>> it brings an enormous amount of pleasure to pull it together. i love the music in poetry, and find that a lot of the songs that i've been associated with or even songs that i love and haven't actually sung have sometimes the most beautiful lyrics and i usually choose songs for lyrics, and then the melody, it's a beautiful melody, it's just everything comes together, so i've always felt that lyrics to songs are sometimes poems in themselves, so i've included a lot in the book. i'm hoping that children will discover for themselves or adults, wow, that's a beautiful poem, who wrote it and 10 realize it's a song. >> and want and go to listen to the music. >> and mothers, finally, is it important to teach young children to read or be exposed

to reading? does that make a difference? >> we're passionate advocates of literacy and for literacy. we do everything we can in that respect. >> and i would say it's not so much incumbent upon parents to teach their children to read. they may well learn that at school. what's incumbent upon us is to teach them to love reading and to read to them as often as possible and in that way, they will likery grow up to be lifelong readers themselves. >> i have to boos boast a littl, she raised a book called raising book worms, and it's about just that, raising children to love and find the joy in reading and keep it constant, as school years go by and how difficult it becomes when assignments are handed to you and sometimes they're very boring, how do you keep a child's love of reading alive and sparkling and her book just wonderful. >> well, if people are interested in finding that look or other children books that

y'all have written and this newest one, where should they go. >> thank you for asking. they can go to our web site, julieandrews.com and raising book worms.com is the place for the reading work. >> emma walton hamilton and her mother, julie andrews, thank you...

>> and had the pleasure of being with wafaa bilal in 1999. we ended up going on a nationwide speaking tour helping to educate the american people about the suffering iraqi people were enduring under the tyranny of saddam hussein and under international sanctions. i tried to rally support for fundamental change in u.s. policy. so it was just traveling around the country and talking with folks, a remarkable experience. but i wanted to share what i learned from traveling with wafaa and his remarkable story and also with how he has expressed that story for his art. we have to consider the landscape becomes from. born in 1966 the rise of saddam

hussein, the baath party seizing power, saddam hussein seizing power later on, the war that began in 1980 with iran. eight years of one of the most devastating wars in the region. world war i of the middle east, a trench warfare. hundreds of thousands, in excess of over million dying on both sides. you can imagine living under the tyranny, the constant threat of war. and then the '91 gulf war, the uprising that swept across iraq and was brutally crushed by the regime. and it was from that landscape that produced great mind -- a great artist's mind. it is a testament to the spirit that someone like wafaa with his vision comes from that kind of a landscape. and it is not unusual. i know so many iraqis who have

been incredibly resilient and incredibly courageous who are doing amazing things through art and literature, for humanitarian relief and civil society initiatives. that, i think, is an ironic that more and and more americans neeo be introduced to. wafaa uses interactive technologies to connect the viewer with the art piece. he does performance art in a fundamental way that i think is true about the best of art. the kind of art that challenges us, that challenges our comfort zone, that breaks down barriers, that is unsettling, that is provocative, that begins to force us to consider different perspectives. and if there is anything at this time, the time we live in today that is needed is having more americans be challenged in that

fun away. but i think he also speaks to something else. we live in a world of conflict, we live in a world crisis. now with the growing economic crisis we can consider what is happening in the region, the continuing suffering in iraq. the conflict is not over. mass displacement. millions have been forced from their homes, and the ongoing challenges that all of us just as in his inaugural speech our now president barack obama spoke to. he challenged us that we have to start considering national service. we have to start to think about things that are greater than ourselves and to find meaning in things that are greater than ourselves. so i think it is wonderful and very fitting that shortly after such festering inaugural speech that we have wafaa bilal a

challenging us to step up to the plate and two great things. and i think we can all do that together and with folks around the world. it is exciting about the growing partnership that we are seeing among americans and iraqis. this part of the world, that part of the world. so with no further ado i introduce wafaa bilal. [applauding] >> i want to thank you for a great introduction, erik. and also i want to thank you tonight for the great work you're doing for the organization on behalf of

iraqis from very early on and now with this. so thank you so much for being such a a great example of an american citizen, and on behalf of iraq i wanted to thank you for your effort. and i want to thank everybody also for being here tonight. the project i did in 2007, it was born out of desperation. trying to make sense of a senseless war. and trying to connect to zones that are so physically divided. the physical experience created this disengagement. i am an artist who opposed the war for a long time, opposed to saddam's regime. i was thinking, how can i bridge

