WHO:            Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, Russian conceptual artists and founding members of the art collective Pussy Riot

WHAT:          “A Conversation With Pussy Riot”
 
WHEN:          March 17, 2015
                      4:30-6 p.m.
 
WHERE:       University of Pennsylvania
                     Harrison Auditorium
                     Penn Museum
                     33rd and Spruce streets (Entrance is on 33rd Street)
 
 
Russian conceptual artists and political activists Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova will discuss their work and share their latest video, “I Can’t Breathe,” their first English language one. The piece speaks to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and Russian politics and evokes American Eric Garner, who died while being restrained by police in New York, and the public protests that were held around the United States after a grand jury decided not to indict the officers in Garner’s death.
 
In August 2012, Alekhina and Tolokonnikova were sentenced to two years imprisonment following a performance protesting the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
 
In addition to being founding members of Pussy Riot, the duo are also the co-founders of Zona Prava, an NGO that focuses on the need for prison reform in Russia and prisoners’ rights, and the independent news service Mediazona which reports on the Russia’s courts, law enforcement and prison system.

This event is sponsored by Penn’s Perry World House, the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Penn Arts & Sciences and The Voice Project.