean, French, and Spanish translation. She is a writer-in-residence at City of Asylum Pittsburgh since 2019.

Anouar Rahmani is an Algerian novelist, journalist, and human rights defender whose literary work boldly challenges societal norms and advocates for freedom of expression, LGBTQ+ rights, and social justice. Born in 1992, Rahmani has emerged as a fearless and uncompromising voice in Algerian and Arabic literature, using fiction as a powerful tool to confront authoritarianism, religious dogma, and the erasure of marginalized identities. As a pioneering advocate for human rights, Rahmani was the first to publicly demand the legalization of same-sex marriage in Algeria, breaking one of the country’s most significant taboos. He is also a prominent figure in the women’s rights movement in Algeria and the broader Arab world, advocating for legal and social reforms to promote gender equality. Throughout his career, Rahmani has received substantial advocacy support from leading human rights and literary organizations, including PEN International, PEN America, PEN Belgium & Flanders, PEN France, PEN OPP, PEN UK, PEN Canada, Human Rights Watch, Frontline Defenders, the European Parliament, the German Bundestag, numerous African human rights organizations, and other institutions worldwide. Forced into exile due to threats and repression, Rahmani now resides in the United States, where he continues his literary and advocacy work. His writing is not merely an artistic pursuit—it is an act of resistance, reshaping contemporary Arabic literature and amplifying the voices of silenced communities.

Julie Trébault is the Executive Director of Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) – an independent organization that defends and advances the right to artistic freedom, providing practical resources and support to ensure that artists and cultural professionals can live and work safely without fear. A highly respected leader in the art world, she previously served as director of public programs at the Museum of the City of New York, where she built a robust roster of panel discussions, performances, screenings, and symposia spanning New York City’s arts, culture, and history. Prior to that, she was director of public programs at the Center for Architecture. Before moving to New York, she worked at the National Museum of Ethnology in The Netherlands, where she built a network of 116 museums across the globe that shared a virtual collection of masterpieces and developed an innovative array of online and mobile applications and exhibitions to make the collection as widely accessible as possible. From 2004 until 2007, she was Head of Higher Education and Academic Events at the Musée du quai Branly (Paris), where she conceived and implemented a policy for higher education by creating an international network of universities, graduate schools, and research institutes. Trébault holds a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration from the Sorbonne University, a Master’s Degree in Archeology from the University of Strasbourg, and taught at Fordham University. She speaks French, English, and Spanish.

Registration:

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