Gala Host Amber Ruffin Delivers Crackling Monologue with Humor And A Call to Defend Free Speech: “We can joke about it – until we can’t.”
Images and video from the Gala, courtesy of Getty Images, are available for use:
(NEW YORK)— PEN America, the writers and free expression group, gathered with more than 600 supporters for its annual Literary Gala on Thursday night to celebrate the freedoms to write, read and speak and to honor defenders of these rights at a perilous moment.
The honorees included iconic actor, producer and independent publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, Macmillan Publishers CEO Jon Yaged, and Wesleyan University President Michael Roth.
This year the event known both for fearless commentary and red-carpet glamor, brought together extraordinary contributors in literature, the arts, journalism, publishing, and film, while honoring a courageous imprisoned poet – Galal El-Behairy, 34, who has been jailed in Egypt for seven years for his poems critical of the government. His father and sister traveled from Egypt to accept the award on his behalf.
Held in the iconic “whale room” at the American Museum of Natural History, the organization’s 16th gala was grounded in a collective response to the divisive issues of the day that drive PEN America’s mission to defend free speech and celebrate writers. Among dozens of writers in the audience and award presenters were authors whose books have been banned in the crisis of censorship in U.S. public schools that PEN America has documented since 2021.
Late night comedy star and writer Amber Ruffin, host for the evening, opened with a monologue that underscored the perils of the moment driven by government censorship: “Free speech is something we have to fight for. We can joke about it – until we can’t. That’s the reality of where we’re at right now.”
The long-time writer of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers also cracked up the audience with piercing oneliners about people in and outside of the mega hall.
From the start Ruffin gave a nod to an impossible-to-avoid presence poised above the crowd: the 21,000-pound blue whale known to be the largest animal ever to exist.
“I’ll be honest– I’m not a big museum fan,” she said, “But I do love seafood, so this is great.”
Then she got right to, well, the other elephant in the room: “I’d like to start by saying thank you to PEN America for asking me to host. And more importantly, thank you to PEN America for googling me at least once before asking me to host. Looking at you, White House Correspondents Association.
“As you may have heard, last month I was dropped as host of the White House Correspondents’ dinner. I am officially a banned book. They booked me and then they banned me.”
In her remarks, Jennifer Finney Boylan, author and president of PEN America’s board of trustees, also spoke of explosive challenges to free expression emanating from Washington, rebuking the current administration for its campaign against programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion: “No one can be erased just because others close their eyes, or, worse, attempt to ban the books that contain the stories about their lives.”
PEN America’s Interim Co-CEO Summer Lopez rallied the audience with a call to conscience: “This isn’t just a dangerous time for writers—this is a dangerous time for democracy. We see fear spreading – not just among those under direct attack, but among so many who hear the message loud and clear: Stay quiet, or YOU could be next. At PEN America, we refuse to stay quiet. We know what happens when people and institutions obey in advance. So we do not flinch—we do the work.”
Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, Interim Co-CEO, said in PEN America’s work abroad over decades, “We stood firm when governments try to erase identities, flatten ideas, and criminalize dissent. We’ve meticulously documented these tactics in our reports and advocate for writers at risk around the world. Now, that same vigilance pulls our attention back home, where the authoritarian playbook is being used in our schools, our streets, and our body politic.”
Sarah Jessica Parker received the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, as an “indispensable defender” of the freedom to read, as book bans run rampant through public schools. She was cited for capturing the crisis of censorship in The Librarians, the powerful documentary film she executive produced about librarians facing the onslaught of book censorship from conservative activists. The award also cited Parker for uplifting underrepresented voices through her own publishing imprint SJP Lit. Since 2021, PEN America has documented more than 16,000 instances of book bans nationwide— censorship unseen since the Red Scare of the 1950s.
Referring to books as her “most reliable companion,” Parker said: “Today, as a publisher, a parent, and a reader still astonished and in awe of what books can do, I’m deeply concerned, no exasperated, no, this occasion calls for a precise word, I am enraged about the rising tide of book bans in public school libraries, community libraries, and the recent ban of books at the U.S. Naval Academy library.”
“To censor a book,” she said, “is to limit imagination, curiosity, connection, empathy and inspiration. Libraries aren’t just buildings with shelves, they are… sanctuaries of possibility.”
Parker joins an illustrious group of prior winners, including singer-songwriter Paul Simon, last year’s winner, and cultural figures and writers, including Lorne Michaels, the executive producer and creative force behind Saturday Night Live, Margaret Atwood, Bob Woodward, Stephen King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Patti Smith, and the late Toni Morrison and Stephen Sondheim.