these two zones without being didactic? trying to stop this is the platform and virtual platform. they are both connected. and trying to open the american when it is not finished by me. it is finished. this way and not in force in my own ideas on that cures, but, in fact, have been engaged in a dialogue. but not wanted and got. what i did is i moved to a gallery space which was about 15 feet. i bolted the robot who control the gun. they both are controlled by the viewers online. i was very naive when i took books with me trying to kill time. and i think also i was naive when i took only two boxes of

pit bulls, which is about 1, ab0 rounds. we ran out of that within just a matter of hours. at the end of the project i was shot 65,000 times. 80 million hits on the site. and also one of the most remarkable things is that 3,000 pages of chatroom i collected from people interacting with each other. in and the book was born after the project. ended up with so many wonderful stories. so much materials. and i wanted the project to live in other people's minds. i just didn't want it to be buried right away after it is

done. so myself writing the book. we took the challenge have to eliminate this. we had so much. but believe within a very short amount of time you were allowed to finish the book. what came out of the book i was not expecting at all. i want the book to be focused on the project. and my collaborator and publisher said there was another story that needed to be told. what really brought a person or inspired a person to put himself in front of a gun for 30 days not leaving the space at all and be shot and abused by of the people. and so doing that with a parallel structure between might lead story, born in iraq, and

coming to the yet to state and states and what happened in the paintball. i can read a few sections tonight, and i will be very take questions. my heart pounds as i run through the narrow, twisting streets. it harbors dissidents in the dark corner basements. the golden afternoon light with its warm fingers, but i don't have time to appreciate it. he is gaining on me. our footsteps echo on the cobblestone streets like gunshots as i turn a corner. running hard i looked quickly over my shoulder. i saw the brutality in his cold

eyes. a mirror image of the huge face in the mural that i suddenly find myself smack up against with no about to escape saddam hussein. just as the great dictator closes in on me i jolt out of the dream. i try to set up, but the belt fastened tight around my body holds me down. i am in a disheveled bed in a makeshift bedroom in a gallery in chicago. instead of the gentle warming light i am surrounded by

thousands of paintballs. the bang, bang, bang of the footsteps in my dream continues. it is the sound of the gun, paid about gun. it is fortunate that i have the foresight to restrain myself with a belt for the few hours i have been getting each night. if i bolted upright a paintball could have hit me squarely in the head at close range, enough to knock me out or even kill me i took a deep breath. the smell of the fish oil paint filling my nostrils. even if 15 years after leaving iraq, even after saddam's gruesome public hanging he is still haunting my dreams. he represents depression,

manipulation, torture. but saddam is dead. i am not -- he is not the reason i'm here in self-imposed imprisonment living in what has come to resemble a waking nightmare. i'm here to shed light on the destruction of war in a language that i hope people who have never experienced conflict can understand. have here to create dialogue and build bridges human being to human being. and unbeknownst to myself and first, and am also here to exercise my own demons. the loss and the tragedies visited on my family, myself, and my people by the brutal regime of three oil fueled wars.

but everyday family and human tragedies that befall us all. bang, bang, bang. i stare at the ceiling and mobilized. i know it will come again. this is what they're my brain like experimental movie. the penetrating eyes of my passionate and cruel father, the grandeur, the one of my grandmothers and braced, the extent of my first solo ourselves. the gas station in kuwait, the feel of the dam between my fingers in a refugee camp.

the bustle of jfk airport as the first set foot in the united states. the long train ride to my brother's house in detroit after i learned of my brother's death. all the moments that brought me here to this stifling one. i grew up in southern iraq. my youth was spent among the ruins of ancient lands.

now trading from the summer heat to the shrine. the telegram from the middle east. is sitting for an everyday child in bill of trials and chimneys of my siblings and me. my family was characterized by a passionate politics and religion. by mother was muslim, and my father was a communist. you can just imagine the conflict brought out by these two. whenever you have education.

even though communist ideologies were in many ways similar to the back ideology it still represented a threat to the saddam hussein's power. so he crushed it. for commoners like my father the choice was joined the baath party or be killed. the raids and the disenchantment smoldered red for his whole lifd flared into flames under the pressure of obligations. our family was the place where he would vent his frustrations.

