Fall of Freedom Returns With Hundreds of Anti-Authoritarian Art Actions
Public artworks and zine-making workshops are on this year’s line-up, uniting artists and cultural organizations against an increasingly authoritarian administration.
The art and activism initiative Fall of Freedom is anchoring its second year with hundreds of events across the United States this weekend, October 2 through October 4. Public artworks, concerts, and exhibitions are among this year’s line-up, uniting artists and cultural organizations in the fight against an increasingly authoritarian Trump administration.
Organized by a group of cultural workers including artists Dread Scott and Jenny Polak, playwright Lynn Nottage, and writer and curator Laura Raicovich, Fall of Freedom saw a successful inaugural run last November. Since then, Trump's attacks on the arts and freedom of speech have escalated, as evidenced by his ongoing efforts to stamp his name on the Kennedy Center, repeated threats to strip federal funding from and influence programming at the Smithsonian Institution, and targeting of public artworks like Joel Shapiro’s “Blue” (2019) and José de Rivera’s “Infinity” (1967).
“Fascism in the United States is advancing and metastasizing," Scott told Hyperallergic over email. "Migrants are being deported in record numbers. The rule of law is in tatters. And the arts are assaulted. They want to silence us. But artists and musicians are unruly and we refuse to be quiet."
Along with fellow playwright and MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship grant recipient Dominique Morisseau, Nottage conceived Undersiege, a production with monologues from over 40 Black women and femmes, as an anchor event for Fall of Freedom. The National Black Theatre and the Studio Museum in Harlem will present the performance at the uptown museum on Friday, October 2.
