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Kerry Kennedy in Cambodia, February2011
Following the February 2011 launch of “Speak Truth To Power” in Cambodia, John Heffernan, STTP Director, is back in Phnom Penh for the opening of the “Speak Truth To Power” exhibition, with the portraits of human rights defenders by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographerer Eddie Adams.
The exhibition, in reduced form, has been on show at Meta House German-Cambodian Cultural Center in a small gallery since March 2011, but was officially opened on August 30th in its full version.
Originally launched at the Corcaran Museum, the exhibition has toured over twenty cities in the United States and is now displayed on four continents.
“The exhibit features fifty-one human rights defenders from around the world, including Cambodian Kek Galabru,”, said John Heffernan. “It celebrates the lives of an extraordinary group of courageous individuals worldwide,-- women and men who have committed their lives to issues ranging from demilitarization to children of war, from environmental activism to religious self-determination.”
“Speak Truth To Power” began as a book written by Kerry Kennedy and has been adapted into a dramatic production, Speak Truth To Power – Voices From Beyong the Dark, by Broadway playwright Ariel Dorfman. The play has been performed in seventeen countries, most recently in Cambodia by the Phnom Penh Players, in February 2011.
Meta House will host three performances by the Phnom Penh Players on September 13, 14, and 21, 2011.
The Speak Truth To Power human rights curriculum, taught to hundreds of thousands of students in the United States, Europe, and Africa, which features several of the defenders profiled in Kerry Kennedy's book, will soon be available for Cambodian students as well. Through the book, the play, the photo exhibit, and the curriculum the RFK Center aims to educate students and the public on human rights and urge them to take action.
“RFK in the Land of Apartheid: a Ripple of Hope,”, the documentary by Larry Shore and Tami Gold on Robert Kennedy’s historical trip to South Africa in 1966, premieres on Friday, 2 Sept. 2011 at 7 p.m. at Meta House as part of the CIVICUS Cambodia and RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights partnership on the “Speak Truth To Power” project. Immediately after the screening, there will be a Q&A with CIVICUS Cambodia Theary Seng and RFK Center John Heffernan visiting from Washington, D.C.
In attachment the booklet with the defenders’ biographies realized for the exhibition and the poster.
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