Mindful Reading for Burma

Reading Burma: A Benefit for
Cyclone Relief and Freedom of Expression
in Burma/Myanmar
Location: New York City
Event Date(s): September 23, 2008
Event Time: 7:00 p.m.
Great Hall at Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street

Speaker(s): Kiran Desai, Venerable U Gawsita, Siri Hustvedt, Joseph Lelyveld, George Packer, Orhan Pamuk, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Salman Rushdie
This event marks the first anniversary of the monks’ uprising, in which thousands of Buddhist monks protested against Burma’s military dictatorship, and the twentieth anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy protests by millions of ordinary civilians. PEN, the Burma Project of the Open Society Institute, and the New York Review of Books will join together to honor Burmese writers whose work has been suppressed by the military regime and to support the victims of the recent cyclone. The event will also pay tribute to the thousands of monks who are missing or have lost their lives last year, and to those who have continued to speak out against injustice for the past twenty years.
All proceeds will be donated to the International Burmese Monks Organization, a network of Burmese Buddhist monks collecting relief aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.
In addition to readings of Burmese writers’ work, some of which includes unpublished accounts from the cyclone-affected areas of Burma, The New Yorker’s George Packer will join the Venerable U Gawsita, one of the leaders of the 2007 monks’ uprising, in conversation.
Featuring
· Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk
· Booker Prize Winner Salman Rushdie
· Booker Prize Winner Kiran Desai
· The Venerable U Gawsita, one of the leading monks of the 2007 uprising
· Author Siri Hustvedt
· Journalist Joseph Lelyveld
· Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
· Journalist George Packer
· Other Special Guests
Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to hear from the monks who stood up to the Burmese regime in 1988 and again in 2007, and from those men and women whose lives have been changed forever by the recent cyclone.
Co-sponsored by the OSI Burma Project, PEN American Center, The New York Review of Books, and Cooper Union.
Location
Great Hall at Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street
Subway: 6 to Astor Place; N/R/W to 8th Street-NYU
New York, New York
For Donations and Tickets
Visit www.smarttix.com or call 1-212-868-4444.
$20 (general admission) and $100 (includes post-event reception).
$15 for students and PEN members (with valid ID).
Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:

Become a member of the United States Campaign for Burma today.
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