PEN_Annual_Report_2010-2011

Dear PEN Members and Friends,welcome letterclick on grey boxes to jump to mediaAs recent events across the globe have shown—the continued imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo, the abhorrent recordof violence against journalists in Mexico, the thrilling citizen protests at the heart of the Arab Spring, attempts byrepressive governments to control the spread of information through new media—PEN American Center’s missionremains vitally relevant. In 2011, writers under threat in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ecuador, Tibet, Syria, and several othercountries reached out to PEN for support and assistance as we continued our efforts to free imprisoned writers andjournalists, challenge torturers, mobilize writers as human rights advocates, challenge First Amendment violations, andcreate, through our public programs, a bridge across cultural divisions.We are enormously grateful to all those who make our work possible: our Members and Associate Members, individualdonors, foundation, corporate, and government supporters, programming partners, and our dedicated staff, volunteers,and interns. 2011 brought some important new support in the form of a grant from the Ford Foundation, PEN’s first,which expanded our free expression campaigns in Russia, South Africa, and Haiti. A challenge grant from the CarnegieCorporation of New York for a complete overhaul of PEN.org will strengthen our freedom of expression and humanrights advocacy and allow for wider dissemination of our public programs. The new site will be launched in beta in thefall of 2012, with the full launch to take place a few months later.Highlights of the past year include:• the 2011 PEN World Voices Festival, which brought together 150 participants from 30 countries, including GiocondaBelli (Nicaragua), Elif Shafak (Turkey), Vladimir Sorokin (Russia), and Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), and receivedunprecedented press coverage• the “Reckoning with Torture” project, which seeks to document the United States’ use of torture to help restore thiscountry’s credibility as a defender of human rights, grew in its national impact as it teamed with filmmaker DougLiman for a documentary film project and performances at the Sundance Film Festival , featuring Robert Redfordand Ellen Barkin, and at Lincoln Center , featuring Dianne Wiest and Lili Taylor• the PEN public program with Liao Yiwu , the “Studs Terkel” of China, in August 2011, marking his first appearancein the U.S. after escaping from China. Liao was slated to participate in the 2011 PEN World Voices Festival, but wasbarred from travelling by the Chinese government• the PEN delegation to Beijing, which met with both dissident and “official writers,” pressed the cases of dozens ofwriters and journalists currently imprisoned, created the framework for ongoing Independent Chinese PEN Center/PEN American Center campaigning on China, including preparations for a major report, and celebrated ICPC’s10th anniversaryPen American center annual report 2011 // 05