Miniseries Description

UNDOXX: Artists Untangle Censorship is a miniseries by artists for artists about censorship in the United States and around the globe. It is co-created by artists and activists Yanira Castro, zavé martohardjono, Hope Mohr, maura nguyễn donohue, and Maya Simone Z.

What does censorship in the arts look like? And what are artists doing right now to fight it? We created this miniseries to shed light on the state of artistic expression now.

As books are banned, paintings are taken down, residencies are canceled and institutions tell us which content is permissible, we are looking at the people and orgs who refuse to be silenced.

SHOW NOTES

The first episode of Undoxx: Artists Untangle Censorship sets the scene for how censorship functions and how it is being experienced today by artists in the U.S. Guest host zavé martohardjono talks with Executive Director Lee Rowland of National Coalition Against Censorship about: how surveillance and censorship are changing our culture, risk assessment, strategic considerations in making demands of institutions, and how collective action is our most powerful tool.

@_undoxx_

@zavozavito

@acanarytorsi

@mauranguyendonohue

@maya.simone.z

ABOUT LEE ROWLAND

As Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, Lee Rowland oversees NCAC's program work, legal and government advocacy, and public education. She also runs the Free Expression Network regularly bringing together advocates for strategy and info-sharing. Lee was a First Amendment litigator for two decades at the American Civil Liberties Union. She has taught about free expression at NYU Law and CUNY Hunter College. She served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, community advocates' First Amendment rights, government regulation of digital speech, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. As NY ACLUA's Policy Director for over five years, Lee became a seasoned lobbyist and advocate for a range of civil liberties and free speech positions, and helped draft and pass NY's recent Equal Rights Amendment.  

GUEST HOST BIO

zavé martohardjono is a trans and queer Indonesian-American-Canadian choreographer, performer, filmmaker, writer, and organizer who thinks about ecological activism and decolonization as technologies for liberation. 

CO-PRODUCER BIOS

Yanira Castro is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist and organizer working at the intersection of communal practice, performance, installation, and interactive technology. She forms iterative, multimodal projects activated and performed by the public as rehearsals for radical democracy.

zavé martohardjono is a trans and queer Indonesian-American-Canadian choreographer, performer, filmmaker, writer, and organizer who thinks about ecological activism and decolonization as technologies for liberation.

Hope Mohr is an artist and advocate working at the intersection of the arts and social justice. Her law practice, Movement Law, builds power with artists and arts organizations. She co-leads the Artist Legal Cafe.

maura nguyễn donohue is a Vietnamese American artist, performer, writer and organizer based in NYC for over 30 years, building systems for collaborative action through performance. 

Maya Simone Z. is a Black performer, choreographer and producer that develops works centering queerness, Black kinships, ancestral/emotional memory, and the absurd to imagine new worlds. 

UNDOXX is an artist-run collective that organizes conversations, festivals, and interventions against censorship in the arts. They build power among those most often targeted by censorship: BIPOC artists, queer and trans and women artists, and global artists. 

RESOURCES

Learn more about UNDOXX.

National Coalition Against Censorship.

NCAC's Artist Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom

NCAC’s Free Expression Network

Collective Courage campaign

Find your local ACLU chapter HERE.