Artists plan nationwide US protests against Trump and ‘authoritarian forces’

Artists and artistic organisations around the US are set to take part in a series of protests and events to speak out against Donald Trump and his administration. According to the New York Times, the acts of “creative resistance” will be known as the Fall of Freedom and will take place on 21 and 22 November. “Our democracy is under attack,” organisers state. “Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.” The events will amount to “an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation”. The long list of names set to take part include some from the world of film including Michael Moore, Ava DuVernay and Laura Poitras as well as musicians Amanda Palmer and John Legend, artist Marilyn Minter and author Jennifer Egan. Egan, who won the Pulitzer prize in 2011, also served as the president of PEN America between 2018 and 2020. “I welcome this spur to act alongside other artists and insist on our right to think and speak freely,” she said. Organisations set to take part include New York and Brooklyn public libraries, the University of Southern California and the Maysles Documentary Center. The initiative came from a group that includes the visual artist Dread Scott and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. “The action is artistic expression,” Nottage said. “Expression is one of the essential ingredients in the American narrative, and it can’t be stymied or silenced.” According to the New York Times, Nottage recently decided not to stage one of her musicals at the Kennedy Center after Trump changed the leadership and took more control of the artistic agenda. “Unless you adhere to a certain kind of narrative”, she said, “you are not going to receive support.” Trump also demanded that Washington DC’s Smithsonian museum be purged of “improper ideology” while arts funding has been limited to projects that align with the administration’s particular political vision. Fall of Freedom is being described as an open invite and guidelines for getting involved recommend examples such as a curated show around freedom of expression, a staged reading of a banned play or a screening of a censored or politically charged film. Confirmed events include New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art creating a library of books focused on queer artists pushing back against censorship. The announcement of Fall of Freedom comes as a second round of No Kings protest is set to take place on 18 October across the US. The demonstrations aim to hit back at the president’s king-like overreach and follow on from June’s first round which took place in 2,100 cities and towns with an estimated turnout of more than 5 million people.