Writer after writer took the stage. Silver with passion, they spoke of the Organization’s work in Turkey and China. They showed a film about imprisoned Uighur journalist Ilham Tohti. I cried as his teen daughter spoke.

World-renowned authors talked of freedom. So did Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, formerly of Pussy Riot.

No one said a word about Cecily McMillan.

– Vanity Fair: From Pussy Riot to Snowden: the Dissident Fetish by Molly Crabapple