Author and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe presented the award to Parker, recalling an amusing only-in-New York connection: “A few years back I had this wonderful surprise when my wife sent me a paparazzi photo. It was, on one level, a very familiar sort of iconic New York image — a classic Manhattan streetscape, traffic whizzing by, and Sarah Jessica Parker, trying to hail a taxi, looking fabulous. But in this picture, she was holding a book… My book. So this seemed like a thrilling little bit of serendipitous product placement. My publisher was delighted. But, as I have subsequently come to learn, Sarah Jessica grew up with a mother, Barbra, who had a rule, which is that her children should never leave the house without a library book in hand. So even as an adult, she always has a book with her.”
Keefe was among more than three dozen authors who served as literary hosts at each of the gala tables including Jodi Picoult and Dinaw Mengestu, both PEN America trustees and literary co-chairs of the gala, along with well known novelists, essayists, journalists, and biographers, among them Amy Tan, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Judy Blume, Robert Caro, Nina Burleigh, Rebecca Yarros, Gary Shteyngart, Susan Choi, Michael Cunningham, Charles Blow, Meg Wolitzer, Ali Velshi, and many more.
Picoult, whose novel Nineteen Minutes— about a fictionalized school shooting— has been widely banned, captured the essence of PEN America’s advocacy: “No author who has the temerity to speak their truth need find themselves isolated and marginalized by this [Trump] administration, because PEN will be by their side, championing their right to free speech and giving a platform to those who need one.”
Jon Yaged, chief executive officer of Macmillan Publishers and for many years the head of its children’s publishing division, received the Business Visionary award for his decades-long commitment to publishing diverse authors, combating book bans, and igniting a lifelong love of reading in young people.
Yaged addressed the climate of censorship that has not only led to book banning but to laws erasing subjects in classrooms, even hundreds of words banned by the White House: “All of this limits conversation and the free exchange of ideas. It stigmatizes reading at a time when we need, more than ever, to encourage kids to read. It impedes critical and analytical thinking. It makes us a less effective democracy. Simply put, this makes us weaker, puts us on a path to mediocrity as a people and decline as a nation.’
The award was presented to Yaged by Taye Diggs, the Broadway star of musicals such as Rent and Chicago, television series Private Practice and Murder in the First, and the author of five children’s picture books, some of which have been banned, he said, for being “too multicultural.”
Diggs said: “From the first time I met him during the launch for Chocolate Me! In 2011, it became clear that Jon wasn’t just some executive in a suit; this was someone who was genuinely passionate about books, who understood the impact of diverse representation, and most importantly that he wasn’t interested in publishing my books because I’m an extremely handsome and successful actor, but because he truly believed that publishing them could help make the world a better place.”
The appearance on stage of the father and sister of the jailed Egyptian poet, lyricist and pro-democracy activist Galal El-Behairy galvanized the audience who gave them a prolonged standing ovation. Each year the award honors an imprisoned writer, recognizing their courage and sacrifice in the face of oppression. The 2023 recipient Narges Mohammadi of Iran was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that same year.
Of the 54 jailed writers who have received the award since 1987, 47 have been released in large part due to the global attention and pressure the award generates.
PEN America trustee Dinaw Mengestu, an Ethiopian-American novelist, presented the award to the El-Behairy family members saying: “We note first and foremost this young man’s courage and resilience, which are qualities most difficult to sustain. We stand here not just with you but because of you. We call for the immediate release of Galal. This is our response to oppression.”
He added: “As an organization committed to free expression, nothing speaks more to PEN America’s roots as a literary organization than this award. It’s through stories, poems, essays, songs, through the particular details of one writer’s voice and imagination, that we find our way to the universal, that we get a glimpse into this fragile, shared humanity of ours.”
Galal’s father Abdelfattah, speaking in Arabic, said: “I’m also a very proud father of Galal, who has always honored me. His mode of resistance is in writing poetry. And that was not an easy or trivial thing for him, and he paid the price for his opposition with the best years of his life wasted in prison.”
Galal’s sister Naiera said: “This award brings so much joy to our family. I pray that Galal will be released from prison very soon, return to his life, and come meet you in person to thank you himself.”
PEN America’s latest Freedom to Write Index, which monitors writers and intellectuals jailed, harassed and threatened worldwide, and was released last month, found a higher number in a wider range of countries, with at least 375 writers behind bars in 40 countries during 2024, an 11% increase over the previous year.
PEN America also paid tribute to Wesleyan University President Michael Roth with the PEN/Benenson Courage Award for standing up to government assaults on higher education as well as for his commitment to academic freedom. . Roth was recognized for his early and ardent admonition of the current administration’s efforts to undermine the independence of colleges and universities and campus free speech.
Accepting the award from Saidiya Hartman, the Columbia University professor of African-American studies, Roth said: “We need writers and teachers, editors and publishers, to remind our fellow Americans that if you reside in this country, you have every right to due process, to speak your mind, to love who you want. We need to remind ourselves that free expression should also encourage an ability to listen to those with whom one disagrees. Free speech matters when the commitment to diversity creates safe enough spaces for people with very different views to explore those differences.”
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free 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. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], (201) 247-5057