Weight of History

All PEN World Voices Festival tickets are non-refundable. Please confirm the time and location of your event before finalizing your purchase.

Across her career, Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove’s poetry has looked back through history. Overlaid with imagination, memory, and emotion, Dove’s historical poems bring forth perennial questions of morality and belonging. In her newest collection, her first in twelve years, Playlist for the Apocalypse, Rita Dove continues investigating the vacillating moral compass guiding America’s, and the world’s, experiments in democracy. In conversation with author & historian Farah Jasmine Griffin, the two will discuss Rita’s newest collection, the weight of American history, and how African American poets and writers grapple with that weight in their work.

The 2024 PEN World Voices Festival, the 20th anniversary of the festival, will be a celebration of world literature and free expression. Over four days, over 100 writers from nearly 30 countries will be featured in engaging talks, panels, readings, and performances in New York City and greater Los Angeles.

Visit for more information about the entire festival, as well as PEN America.

The venue is accessibile via elevators that are at the entrance around the corner on 243 Thompson St.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our Box Office team at [email protected] by April 21st to request.

Please ask a Box Office Attendant or festival representative upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact [email protected]

While not required, per public health official guidelines, the World Voices Festival recommends being fully vaccinated, and wearing masks in all public indoor settings as a precaution against the spread of Covid-19, as well as around crowds.

If you are feeling unwell, please do not come to the event. Reach out to [email protected] for assistance if you have already purchased a ticket.

We thank you for ensuring our speakers, guests and venue workers feel safe and comfortable at all World Voices Festival events. If you have questions or concerns please contact [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York, United States