PHOTOS: Amy Goodman at PEN America’s Writers Resist

A crowd had already been gathered when I arrived at the commencement time of the event on the steps of the Bryant Park NYC Library today. The event was put on by PEN America to be a literary protest with writers and poets. Many read poems from previous Presidential inaugurations.

PEN America’s literary protest on the steps of the New York Public Library brought together hundreds of writers and artists, including Amy Goodman, alongside thousands of New Yorkers on the birthday of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.

American Poets Laureates Robert Pinsky and Rita Dove offered hope and inspiration with “inaugural” poems and Broadway Kids Against Bullying performed “I Have a Voice.”

PEN America is a member of PEN International. This worldwide association of writers was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere; to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for their views. PEN International is a non-political, a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO and Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. With a secretariat in London, PEN International is composed of more than 100 Centers globally. Most are based in their countries, while others represent exiled writers or those working in a particular language. Worldwide, every PEN Center member is required to sign the PEN Charter and by so doing to observe its conditions. Read more at the PEN America website.