PEN: Karma Chain

When: Saturday, April 30
Where: On the High Line, north of The Standard, New York City

In Buddhism, Karma is the collective effect of an individual’s actions in forming his or her destiny in the next life. But are words actions? What are the consequences of linguistic actions? And how do words travel and mutate as they pass from on person to the next? Find out when Pema Wangdak, a Tibetan lama, utters a sutra—an aphorism—into the ear of one person who will relay the sutra to another and another on down a chain of people extending over the length of three city blocks. The message will migrate as in a game of telephone until it reaches the chair and founder of the PEN World Voices Festival, the venerable Salman Rushdie. Rushdie will relay the original precept and its reinterpretation to the crowd and on Twitter.

With Salman Rushdie and Lama Pema Wangdak

Free and open to the public. Please visit the registration table on the High Line under The Standard, New York by 10:45 a.m. in order to save your spot.

Presented in partnership with Friends of the High Line and the Rubin Museum of Art