(NEW YORK)— PEN America is listening.
Today, PEN America launched America Speaks, a multimedia project to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the unfinished exercise of free expression in the United States. The initiative aims to gather perspectives from people across the country and spark conversation and debate.
As part of the launch of the project, more than 40 authors have reflected on what free expression means to them; quotes will be displayed in the central hall of the American Museum of Natural History on Thursday night at PEN America’s annual Literary Gala (quotes from some authors are below) when PEN America celebrates the freedoms to write, read, and speak, and advocates and honors writers and defenders of these rights.’
“The debate over free speech and free expression is as charged as ever. But that’s exactly why the conversation matters,” said PEN America’s Co-CEO Summer Lopez in an introductory audio recording. “Because engaging with a range of viewpoints is what free speech is all about. We want to hear from anyone who wants to share thoughts, ideas, and aspirations about what free speech means — and what it should mean — in the United States today,”
Over the next year, the project will highlight voices reflecting on the nation’s founding principles, their promises, and their shortcomings, while imagining the future of free expression. The project will showcase voices from PEN America’s literary community as well as students, artists and teachers and people from all walks of life each contributing short written or audio responses. Submissions will be shared weekly on pen.org and across PEN America’s social media channels.
The Declaration of Independence was both a radical act of free speech in which people came together to challenge tyranny, and a moment in which many remained excluded from that vision of freedom. As a country, we have continued to wrestle with the complexities of our history and the unfinished work of realizing our founding principles. Particularly at a moment when there are efforts to whitewash or simplify our historical narrative, hearing from a multiplicity of voices reminds us of who we can be at our best, when all people are free to speak and where free expression is not just a means to an end, but a way of life.
In an explanation of the project, Co-CEO Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf said, “In the last 250 years many have fought and sacrificed to ensure these founding values could be realized by more than just a select few. Today, the very ideals of liberty and equality that were foundational to the creation of American democracy, however imperfect, are being trampled. In this moment, all Americans are called to demand that these inalienable rights be made real for all”
The 104-year-old writers organization is inviting the public to answer questions such as:
- What does free expression in the U.S. mean to you today?
- Has social media changed the way you express yourself?
- If you were to take the temperature of free expression in the U.S. today, what would it be?
- Can you remember a time when you — or someone else you know — made a difference by speaking up, even if it felt risky?
Among authors who have have already contributed their thoughts on free expression and free speech are the following (comments excerpted) :
Rivka Galchen: “Freedom of expression means being able to speak of the devil more than once.”
Edwidge Danticat: “In the climate right now, there’s so much fear, and it’s purposeful fear. It’s meant to silence people. It’s meant to quiet people. It’s meant to make you pre-comply. But I think courage, as many people have said, is not the absence of fear. It’s trying to do what we can in the presence of fear.”
Rebecca Makkai: “Freedom of expression means the same thing now that it always has in times and places of suppression: The more difficult it is, the more vital it is. The moment before they silence you is the moment to shout the loudest.”
Susanna Salk: “Sometimes, when it feels the darkest, words are the only things we have to help us find a way through. To lose our words would be like losing light itself.”
Sigrid Nunez: “Freedom of expression is a timeless human right. It is not something whose meaning can be revised from day to day, not by me or by anyone else. Take away from people the right to express their ideas and beliefs without fear of restriction or punishment and all the other rights that democracy and a vibrant culture depend on get taken away with it.”
Ron Chernow: “Freedom of expression is a fine, noble, and indispensable ideal in our democracy, but it is only one of a family of kindred freedoms that give it meaning. In January 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt shadowed forth a vision of the world that he hoped would follow World War II. In his State of the Union address he listed the Four Freedoms—freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—that would be needed in the postwar order to avert a resurgence of dictators and aggressors. Free speech can seem a barren right to the person squatting amid the ruins of war, grappling with an empty stomach. By invoking freedom of worship, Roosevelt indicated that free speech must embrace every possible view of humanity and the cosmos. And in discussing freedom from fear, he cited the need for a worldwide reduction in armaments to protect freedom-loving people from external acts of aggression. We, too, inhabit a world of strife and fanaticism and power-hungry leaders who would stifle the free workings of our minds. We have no less need for this sacred cluster of Four Freedoms. Roosevelt knew he might be accused of quixotic assertion, but he insisted that he had presented “no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.” Let us hope this may be true for our own time as well.”
Carl Hiaasen: “Freedom of expression is what autocrats dread the most, and smother first. Suppression starts on the street and next takes aim at journalists. Then they come after the novelists, poets, artists, musicians, even comedians — anybody with a bold thought who dares to share it. The fight belongs to all of us, and in a democracy with our rebel history, in seedy times such as this, staying silent is a surrender.”
Walter Isaacson: “When people ask ‘why do you believe in free speech?’ the traditional rationale is that truth will eventually triumph in an unfettered marketplace of ideas. I think that is shallow and, as social media and the internet shows, often wrong. For me, the true reason to support free speech is that, like freedom of thought and religion, it is necessary for a moral system based on individual autonomy.”
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