my father did not want to marry my mother, a devoted muslim with no education. their parents arranged the wedding, and he never forgive my mother for her supposed role in that. after their wedding my dad disappeared with my mother's jewels. he never told anyone where he went, but most likely he went to buy power. when my father came back my mother accepted him with quiet devotion. they started producing children,

the glue that seemed to hold them together through a tumultuous relationships. first came my sister. then my brother, then my other brother. later after my parents divorced and remarried my third brother was born. my father initially wanted our names to rhyme. mine was a girl's name. so i had no end of teasing. perhaps that helped me for the panel that lay ahead ahead of m. my mother and father divorced and remarried three times. i tease them very often. you get divorced, and then you go and shop around.

and nobody take you say you get back together. my father had a hair-trigger temper. he would hit my mother for the smallest reason or no reason at all. she would submit and then still cook dinner for him. i thought thought was a family was like at the time. that did not know it was not normal to have a home filled with intense violence and anger we lived in a two-room brick house in a rough neighborhood full of crime and prostitution. my dad lived in one room, and the rest of us up to eight people as a family lived in another. my father insist on having the tv in our room, and we had to stay up until he was done

watching all the programs. sometimes he would watch late into the night even though he had to get up -- we had to get up and go to school. everything revolved round him. he was a teacher. my father made against salary. the government elected in a piece of land and some funds to build a house in an exclusive neighborhood. he spent several years building a beautiful house for us to live in. he designed it himself and hired a gardener to create the landscape. when it was nearly completed we had a picnic on the grounds to celebrate an admiring the spacious structure anticipating

a move. but the fire is still burning inside my father, conflagration of resentment and restlessness that with a flare up violently at the slightest provocation or insult. keeping as constantly on the edge. when that was about seven years old shortly after the house was completed he sold it before we moved in and fled with all his money. he to himself and all his money into gambling and 11. he sold the house to the gardener who had done the landscaping who lives in it to this day. when my brother returned to iraq in 2000 he tried to buy the

house back, but the owner refused. i got a call from a friend who had lived a looks the refugee camps with me. he wanted to come for a visit. i was in the final weeks of teaching my classes at the chicago school of the art institute, and with several projects in the works i was not much in the mood for socializing. but he said it insistent. so i invited him to come by the next evening. my friend brought along his

young son and another friend. we sat down to discuss politics, especially recent news from iraq. i could tell it was a prelude. he had something important to tell me. after an incredible pause he said there is something i need to tell you, i froze. his young son covered his ears. your brother was killed. the first question i asked was who killed him. he said it was the americans. my brother was 28 years old and he had gotten in just a year before. he had his entire future in front of him. he was supporting our family

with a thriving business he had started with a cousin selling gravel and sand from the family van in the dry sea. he was tough, feisty, and and b. it seems impossible anyone could kill him. at first i had no emotional reaction. it did not register, but i was aware of an overwhelming feeling that all of a sudden nothing mattered. all the plans i have for projects and exhibitions and my life in general had become totally irrelevant. my work was plucked -- cloaked in silence. after the guests left i told my

roommate, still feeling as if i was talking about somebody else's brother. that i picked up the phone and called my brother. he had been too afraid to tell me himself. i said when did you hear about this? and then we broke down crying. then i calmed him down. i said you have to control your emotions. i lost one brother. i don't want to lose, too. that is actually a saying in our culture where tragedy is so common. i packed a suitcase in preparation and then went to

bed. strangely i fell into dreamless sleep. my thoughts characterized only by the deep silence that had suddenly enveloped my whole world. apple cup in -- i woke up in the morning refreshed. the silence even more profound. i went down to catch a train to detroit. the few days i spent are still a blur, but i know that i told him very clearly not to hide anything from me ever again. i need to trust you. if something happens i don't

want to hear it from other people. i did not call my family in iraq until i got back home. i did not show any emotion. i knew that what they were going through and crying on the phone, crying with them would only contribute more grief. i had to about pretend to be the strong one even though it hurt me. i reminded my mother of her religious faith, even though it was a faith i didn't share. that helped sooth her. i tried to resume my normal life in chicago, but everything and everyone seems different, more irritating, more trivial, more

