A CA school board is set to vote on a widely criticized policy that would stoke parental fears and anxieties, invite self-censorship and wreak havoc with the curriculum.
Brandeis University has had to cancel a scheduled production of a play by Michael Weller after the playwright and the Theater Department failed to come to terms as to how the play would be presented.
Paul Rucker's traveling exhibition REWIND, an urgently relevant multi-media installation that addresses the history of racial injustice in America, was closed to the public by York College of Pennsylvania, less than one week into its run. Paul sat down with NCAC to discuss the incident.
Government surveillance throws a shadow over all communication, including social media, by making people afraid that the government is looking over their shoulder and inhibiting the free flow of ideas. NCAC has recently signed letters in support of the USA RIGHTS Act, a bipartisan bill in the Senate, and opposing the DHS protocol for collecting and storing social media.
The AJHS has sent a chilling and un-democratic message that art and voices that dissent from pro-Israel orthodoxy are not to be tolerated.
In a letter sent last week to the Annandale Board of Education, NCAC affirmed that the right of students to read pedagogically valuable literature must be prioritized over the subjective concerns of select parents
Every time threats of violence succeed in silencing expression, our public sphere is impoverished and even more polarized.
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Alan Gratz Alan Gratz has written over a dozen award-winning books for young readers. His latest YA novel, Ban This Book, tells the story of Amy Anne Ollinger, an avid reader who organizes a campaign of resistance when her favorite book and several other titles are removed from the school library. It’s funny, uplifting, enlightening and above all, [...]
In August, Artspace, a non-profit organization that manages spaces around the country where artists live and work, ordered the removal of an exhibition from the lobby of its property in Everett, Washington. The exhibition contained works by one of its residents, Steven Leyba, an artist of Native American and Jewish descent. Some of the works in the exhibition featured the swastika [...]
The brief argues that freedom of speech includes the ability to facilitate the free international exchange of people and ideas.
Because Section 702 has a potentially chilling effect on privacy and free speech, it has to be reauthorized periodically. It is set to expire at the end of the year.
In teaching the history of race in America, educators who contextualize racist language in the appropriate historical and social context can deliver a valuable lesson to students in understanding social injustice.
The book, which tells Jazz’s story of struggle with having “a girl brain but a boy body,” was brought to school in June by a transitioning kindergartner at Rocklin Academy Gateway School.
NCAC is praising the grassroots efforts of Chicagoans who have set an example for the rest of the country.
In the letter to the Attorney General, the groups condemned the Department’s overbroad reach and expressed alarm over DOJ investigative tactics that offend the rights of all individuals to political dissent and free assembly.
The trial will decide whether the cancellation of the Mexican-American studies curriculum in 2010 in Tucson Arizona was done with discriminatory intent.
Book challenge season has begun in Indianapolis!
The bill risks eviscerating online free speech protections for websites that host large amounts of user-generated content.
In the face of discord and subjective morality-based arguments, the board stood up for the rights of all of its students to learn in a safe and respectful environment.
Efforts to blacklist an artist over a controversial painting are not conducive to the goal of overcoming racial inequity.
Howard J. Kopel’s interpretation of the Nassau anti-BDS legislation seeks to punish an individual purely for expressing First Amendment-protected views.
Ventura County Star, Local-CA, 7/17/2017
On July 12th, NCAC is taking part in the Battle for the Net, which is shaping up to the largest mobilization of internet users ever.
Yesterday, NCAC sent a letter to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper urging him to veto a bill dubbed as a measure to “restore” and “preserve” free speech on state college campuses. But why would an organization devoted to free expression like NCAC object to an effort to safeguard free speech at universities?
Were institutions like Lincoln Center to yield to calls for cancellation coming from the BDS movement or elsewhere, any ensuing conversation would be much impoverished and further polarized.
documenta 14, an art festival occurring every 5 years, puts the issue of book censorship front and center this year.
The discussion has brought to light the enduring lack of representation of Native artists in the art historical canon, in art museum exhibitions and in collections. However, it has also shown us a way forward.
The organizations express grave concern that the Executive Order will have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and, as a result, will seriously inhibit creative freedom, collaboration, and the free flow of ideas.
Right to publicity laws protect a person’s privacy interests, limiting how their name, image and likeness can be used for commercial purposes. Expanding the laws may impede journalistic and artistic freedom.
The Walker Art Center has responded to our criticism arguing "NCAC has placed undue emphasis on the work’s material structure over its concept." Read our new response.
"The fact is that, for hundreds of years, this particular play has been understood to be a critique of political violence, not an endorsement of it."
Given our current political climate we'd be wise not to take the protections afforded by the First Amendment for granted and to protest unconstitutional government action, as The Slants have successfully just done.
When a seven-year-old student from Terre Haute, Indiana opted to sit silently during his school’s daily Pledge of Allegiance, the First Amendment stood up for his decision. But his teacher didn’t.
The state of Florida did not appeal the ruling against the “Firearms Owners' Privacy Act,” which prevented doctors from asking patients about their gun ownership.
NCAC has issued a statement signed by several national and international organizations, opposing the Walker's decision to dismantle and destroy the controversial sculpture.
Student journalists who contribute to their high school and college outlets do not enjoy the same level of protections as their professional counterparts. New Voices bills are looking to change that.
Mintcheva's essay examines and argues for the value of free expression in light of recent controversies over art and racially sensitive content, as well as over cultural appropriation, which have left people to question the usefulness of an absolutist defense of free speech.
While critiquing or protesting artworks is a vital part of a healthy democratic society, cultural institutions who bow to demands to remove or destroy works that engage with contentious political or social issues endanger our ability to maintain a public sphere where ideas and societal problems can be freely identified and discussed.
