City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
To officially kick off the Bridges – City of Asylum 2025 Creative Summit, we’ll welcome guests from across the globe to Alphabet City for a morning of performances, readings, and special presentations from guest speakers from Pittsburgh and all over the world.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Larry Siems, and Adriana Ramirez discuss creativity, resistance, the ongoing dark legacy of the prison camp in Guantánamo, and our never-finished, collective journey to freedom.
Author Colum McCann discusses forgiveness and understanding with Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, as well as their lives since the release of Colum's "Apeirogon" and the current climate in Israel and Palestine.
Meet and hear the stories of the Cities of Asylum Network representatives from Ithaca, Pittsburgh, and Detroit.
Hear experts in publishing literature in translation discuss the possibilities and realities of publishing and literature in translation.
Award-winning author George Packer speaks on what it means to write in a world of increasing authoritarianism.
This half-day program features workshops and panel discussions with leaders of a number of important foundations and corporations from the U.S. and Europe doing life-changing philanthropic work
City of Asylum welcomes Sarah Rose and Larry Siems to discuss the important, front-line work of arts organizations to defend freedom of expression.
Five City of Asylum and ICORN residents highlight their respective and collective journeys and resilience.
Renowned translators compete to see who can produce the best translation from the same source material.
Bosnian-American author Aleksandar Hemon talks about language and exile, his love of football, and the power of music and storytelling.
Musician James Brandon Lewis and poet Huang Xiang present a jazz poetry concert of improvisational and collaborative performance.
Diane Samuels and Rania Mamoun will discuss their collaborative work, in conversation with Sylvia Rhor Samaniego.
Take an optional tour of the Malta Foundation’s extraordinary private collection of international artwork.
In celebration of our growing global community, of the many places we learn to call home, and of the first-ever Bridges Creative Summit, we invite all our neighbors to an afternoon of food, music, and conversation.
This evening’s performance from The Happy Lovers will accompany contributions and readings from other City of Asylum writers-in-residence and visiting ICORN residents.
A dynamic DJ set from DJ Cielo (known in the literary scene as Aleksandar Hemon) featuring Afro House and Organic House music.
From the award-winning author of 2007’s The Slave Ship, we celebrate the book launch of Marcus Rediker’s latest work: Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea.