pointless. that is the career i had been building of 13 years in the united states, focused largely on iraq. i had gained critical notice from provocative projects. i saw these works as a matter of hiding from human rights in my country as a whole, activism on a collective level. with the death, the war, and the politics, it had become intensely personal. within narrow every report of a tragedy, displacement, and casualty or civilian killed by american snipers or families blown up by roadside bombs hit

me like a kick in the stomach. my family's despair and pain were ever present in my mind. and with every news story of death and disaster in iraq i could only imagine the pain and the loss of countless others families. perpetual torment. each time my phone rang i became terrified at the thought of what was -- what news might be coming to me. the death toll in iraq was rapidly rising, and i was in constant fear of losing another family member. the evening saddam was hanged, december 30th, 2006, i heard news of a bombing.

i called my family and iraq countless times, but could not get through. i frantically called detroit, but got no answer. i was sure our family had been hit by the bombing. as it turns out they were out celebrating the execution all night, and our family is fine. a piece of car landed on my brother's house back in kufa. i knew i had to go on with my life, but i stumbled through days increasingly guilt ridden. more and more irritated and discussed by the closeness and callousness about iraq and the war that i encountered in my

americans every day. my girlfriend gave me and give certificate for a professional massae for my birthday. as tense as i was from all the stress i could not bring myself to redeem it. i could not imagine letting myself be pampered while my family was suffering. in early 2007 i saw an interview with an american soldier whose job was to drop bombs remotely on iraqi targets directing them from computer console in colorado. the reporter asked if she had any doubt or remorse about what she was doing. she promptly answered that she trusted the orders and

information should got from her superiors my brother had been killed by an explosive drop from an american helicopter that flew after a u.s. drone had scoped out the area. it struck me that his death had been orchestrated by someone just like this and woman pressing buttons from thousands of miles away and sitting in a comfortable chair in front of a computer completely oblivious to the destruction being caused to families, the whole society halfway across the world. i was overwhelmed with feelings of intense hatred and anger toward the women in colorado and

all the american soldiers. in my heart i knew that wasn't fair. they're mostly kids caught up in a cycle of greed and power. they don't understand naive pawns in the age-old game oppression and warfare. they're born and raised in the united states and encapsulated sphere of privilege and safety. it is not surprising they would not be unable to fathom the reality of a distant, foreign society and the ramifications of their actions. i was struck again. though my consciousness and memories are forever connected to the conflict zone in iraq and

so many other war-torn countries across the globe, my present reality has become a comfort zone. i have of warm bed, a comfortable apartment, a hot cup of coffee, or a pepperoni pizza at a moment's notice. health club and friday night art opening. i live completely pampered and secured. i realized i had to produce work to address the gap between the comfort and the conflict zones or to examine ideology in which

i exist and to push the limits of understanding and did not want the world to be didactic or polarizing. it would have to be something interactive and dynamic for the viewers to become part of the art project. i wanted to reach well beyond the normal art world, to have an effect on people from all walks of life who would never step into galleries or go to an anti-war protest. the american public remains disengage in their comfort zone. how are we doing on time? are we good?

questions? okay. well, we are going -- thank you. so we are going to questions right now. if you have any questions please step to the mic. >> i would like to hear more about the installation. you said when you started you did not anticipate that you would need that many paintballs, but you ended up needing way more. did you think that it was -- the project was going to inspire people to have more, i don't know, humanity, so there would not be shooting the person that actually saw on their screen? were you surprised by people really just wanting to shoot

somebody? >> i was very surprised by how the project took off right away. i think it was also a surprise how polarizing. we have so many people come shoot. thanks to the connections at the ink from the very beginning -- in the beginning and i did not anticipate that many people logging in and shooting. that is why i was not prepared at all. i think what happened, the internet culture has become very imbedded in ourself right now. in the beginning i wanted to create that disconnect. i wanted to have no sound at all. but at the same time i released to you to video on a daily basis showing the emotional r

ollercoaster i was going through. so while people were disconnected, they are connecting to me by viewing the youtube video. and the youtube video become a central point when a culture, whole culture starts building around it. there was a series of 30 days. people would e-mail me or type in the chatroom, where is today's video? and i think the established media also helped to bring in more and more people. one thing i never anticipated is the brutality of people on the internet. because i think for many of them it was like a video game.

