ICORN residents on City of Asylum ‘DISSIDENCE’ tour

During Banned Books Week, the three ICORN and CoA residents, together with Dmitry Bykov, toured the three US Cities of Asylum which have become their homes in exile. The tour came about as a result of the attack on Salman Rushdie and was curated in solidarity with writers, artists, and journalists around the world who continue to face threats and harassment for their work.

‘DISSIDENCE’ included public speaking and reading events at the four stops as well as presentations and meetings between the ICORN and CoA residents and students at Cornell University and Ithaca College. There, Rahmani, Dauod, Molina, and Bykov were able to share their lived experiences of resistance, persecution, and exile and underline the importance of free expression despite the risks involved.

Anouar Rahmani is a novelist, journalist, and human rights activist from Algeria. Through his prolific work, Rahmani has explored human rights issues in Algeria and the rest of the Arab world, including those relating to LGBTQ+ people, women, religious minorities, individual freedoms, and the environment. As a result, he was subjected to defamation, censorship, and detention in his home country. In 2021, Anouar arrived as ICORN resident in Pittsburgh CoA where he is currently an Artist Protection Fund Fellow in residence at Carnegie Mellon University.

Pwaangulongii Dauod is a writer of short stories, essays, and novels from Nigeria whose work has predominantly focuses on human and LGBTQ+ rights in his home country. Dauod’s persecution started following the publication of a gay memoir piece ‘Africa’s Future Has No Space for Stupid Black Men’ in Granta magazine in July 2016. Targeted for his work and his LGBTQ+ identity, Dauod was forced to flee Nigeria and became the ICORN resident in Detroit CoA in 2022 where he is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow in residence at Wayne State University.

Pedro X. Molina is an internationally acclaimed political cartoonist, illustrator, and journalist from Nicaragua. Molina continued to produce and publish his work, critical of the Nicaraguan government and human rights abuses in the Americas, despite direct threats and censorship attempts. Pedro left his home country on Christmas Day in 2018, following crackdown on independent newspapers, including ‘Confidencial’ where his work was frequently published. He was ICORN resident in Ithaca CoA between 2018-2020, where he was also an Artist Protection Fund Fellow.

Dmitry Bykov, one of Russia’s most prominent public intellectuals and author joined the ICORN and CoA residents on the solidarity tour. Bykov is currently in residence in Ithaca City of Asylum, after facing persecution and poisoning in his home country.

The ‘DISSIDENCE’ solidarity tour is a poignant example of the close partnership between ICORN and CoA and the crucial work their residents continue to do in protecting and promoting freedom of expression. To learn more about CoA’s membership in ICORN, please follow this link.

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