On Tuesday, October 17 at 5:30pm, the Dart Center, in collaboration with PEN America, will host a conversation with Nobel Peace Prize-winner and press freedom advocate, Maria Ressa, and investigative journalist Patricia Evangelista about Evangelista's new book “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country.” The discussion will focus on Evangelista's on-the-ground account of a nation careening into a violent autocracy and the harrowing stories of those killed through state-sanctioned campaigns of violence. The event is co-presented by PEN America, and will be introduced by PEN America President, Ayad Akhtar.
The event is open to the public. Please note all attendees must pre-register in order to be admitted.
“Some People Need Killing” is Evangelista’s meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines’ drug war and its president, Rodrigo Duterte’s assault on his country’s struggling democracy. For six years, Evangelista had the distinctive beat of chronicling the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte’s war on drugs – a campaign that has led to the slaughter of thousands – immersing herself in a world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of fear created when a democratically-elected president decides that some lives are without worth. The book takes its title from a vigilante, whose words reflect the psychological accommodation that many in the country have made: “I’m really not a bad guy,” he said. “I’m not all bad. Some people need killing.”
Reception: 5:30pm | Conversation: 6:00-7:00pm | Book signing: 7:00-7:30pm
Books will be available for purchase on site. You can also purchase a copy in advance here.