Lifelines: The Literature of Women's Human Rights, Library of Congress, 2001

This event, held in collaboration with The African and Middle Eastern Division of The Library of Congress, will feature readings by leading women authors of the global women's movement. Reader-Authors include: Emma Sepúlveda, Abena Busia, Nazar Afisi, and Leila Ahmed. Marjorie Agosin and Goli Taraghi are also featured in absentia.

Literature can weave lifelines connecting the listener to testimonies that inspire and call for solidarity. Women’s voices resonate across divides to convey understanding and appreciation for the pain of exile, torture, violence and war, and the possibility of starting fresh, of healing, safety, and peace.

Watch Lifelines: The Literature of Human Rights, 2001

Author-Readers:

Emma Sepúlveda, born in Argentina and raised in Chile, is the author of numerous books of poetry, non-ficiton, literary criticism and photography. She has worked with woman's human rights groups in Chile for two decades and is the President and Founder of Latinos for Political Education, a non-profit organization devoted to the empowerment of the Latino community through political education. Currently, Dr. Sepulveda is a Professor at the University of Nevada in Reno and a columnist for the Reno Gazette Journal on Latino Issues.

Abena Busia, Ghanaian poet and author, is a Professor of English at Rutgers University. She received her PhD from Oxford, where she also taught and lectured extensively. She has focused her research and teaching primarily on African Studies and African Diaspora literature. Among her publications are Theorizing Black Feminisms and Testimonies in Exile.

Marjorie Agosin is an award-winning human rights activist and poet from Chile, who was recently honored with both the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement by the Chilean government and the United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights. A professor at Wellesley College, she has authored many books, among them An Absence of Shadow, Melodious Woman, Always from Somewhere Else, My Jewish Fathers, and Dear Anne Frank. Recently she edited the acclaimed international literary anthology of women’s writing on human rights, A Map of Hope.

Goli Taraghi is an Iranian prize-winning short story writer and novelist. Among her most well-known publications are Elsewhere, I Too Am Che Guevara, The Great Lady of My Soul, Winter Sleep, and The Servant. She wrote the scripts for two major films, Pear Tree and Bita. Many of her works have been translated from Persian to French and English.