The Mighty PEN: 2 poets start PEN America chapter in Birmingham to fight for free expression

The PEN International organization in London — composed of poets, playwrights, novelists and other literary professionals, as well as readers — has fought for nearly 100 years to protect free expression, including freedom of the press, and to celebrate the power of literature.

After the divisive 2016 U.S. presidential election, the leaders of the affiliated group PEN America saw a need to extend its reach beyond its headquarters in New York and offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and into the heart of the country if it wished to be effective in raising awareness of an ongoing breakdown of civil discourse and new encroachments on press freedom.

In October 2019, PEN America announced the launch of six regional chapters across the United States: Detroit; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth; the Piedmont region of North Carolina; and Birmingham.

The Birmingham chapter is headed by local poets Ashley M. Jones and Alina Stefanescu, and it’s good to have a chapter locally, said Jones, who is the founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival.

“It makes me feel a part of the important work PEN does, and it makes Birmingham visible on this worldwide platform,” Jones said. “It shows that we stand with the freedom struggle, and we are here, making art and making a difference.”

“Being able to tell Southern writers and humans that free expression matters, and that PEN is taking an interest in those battles below the Mason-Dixon line, is heartening news,” Stefanescu said. “It is inspiring. It is encouraging. It is what we need now.” Birmingham and the other new chapters “will bring years of mobilization, activism and organizing among writing communities across the country to the next level,” said PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel in an October news release.

All of the new chapters are led by PEN America members who already have a rich network of writers, academics, librarians, booksellers, activists and other allies in their communities, according to the release.

In searching out locations, PEN did not just make a list of cities but “worked hand-in-hand with local leaders,” said Rebecca Werner, PEN America membership director.

They focused on “the communities that have been most energized and organized as the leading edge in our drive to become a more fully national organization,” Werner said.

The genesis of the Birmingham chapter came in 2017 when Stefanescu was contacted by Kyle Dacuyan, former PEN America outreach coordinator, who was searching out possible activities here. “We began our partnership via creating the Magic City Poetry Festival,” Jones said.

Jones and Stefanescu worked with PEN for two years on the festival and other events before PEN America told them they wished to start the chapter here.

“It’s still amazing to both of us,” Stefanescu said. “We’re still blown away by it.”

Jones expressed pride that they could attract PEN America to Birmingham.

“It’s heartening to know that an organization as big as PEN is looking at us, and not because of any sort of revitalization or fancy sports or anything like that, Jones said. “It’s because two ‘Birmingfolk’ kept saying, ‘We’re here, and we’re amazing. We need resources to support our already incredible and multifaceted and artful city.’”

PEN America’s mission will become better known in Birmingham through the efforts of the local chapter, Jones said.

“People will really get to know more about the work PEN does to protect press freedom and the literal freedom — from prison — for writers and journalists,” Jones said.

Jones received an MFA in poetry from Florida International University and has published two poetry collections. She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize and the 2019 Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.

Stefanescu’s debut fiction collection was published in 2018, and she won the 2019 River Heron Poetry Prize.

The membership in PEN America is $50 a year, and the co-founders are trying to spread the word locally.

Both women mention PEN America when taking the mic at readings or events. Stefanescu also keeps “a small stash of PEN materials” in her car to share with people.

They will be planning more events in 2020, including the next Magic City Poetry Festival in April — PEN is the title sponsor — and using the events to raise awareness of the chapter.

“In the future, I’m hoping to have something like a membership drive telethon-style party,” Jones said.

Stefanescu said she knew about PEN while growing up in Romania before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“I knew writers were put in prison for telling the truth about Stalinism,” she said. “I knew PEN helped save their lives by telling their stories to the world. As a writer, PEN’s mission mattered deeply to me.”

Due to her background, Stefanescu is also keenly aware that oppression can occur almost anywhere.

“Being born in a totalitarian dictatorship and coming to the U.S. as a child of defectors has taught me that any group, any nation, any state, any political entity can become an enemy of freedom,” she said. “The othering and dehumanization of marginalized groups or minorities often begins with language — and with laws erected around freedom of expression.”

PEN can have an important role in a place like Alabama, where people are still fighting to protect statues that honor the Confederacy, Stefanescu said. “In Alabama, we want to say things have changed without actually changing them,” she said. “I think PEN provides both a forum and an opportunity to have these difficult public conversations about racism, bigotry and Lost Cause nostalgia.”

PEN’s mission “has resonance here, in the South, where so many versions of history are still erased,” Stefanescu said.

For more, go to pen.org/pen-america-chapter-birmingham-al.