Balakian, Egoyan to Speak at Center for Jewish History

NEW YORK—On Jan. 10, Peter Balakian and Atom Egoyan will be the  featured artists at a symposium titled “Imagination and Catastrophe: The Aftermath of Genocide,” which will be held at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16^th St. in New York. The symposium will include filmmakers, writers, and musicians who will explore the complexity of creating art that deals with genocide and its aftermath. The artists and critics will discuss how the imagination wrestles with historically catastrophic events. The program will include segments of films, readings of fiction and poetry, and poetry set to music. In the creation of art out of catastrophe, genocide can be understood in more complex ways.

Participants include Atom Egoyan, an internationally acclaimed director, writer, producer, and Academy Award nominee (“Where the Truth Lies,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Ararat”); Peter Balakian, poet and acclaimed author (June-tree: New and Selected Poems, Black Dog of Fate, The Burning Tigris); Marcie Hershman, novelist (Safe in America, Tales of the Master Race); R. Clifton Spargo, fiction writer, critic, and co-editor (After Representation: The Holocaust, Literature and Culture); Donna-Lee Frieze (moderator), scholar in genocide studies, philosophy, and film; Emily Duncan-Brown, soprano; and Laura Leon, pianist.

The event begins at 11 a.m. Tickets are $20, or $15 for CJH members. For tickets, call Smarttix at (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.