Saturday, March 23, 2013

Passa Porta Festival Brussels - Belgium

passa porta festival 2013
imagine!


Fri 22.03.2013

arab spring: writers in revolution


Arab Spring, Arab awakening or Arab revolution? In the name of human dignity and freedom, resistance movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya brought down their countries’ dictators. Khaled Khalifa, Khaled Al Khamissi, Raja Ben Slama, Ibrahim Al-Koni and Boualem Sansal read and talk about their convictions. Hosted by the journalist Béatrice Delvaux and the Moroccan author Mohammed Berrada.

‘In the face of the cannons, the writer stands naked and powerless’, writes the Syrian Khaled Khalifa.
‘A more just and human Egypt and, why not, led by a woman’, suggests the Egyptian author Khaled Al Khamissi.
‘The right not to believe and the right to sacrilege are constantly violated and endangered’, says the Tunisian psychoanalyst Raja Ben Slama.
‘In the shadow of tyranny, everything is doomed to exile’, says the Libyan authorIbrahim Al-Koni.
‘As long as I am in the spotlight, I am spared’, concludes the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal
















Thu 21.03.2013

Boualem Sansal and Liao Yiwu are both world-class authors and peace-campaigners. One Algerian, the other Chinese, both have won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Liao Yiwu was an ‘ordinary’ poet, writer and musician until 1990, when he reluctantly became an important voice in China’s struggle for democracy. Boualem Sansal is seen as a persona non grata by the Algerian regime; by remaining in his homeland he puts his life at risk. In Brussels these writers will discuss the joint role politicians and writers can play in the name of peace and democracy.









 


Wed 20.03.2013

The Algerian author Boualem Sansal opened the festival with an appeal for a more imaginative society and the need to dream. 

In 2011 Sansal was awarded the prestigious Peace Prize by the German book trade. Together with David Grossman, he recently initiated the worldwide Writers for Peace movement, which has already received the support of hundreds of prominent writers.









Source: http://www.passaporta.be

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