IBMO Fundraiser: September 23, 2008

For Immediate Release For More Information contact:
September 8, 2008 Elizabeth Weinstein

(212) 334-1660, ext. 120

Reading Burma:

A Benefit for Cyclone Relief

and Freedom of Expression in Burma/Myanmar


With:

Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie

and Kiran Desai, the Venerable U Gawsita, Siri Hustvedt, Joseph Lelyveld, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, George Packer, and other special guests


New York City—On September 23rd, the first anniversary of the monks' uprising in which thousands of Buddhist monks protested against Burma's military dictatorship and the 20th Anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy protests by millions of ordinary civilians will be commemorated. PEN, the Burma Project of the Open Society Institute and the New York Review of Books will join together to honor Burmese writers whose work has been suppressed by the military regime and to support the victims of the recent cyclone. This event will also pay tribute to the thousands of monks who are missing or lost their lives last year and to those who continue to speak out against injustice for the past twenty years.

All proceeds of this benefit will be donated to the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO), a network of Burmese Buddhist monks collecting relief aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Audience members can purchase a $100 ticket, which includes a post-event reception, or $20 and $15 tickets at www.smarttix.com.
In addition to the readings of Burmese writers' work, some of which includes unpublished accounts from the cyclone-affected areas of Burma, The New Yorker's George Packer will join the Venerable U Gawsita, one of the leaders of the 2007 Monks' Uprising, in conversation.
Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to hear from the monks who stood up to the Burmese regime in 1988 and again in 2007, and from those men and women whose lives have been changed forever by the recent cyclone.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 7:00 p.m.

The Great Hall at Cooper Union

7 East 7th Street

Subway: 6 to Astor Place; N/R/W to 8th Street-NYU

New York, New York

$20 (general admission) and $100 (includes post-event reception)

$15 for students and PEN members (with valid ID)

For Donations or Tickets: www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444
Co-sponsored by the Burma Project of OSI, PEN American Center, The New York Review of Books and Cooper Union.