About this Event
Please note that an RSVP does not guarantee you a seat. We can accommodate approximately 50 seated and 80 standing. If you require a seat, please plan to arrive early.
About the book:
A globe-spanning essay collection on the human condition from the author James McBride calls “one of the most creative and important nonfiction writers in our era”
Our hyper-informed digital era of climate catastrophe, historically unmatched migration, and genocide confronts us with a terrible conundrum: the pain and struggles of others are more visible than ever, yet hostility and loneliness persist. It often seems that we are on the edge of ruin, and hope, though necessary, is elusive. How can we reconcile ourselves to the world we have made?
In To See Beyond, Anna Badkhen probes the ways we ward off despair as she imagines the language we need for survival. Through engagement with contemporary literature and stories of everyday encounters with people around the world, she brings us closer to understanding how we balance delight and grief, joy and hurt, and choose to embrace life as a form of resistance.
About the participants:
Anna Badkhen is the author of eight books of nonfiction, including To See Beyond and Bright Unbearable Reality, longlisted for the National Book Award. Born in the Soviet Union and a former war correspondent, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and the Joel R. Seldin Award for Excellence in Peace and Justice Journalism, among other honors. She is an artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia.
Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan is an activist, writer, scholar and founder of the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative where she directs Beyond Identity: A Gendered Platform for Scholar-Activists at the City College of New York, the Publisher of Adi Magazine, and the creator of the Female Fighter Series at Guernica Magazine. Described by Valerial Luiselli as proof of a "political imagination like no other" her first book, (Beacon Press 2021), examines the complex politics of the female fighter. Her political essays have appeared in Harper's Magazine, Freeman's Journal, McSweeney's Quarterly, Guernica Magazine, and Foreign Affairs among others. Her forthcoming book, Occupation and the Body (Yale 2026) reads injury from the intimate terrain of the body to locate deeper impulses towards liberation.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Community Bookstore, 143 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, United States
USD 0.00
