Fantastic Weekend in Norway!

Our little book stall at the festival during our event!

Last weekend at the Bjornson International Festival of Literature in Molde, Norway, was educational, interesting and also a lot of fun. I met the wonderful writers in exile, Philo Ikonya (Kenya) and Asieh Amini (Iran) and got to know about the important of work of organisations such as The International Cities of Refuge Network.

I think my presentation went well and the audience were very kind and attentive. Chungdak la and I already did a write-up on her blog so I won’t post it again here, just click on this long link: http://chungdak.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/tibet-and-tibetan-writers-highlighted-at-the-bjornson-international-festival-of-literature-norway/

My hope is that everyone went away with a renewed sense of energy to raise awareness about the plight of Tibetan cultural figures. Furthermore, I also hope that we got people interested in Tibetan cultural output in general, in writings, music and poetry.

Highlights were Philo’s reading of Tsundue’s poem “My Tibetanness” and the concert on the closing night which I really enjoyed. A huge thank you to the organisers of the festival, everything was perfect!

Upcoming Event at the Bjørnson Festival of International Literature, Norway

Even though I just got back from India, I’m excited to be heading off again, this time to Molde, Norway, to speak at the Bjørnson Festival of International Literature. I’ve been invited by the organisers to talk about the current situation for Tibetan writers in Tibet and PRC. It’s a great opportunity to speak at a literature festival and I’m very grateful to the organisers not only for inviting me but also for putting Tibetan writers in the spotlight.

I’m going to be taking a few copies of Bhuchung D. Sonam‘s new book “Yak Horns” with me as well! In Dharamsala, I moderated the book launch event and I’m enjoying reading it myself at the moment.

Chungdak Koren of the Norwegian Tibet Committee will also join me at the event and has published a press release on her blog. Follow the link below for more information:

http://chungdak.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/suppressed-voices-of-tibetan-writers-to-be-highlighted-at-bjornson-festival-of-international-literature-norway

Video Summary of “Tibet in Flames”

As a follow up to my last post saying I was going to speak in Brussels, here’s a video summary of the event!

In Brussels Tomorrow

I’m off to Brussels tomorrow for a conference “Tibet in Flames”. It’s being hosted by Vice President of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott and Kristiina Ojuland, MEP. Here’s a link to the agenda.

 

Remembering my Late Uncle, Dr Tsewang Yishey Pemba

Dr Aghu la revisiting his old haunts at Victoria School

Yesterday was the funeral of my late Uncle, Dr Pemba, in Darjeeling. Dr Pemba passed away last Saturday, November 26. On that day, several members of his immediate family and I went to a Tibetan temple here in New York and offered butterlamps.

I am drafting an obituary and will post it when it’s ready but for now I wanted to post a short video clip of him in November 2009 when he was Chief Guest at the Speech Day of Victoria School, Kurseong. Dr Aghu la (as my brother and I call him) took me along with him that day and I got to hear many stories about his school days. That was my last trip to Darjeeling and also the last time that I spent time with him. I shall miss our conversations about literature and I have decided I will finally attempt to read “Ulysses” by James Joyce, his favourite book, in his memory.

 

Speaking in Toronto!

Looking forward to Masala Chai and Momos in Parkdale!

Next week I’ll be visiting Toronto and those lovely people at SFT Canada invited me to give a talk whilst I am there for their “Speaker Series”. The talk will be on Friday December 9 at 6pm, full details on their site: http://sftcanada.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/students-for-a-free-tibet-canada-speaker-series-volume-ii-new-generation-tibetan-voices-from-cyberspace/

DC Update

Having a great trip to DC and I just wanted to post the video of the panel discussion at ICT that I spoke at on Thursday evening as well as the VOA Kunleng programme I was interviewed on.

Despite getting stuck in traffic multiple times on the way to DC from New York, I managed to only miss the start of the ICT event (!) I gave a short presentation on The Role & Impact of New Social Media on Tibetans and I will try to upload the Powerpoint I showed sometime soon. In the meantime, here is the link to the video that was streamed live: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18581849

Behind the Scenes at Kunleng

Then on Friday morning I went into the VOA studios for the first time and spoke also about social media on the programme Kunleng. Here is the video of the programme:

Big thank yous to ICT and VOA for keeping me busy and it’s been fun to meet so many people in person I had up till now only known via emails and youtube!

 

Panel Discussion in DC on November 17: Role and Impact of New Social Media on Tibetans

I'll be joining this smurf in DC!

It’s been over five years since I left my position as campaigns coordinator at International Campaign for Tibet Germany in Berlin but this week I get to “return” to ICT to speak at a panel discussion on Thursday evening titled “Role and Impact of New Social Media on Tibetans”.

I’ll be speaking alongside Louisa Chiang who is East Asia Officer at the National Endowment for Democracy and the event will be moderated by my fellow Brit Kate Saunders, Communications Director at ICT.

Full details of the event are on ICT’s website here:
http://action.savetibet.org/o/6063/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=111953

Looking forward to it! For those who can’t make it in person the event will be livestreamed.

Speaking in Warsaw

I’m excited to be speaking in Warsaw in early July, I haven’t been back to Warsaw since a short trip I did from Berlin back in the summer of 2003 (!)… I remember really liking it there.

The events I am going for have been organised by the Tibetan Programme of The Other Space Foundation, Lech Walesa Institute Foundation and Polish PEN. I’ll be giving a presentation on Tibetan voices on the internet on July 8 and there will also be a screening of The Sun Behind the Clouds.

The whole programme is online in Polish here:
http://ratujtybet.org/content/events/782/miedzynarodowy_dzien_tybetu_2011.htm 

Speaking at the 2011 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

Looking forward to speaking on Tuesday at the 2011 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy! It will be my first time taking part in such a gathering, I’ll be part of a panel focusing on Human Rights in China and I’ll be mainly sticking to my topics of Tibetan blogs, social media and internet censorship.

Check out the full programme here:
http://genevasummit.org/program/2011/en