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Event | Join us on the evening of June 11th for the next Visura Salon Series with special guest Ahmed Benchemsi
the visura media blog
Jun 8, 2019
As a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, Benchemsi has given more than 800 interviews to a wide range of media outlets including Al Jazeera, CNN, PBS, NPR, BBC, and The New York Times. His work has been published in Time magazine, Newsweek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, Politico, The Guardian, Le Monde, and other publications. A co-author of “Taking to the streets: The Transformation of Arab Activism” (2014, Johns Hopkins University Press), he has also produced articles for academic institutions and think-tanks, including the National Endowment for Democracy, the Middle East Institute, and the Cato Institute.
On Tuesday, June 11th, 2019 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at Under The Arch at powerHouse Arena—Moroccan journalist and activist Ahmed Benchemsi will share his story, tell about the death threats, arrests, lawsuits, censorship, and boycotts he faced, and discuss the challenges of being a secular, pro-democracy journalist and human rights activist in a region full of autocratic governments and Islamic fundamentalists. Benchemsi will also share his views on how the Middle East and North Africa are represented in Western media and the biases that sometimes result of sending inexperienced correspondents in the region rather than relying on local hires.
The 30-minute talk will follow with a Q&A, and a slideshow presentation featuring visual stories on the Middle East and North Africa, curated by Ahmed Benchemsi and Visura founder Adriana Teresa Letorney.
On Tuesday, June 11th, 2019 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at Under The Arch at powerHouse Arena—Moroccan journalist and activist Ahmed Benchemsi will share his story, tell about the death threats, arrests, lawsuits, censorship, and boycotts he faced, and discuss the challenges of being a secular, pro-democracy journalist and human rights activist in a region full of autocratic governments and Islamic fundamentalists. Benchemsi will also share his views on how the Middle East and North Africa are represented in Western media and the biases that sometimes result of sending inexperienced correspondents in the region rather than relying on local hires.
The 30-minute talk will follow with a Q&A, and a slideshow presentation featuring visual stories on the Middle East and North Africa, curated by Ahmed Benchemsi and Visura founder Adriana Teresa Letorney.
General Info
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Under The Arch @ POWERHOUSE
28 Adams Street at the Archway in Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY 11201
About The Visura Salon Series
salon.visura.coCurated by Visura founder Adriana Teresa Letorney—the Visura Salon series is an evening event celebrating new media and visual storytelling presented at the new POWERHOUSE Lounge, located in the upper deck of the DUMBO Arena bookstore. The series aims to highlight, with slideshows and animated discussion, new and successful forms of storytelling being deployed today. Photography, film, design, science, technology, engineering, art, health, social-humanitarian, environmental, educational, photojournalistic, and pop cultural ecosystems will be featured and explored in images, video, presentations, and panel talks.
About Ahmed
Ahmed Benchemsi is the Middle East and North Africa Advocacy and Communications Director for Human Rights Watch. Born in Morocco, Ahmed is also a career journalist and activist. The founder, publisher and editor of Morocco’s best-selling weeklies TelQuel and Nishan, and the web magazine FreeArabs.com, he was awarded twice Best Investigative Journalist in the Arab World by the European Union. Ahmed has been published in Time, Newsweek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Le Monde, among other publications. A co-author of Taking to the streets: The Transformation of Arab Activism (2014, Johns Hopkins University Press), he also produced articles for academic institutions and think tanks including the National Endowment for Democracy, the Middle East Institute, and the Cato Institute. He is also regularly interviewed or quoted in media outlets such as CNN, PBS, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, and many more. Ahmed has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and an MA in Developmental Economics from the Sorbonne, and is a fellow at Stanford University’s Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. Ahmed is fluent in Arabic and French.
Visura Salon Series
The Visura Salon series is an evening event presented at the new POWERHOUSE Lounge, located in the upper deck of the DUMBO Arena bookstore. Curated by Visura founder Adriana Teresa Letorney—the Salon series will celebrate, with slideshows and...