they very much made an illustrated point. but i think what hurt the most during the 30-day confinement, it is not getting hit by paintball, but it is the word that people start writing, the text, the rhetoric, the hateful hateful rhetoric people start directing against me in the chat. and what made me extremely happy is how the entire project became this open platform. i stepped aside, and it becomes the project without interference. so people start explaining the project to each other. later when people saw so many they start to step. in that way i think there are so

many remarkable stories in the book. an example, i had a table lamp in the room. the table lamp had significance. i had to have the lamp in the room to remind me that this is not my bedroom. i put on earplugs and a cloth over my eyes. but in the room i kept the light on. and then somebody logged in. less than two hours later and a tall person walked into the gallery with light bulbs, a

table lamp, and introduced himself. his name was mad. he said, i saw your table lamp was destroyed. i brought you one. i want you to know i'm a u.s. marine. i wish every marine could see this project. they would never shoot any iraqi or anybody else. >> hi, thank you. what kind of responses did you get from the iraqis? >> the question was what kind of responses or response i get from the iraqis? really, really supportive. i have so many friends from different states who came and bring me food, sit with me, or just give me the moral support i

wanted. i think that was significant. that is exactly. i am trying to raise awareness about a rock. there was no support. but what most inspiring are the people from the internet, from iraq itself lending support. they said we are proud of this project because you left iraq 15 years ago and you never forgot. that matter to me very much. >> with a shot at me. very good question.

the final hour of the project i got a single shot. people did not know this. i recorded every ip address where people shot from. sometimes when they hacked into my computer to find some people start writing script and turn the gun to automatic. in return i would hack into their computers and put a post-it on it saying stop shooting. a single shot. it says, this is for you from the green zone in baghdad. just talking about people hiking

the computer. it is a totally different group than i anticipated participating. in the final stages we had so many people. so many people start shooting. it was only coming from texas. i did not know why. i called my technician and said to you know what is happening here? i don't see a script. he looked and said this is worse. he said an advanced hacker bill to t to this script. so a computer sitting in the house and nobody using, the computer is so we start shooting at me. i said, okay. but every pointed to hear? 1,000 of them. he said give me 10 mets. he came back and all of a sudden it's silent. what did you do? he said, i banned the entire

state of texas. >> how often did part to le attack? >> great question. all the time. i think the religion is demonized. it is reduced to fear, a few words, the suicide bomber, the jihad. having 72 virgins. but i heard it over and over and over and the chapter on. but also from other people who

did attack the record. i think we had one participant who becomes so upset. he started writing endless verses from the bible. but then i discovered he was a priest. he started drinking. he wants to redeem himself by writing the bible verses on this website. so it was a lot of fun. >> okay. if there are no more questions, okay. we have a couple more questions

>> could you describe when someone went to the site, what did they see? what were their choices? >> that is a great question. i think from the very beginning i got the idea from watching the news. i went right away and started researching. how could i put the technology and the website together. one thing i come across, it was cyber hunting website. anybody heard of cyber hunting? it is a business in texas where you could log on line with the real gun and shoot a deer, and they would cut it and pack it to you the next day. so much that this is interesting. this is exactly what i want. i contacted them.

no labor going to give you the technology. in the beginning i've wanted to put significant. the more i worked on the project the more i start stripping information away from the interface. i did not want people to get the impression that this project is about iraq. the project was extremely simple. we have a screen for the room. you could watch live. you have three buttons, left and right and then shoot. and then it gives you a random time every second to about two minutes when the gun is active. then you could shoot. and later i added the chatroom

which becomes a very significant that the project. so the project was totally stripped of any information, just to get people to counter others without ideas of what this work is about. he had a question? >> how did individuals out there on the internet try to -- i mean, if somebody came upon this site and did not want to shoot you what would they try to do? would they try to keep you safe and not have -- >> yeah, so the people who participated in the project were so diverse. from people were paintball

fighters, gun lovers, hackers. people from all over the world who are curious about technology. don't take this personal. we just wanted to see if we press the button from china will it shoot. yes, it did. we have this flux of video. two incidents to answer your question. one is day 14 when i was shot at about where 20,000 times. the news of the project, so many people start visiting and start shooting. on the calendars. they start writing scripts.

