Inventing Truth with Words and Lines
Whether in art or literature, what does it mean to tell the truth, or a version of the truth? And what might it mean to invent the truth in the service of a higher truth? Looking to Matteo Pericoli’s Windows On Elsewhere: 60 Refugees, 60 Views, a project with a collection of 60 window view drawings by Pericoli depicting the present window views of 60 persons who were forced to flee their countries, as well as looking to Dina Nayeri’s book, The Ungrateful Refugee, we will explore the role of invention (or “artful fudging” as Pericoli put it) in creation. Bill Shipsey from Art for Amnesty and Alice McCrum from the American Library in Paris will moderate the conversation.
For safety, the event is limited to 30 attendees. Click here to reserve your free ticket now!
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Dina Nayeri
The American Library in Paris’s Fall 2021 Visiting Fellow sponsored by The de Groot Foundation, Nayeri is the author of The Ungrateful Refugee, winner of the 2020 Geschwister-Scholl-Preis, finalist for the 2021 Elle Grand Prix des Lectrices, the 2019 Kirkus Prize, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and winner of the 2020 Clara Johnson Award. The recipient of many fellowships, including, most recently, the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination’s Fellowship in 2019, Nayeri’s stories and essays have been published by The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and many others. Her debut novel, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea was translated to 14 languages. Her second novel, Refuge, was a New York Times editor’s choice. She holds a BA from Princeton, an MBA from Harvard, and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow and Teaching Writing Fellow.
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Matteo Pericoli
After graduating from the Polytechnic School of Architecture, Pericoli moved to New York where he worked as an architect, illustrator, author, journalist and teacher. His drawings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer, La Stampa and Bell’Italia, among others; his books have been published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan and China. In 2010, Pericoli founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, which he has taught at various universities across the world. Pericoli also taught architecture and illustration at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, NY for several years and held a Visiting Professorship in the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy, where he currently lives with his wife and daughter.
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Bill Shipsey
Shipsey is a retired barrister, lifelong member of Amnesty International, and founder of Art for Amnesty, Amnesty International’s artist engagement program. He is also the co-founder of Art 19. Shipsey has produced countless global events and projects for Amnesty since 2003. He was, for instance, the creator of the ‘Ambassador of Conscience Award,’ Amnesty’s most prestigious human rights award. He currently runs Art for Amnesty’s global projects from his home in Paris. He most recent project, Windows On Elsewhere: 60 Refugees, 60 Views, is a book with a collection of 60 window view drawings by Pericoli, depicting the present window views of 60 persons who were forced to flee their countries. The book was first published in Italian by Il Saggiatore in May of this year. Nayeri was one of the 60 refugee participants.
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Alice McCrum
After graduating from Columbia University in 2020 with a B.A. in English and history, Alice McCrum moved to Paris to teach English and English literature at the Sorbonne. Currently pursuing a master’s degree in public affairs at Sciences Po’s, McCrum became Programs Manager at the American Library in Paris in March of this year.
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The conversation, a part of the Library’s Evenings with an Author series, is sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg. It is also sponsored by Art for Amnesty.
A pass sanitaire is required for all visitors ages 18+.
Visitors ages 6+, staff, and volunteers are required to wear masks on the premises.
