Philadelphia Writers Celebrate Free Expression
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Fifty "Writers Resist" events took place Sunday across the country, including in Philadelphia.
Local authors, poets, and scholars came together at the National Museum of Jewish History hoping to protect their First Amendment rights.
The 35 writers took to the stage, reading novel excerpts, speeches, letters and other literature to hundreds in attendance. The goal...
"Turn words into action and how we can reconnect as a community, a writing community, a Philadelphia community and continue to fight for free expression and pluralism in our neighbors," says Stephanie Feldman, one of the organizers of Philadelphia Writers Resist.
Penn professor Herman Beavers read an exert from 'Beloved' by Toni Morrison.
"All of the words that were read resonate in new ways," he tells KYW Newsradio. "It's almost like they were written today. Even the stuff written in the 18th Century feels like it's new."
Kelly McQuain calls the event "moving:"
"Amazing to be up here. I teared up more than once."
He read an exert from Elie Wiesel's "The Perils of Indifference."
"He talks about how the responsibility for change has to be that we are not indifferent to the suffering of others," says McQuain.
Feldman says they wanted to feature a diverse group of writers of all backgrounds to represent everyone in the community:
"It just brought home how important I think to be together and to read aloud which is something we don't do often enough."
One of the more powerful moments of the day, she says, was the reading of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech 'Beyond Vietnam."