one remarkable thing when hackers in the past few weeks at the game we start banning them. all of a sudden we see a lot of people. the gun is going the left and staying there. i did not understand because i don't see any script, but i see a lot of people doing it. it is very systematic action. in fact, if you look there is a big hole on the left side of the room. so i said what is going on? he said there are probably 39 people dedicating themselves and just clicking left. so i start chatting with them. who are you?

they said, well, we saw so many people shooting at you. we establish a group called virtual human shield. we are going to defend you. some people start complaining. they said you have to ban these people because they're taking the gun away. i said no. they are members. you could just direct the gun to the right and shoot. they are practicing their right or should i say their left. please. >> can you talk a little bit more about the chat rooms and a insight that people may have gained of the war by participating in your artwork? >> when you visit the site it was very playful. a guy locking himself in a room.

you could really direct a gun and shoot at him with the paintball. you know you're not going to kill him. it's really fun. a lot of people start having parties. they start gathering computers. so one incident when three girls from three different cities start shooting and having fun. but they did not know what the project was about. they start asking questions, asking me questions, ask other people questions. and their actions changed right away. they came back and apologized for their actions saying we did not know what you trying to accomplish by this project.

in fact, these interactions i want. and also people start using the site as a dating place. that is the left. so they come to the site. opposing the war. all of a sudden they give each of their numbers. they disappear. it did not know i've recorded everything. [inaudible conversations] [laughter] >> i'm sure there are many of them. i am trying to be modest. [laughter] >> if there are any questions. you want to come to the mic? >> i read your book.

i have very serious questions people did not ask him. as you lost a brother, and i lost mine and two cousins. what did you do with your anger? how did you overcome all this? just last night i broke down while talking to my older brother regarding the life that we lost in iraq. so i am trying to see how you cope with that pain. you put it here, but i want to hear. >> first, i have to thank you and let the people know who you are. one of my dearest friends. we spent years in a refugee camp. i have not seen you in how many years? 10 years? five. five years. it is so great to see you. that is a great question just

because what you do in the face of atrocities. we live in the very country that attacked our country. i try to understand the human conflict in general and not place any blame on anybody. but i think placing blame on others would only harden their position. it does not allow them the process what the united states is doing or what the administration is doing iraq. i lost my brother, but i think keep thinking of our losses. it only keep us living in the persistent present. it would not allow us to move forward. the only way i could honor my

brother is by being very active in opposing the war. awareness to american people about what is taking place in iraq. so i hope my generation, our generation, our next generation would not go through what we've been through. i practice a lot. one of the most powerful things we produce as a human is forgiveness. it is not about others. it is about ourselves. it is about admitting the losses and moving forward. but the project, i think, helped in a great deal. i for a long time did not accept the fact that i am not going to see my brother or my father, who died two months after. and only when i put myself

through the project, on day ten when the gun broke down i broke down with it. because when existing in the conflict zone we are all lame worrying about our safety. ..

>> i have another question. can use the two other points in your own personal life when you encountered a similar confinement? what you describe almost sounds like a prison cell. have there been other times in your life for you have also encountered that type of confinement? >> i think two incidents, one, when i cross the border, when i run away from the regime, i intentionally cross the border that is in 1991. i was captured by the kuwaitis. i was put on trial right away with a few other people that was a confinement and a very near death experience. the other confinement was the

refugee camp. it was less than one mile by one mile square, 25,000 people. the heart is conditioned you can never imagine. we have 1102 in the middle of the desert. but i think through these hard times the human spirit becomes resilience. i was thinking it -- i was not thinking of the present but always thinking of the future in the camp or if the paint all project. in the camp i started to collect the trash to earn money just to get out of a camper probe then i started to build adobe studios so my friends could come and a lot of people started to build

adobe a did it sustained us because people who were not able to occupy their thoughts committed suicide, become insane or return to iraq. in the paint project itself there are many times when i lost faith in myself and the project but others reminds me, one man can become a symbol for others that is what i remember the project is not mine anymore and if i stop to i would disappoint so many people because they put all their hopes into it. >> and any other questions?

