Artists Come Together for HOUSE DIVIDED at PEN World Voices Festival

Following the Women's Marches around the country, Occupy and other recent protests, we ask ourselves: what next?

House Divided unites artists, writers, thinkers, and politicos in a one-of-a-kind event to be held at the historic Great Hall at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art where Lincoln gave his famous address against the expansion of slavery.

Featured guests will take the stage to speak out to these divisive times in our nation, not necessarily to find a solution, but to bring the creative community into the Public Dialogue.

Answering this call, some of the most renowned and revered artists and writers of our time will join with those who are young and unknown to create a living panoply of the City's diversity onstage at the historic Great Hall.

Featured artists performing one of their own works or speaking to the theme include: Adwoa Aboah, Paul Auster, Amina Baraka, Reverend Billy, Stefan Bondell, La Bruja, Phong Bui, John Giorno, Tyrek Greene, Jessica Hagedorn, Suheir Hammad, Mohamad Hodeib, Bob Holman, Siri Hustvedt, Juliana Huxtable, Yusef Komunyakaa, Joan Jonas, Hettie Jones, DeRay McKesson, Jonas Mekas, Duane Michals, Marilyn Nelson, Marie Ponsot, Ariana Reines, Marc Ribot, Carl Hancock Rux, Ed Sanders and The Fugs (world premiere of their new video and song, "Exorcism of the White House"), Richard Serra, Papa Susso, Monica de la Torre, Paul Tran, Ocean Vuong, Cleo Wade, Anne Waldman, and Emanuel Xavier.

House Divided is produced by The Cooper Union and PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. Running May 1-7 in New York City, the Festival will address the restive relationship between gender and power in the Trump era. RSVP is required for Divided House. To make a reservation, visit www.penworldvoices.org.

This event is organized and conceived by painter/poet Stefan Bondell and poet Bob Holman. It will be livestreamed via penamerica.org and facebook live.

About the Organizers:

- Stefan Bondell is a painter/poet who has organized numerous readings and art performances throughout the City. He has shown his work at The Hole Gallery, Acquavella Gallery, Vito Schnabel Gallery and internationally.

- Bob Holman is a poet and activist. He has worked at The St. Marks Poetry Project, Nuyorican Poets Café and founded the Bowery Poetry Club. He has published sixteen books and taught at NYU, Columbia, The New School, Bard and Princeton.

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Arts is a distinguished private college of art, architecture, and engineering founded in 1859 by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper. From its beginnings, Cooper has been dedicated to the idea that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but also to civic virtue and harmony. Today, the school continues that tradition through a curriculum that focuses on helping graduates acquire technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice. The institution provides close contact with a distinguished creative faculty and fosters rigorous, humanistic learning that is enhanced by the process of design and augmented by its urban setting in New York's East Village. Learn more at www.cooper.edu.

The Great Hall of The Cooper Union has stood for more than a century as a world stage for free speech and a witness to the flow of American history and ideas. When The Great Hall first opened, it was the largest public gathering space in New York City. Before they were elected, Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt and Obama all spoke in The Great Hall. In fact, it is where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "Right Makes Right" speech that propelled him to the White House. Leading thinkers and numerous historical figures have held the stage including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mark Twain and more. More recently, groups like the UN, Doctors Without Borders, Natural Resource Defense Council, the Poetry Society of America, the Architectural League of New York and more have held events on its stage.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open 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.

Founded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the U.S. and the world, PEN World Voices is the only international literary festival in America, and the only one in the world with a human rights focus. The Festival attracts the best-known writers from across the globe and has garnered international acclaim as a premier literary event. Since its founding 13 years ago, PEN World Voices has presented more than 1,500 writers and artists from 118 countries speaking 56 languages.