TONIGHT: Belladonna*, Tamaas, & 98 Weeks/Research Project Space Host Night of Readings for Ahmed Naji

Tonight, if you're in New York City, you'd do well to check out Belladonna* Collaborative, Tamaas, and 98 Weeks/Research Project Space at their night of international protest readings for Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji, who has been imprisoned for the language he used in his novel, The Use of Life. This marks a follow-up event, after May 12's Day of Readings for Naji.

More on this at The New York Times, which points to the petition urging Egypt's president to release Naji, signed by "[a]t least 120 prominent writers and artists from around the world."

The letter, sent by PEN America, a group that promotes free expression, amplifies the international pressure on the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, over his increasingly harsh repression of writers and journalists.

Mr. Sisi’s government has imprisoned an unprecedented number of journalists since he took power in 2013. His policy of intolerance toward views he dislikes recently aroused the ire of Egypt’s journalists union, which includes many who work for state-run news outlets.

The PEN America letter was sent before the organization’s annual Literary Gala in New York on May 16, when Mr. Naji will be honored in absentia with the group’s annual Freedom to Write award.

Mr. Naji, 30, has been a vocal critic of corruption under Mr. Sisi’s administration. He was charged last year with violating public morality provisions in the penal code for explicit references to sex and drug use in a novel, “The Use of Life,” and sentenced in February to two years in prison.

In what clearly looked like a politically motivated prosecution, the courts ignored that Egyptian censors had approved the references. Moreover, critics of the morality provisions contend they violate protections of freedom of expression in Egypt’s 2014 Constitution.

“Writing is not a crime,” reads the letter to Mr. Sisi, which was signed by a diverse list of literary and artistic figures including Woody Allen, Margaret Atwood, J. M. Coetzee, Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang and Orhan Pamuk.

Please go to PEN America for general information on Ahmed Naji, links to his work, and further information about the protest readings.

And below, details for tonight's reading at the Belladonna studio:

Reading for Ahmed Naji
8 PM - Readings and snacks!
Belladonna Studio : 925 Bergen Street; Suite 405 Brooklyn, New York 11238