>> does the project generate any sort of response from the people like humanitarian or political response with the ball on their phone to there congressmen or did they donate to charities from iraq and what was the response that came out of the project? >> that is a tough question because i don't think it generates a response on that level. i think the response was hoping for was very personal. erase an awareness to connect people to each other. one organize the -- organization was the virtual human shield that continued to be an act -- active for a while against the war in iraq but i

think the reward coming out of the project is so many people from so many different countries can become aware of what is going on in iraq because what is literally taking place in iraq, i was very pleased with the outcome. >> i am just returning from iraq myself are in and out reach mission in teaching project from northern iraq. i am most impressed toward the end of the book, i know you know, your book buy one to read the small excerpt, before the baseball project i had largely recovered from the ptsd sleeping problems caused by my experience during the

war and the refugee camps but during that month they came back with a vengeance and to this day i cannot give a natural nights sleep without bolting awake feeling anxiety or fear. how is your sleeve today? >> very bad to be honest. the most i get these days is four hours. but there are days when i would not sleep for three days straight. i would do anything to go to sleep. i would take medication, drink tea, ryan, meditate whenever and it seemed like it started to work the opposite from getting tired to, exactly more energy until i crash. but ptsd it never unfortunately goes back to

just, we just pushed it in the back of our mind and so far i have tried so many things to teach my body that experience is over. you can sleep more than three hours or two hours but i think if the body has its own mind and it does not want to let go. that is what concerns me a great deal about soldiers coming back from iraq because i think just going to reflect on society, we're going to see and hear a lot of horrible stories and that is a time when the four of our iraq will reach the shore of united states.

unless we do something about it now it will be here to face of so many years to come. >> of like to thank everybody for coming out tonight. can we think wafaa bilal one more time? [applause] "shoot an iraqi" is for sale in the bookstore at the other end of the busboys and poets come over here for the signing i will have a table set up to do the signing and we can wind up on this side of the room. thank you again. have a great evening. >> thank you for being patient and a great audience.

[applause] wafaa bilal born in iraq and lived there until 1982 when he moved to the united states. he is an assistant professor at new york university tisch school of the arts for more information visit wafaa bilal.com. >> i am with the founder of pm press. craig, what is founder? >> it is good to see was always it is a small group of publishers that do different types of media dvd is cds audio lectures including music and fiction and nonfiction books. all of this has ideas behind it dat is our political in this sense we want to have an open dialogue about natalee current events but how history has been interpreted who makes history and who defines what is important for people to know and how it can improve our people to make the right

decisions. >> this is your first year you have a lot of books already planned within your launch do you want to talk about the series that you started? >> we have, what is new with the empress is to be doing fiction. again because it is important to have ideas behind what we do fiction is a place where stories can often be told and interpreted in different ways we started the outspoken author series that combines short fiction from "popular science" fiction writers when they talk about their personal politics whether they are trying to get across and demystify what the science fiction is about. to "the reader" it can be shocking as the author or personal ideas are often covered up by these fictional

narratives but it is fascinating. >> host: what are the two books you are starting out with? >> the lucky strike which is an alternative history if the bomb was not dropped. i will definitely not give away the ending or the story but it puts into play how people are responsible for their own actions from below the u.s. soldier or the year man or us as individual consumers the sort of stories say what can happen is when people take control and responsibility for their own actions. the other is more of a parody of the left behind a series ready gets his opportunity to blast the right wing born-again christians who we take great pleasure in blasting 272 consider yourself a political leftist publisher? >> guest: i am uncomfortable using the terms leftist as

with right wing because i think they carry too much baggage budget to the people who use such terms or to "the reader" i was a leftist or perhaps extreme leftist would be this year type we ought also have been working a lot with an author who was very well known for his wealth fiction off on the environment from climate change to history to prehistoric history new american history up to the present day and with him and we are woodworking a couple of different novels called the flash point* imprinter he is right in like much fiction there is a story behind it. he has a tale to tell that involves what happens when ban exploits nature or what

happens when there is a very bad power relationship between those on top and those on the bottom. he could put these into a fictional account we have also done books with him where he interviews his own influences we found a book called how shall i live my life ready interviews and environmentalist, spiritual folks, doctors, animal-rights activists and finds out for himself how people can live in a way that's is living on a planet that is more just and somehow we can treat each other in a more humane and fair manner. >> host: you are mostly a book publisher read the want to talk about your dvd's? >> guest: also have cds. they're all documentary's and we have covered everything much material deals wh