Susan Sontag (New York, 1933 - 2004) was an American author and world-renowned human rights activist (390). She visited Sarajevo nine times, the first time in 1993, during the siege of the city.
At the proposal of Haris Pašović, the then manager of the MESS Festival, she agreed to adapt and direct the performance of Waiting for Godot (391/393). Sontag's texts and public statements had an enormous influence, particularly on American public. Thus, for example, The Washington Post published on its front page her text "Waiting for Intervention, Waiting for Clinton" on the occasion of the premiere of Waiting for Godot.
In an interview to German broadcasting company ARD, Susan Sontag was the first world intellectual to state that, "What is happening in Bosnia is genocide".
From 1993 to 2000, she never stopped speaking about Sarajevo and BiH wherever she travelled, and published books and essays. In 2010, at the proposal of Šefik Hadžimuratović, and as homage to this activist and human rights champion, the City Council of Sarajevo renamed the square in front of the National Theatre of Sarajevo into the Susan Sontag Theatre Square. The legendary American pop icon Joan Baez held a concert in Sarajevo.