Fall Of Freedom Stages Hundreds Of Anti-Trump Art Actions

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The art and activism collective Fall of Freedom is launching its second year with hundreds of events across the United States from October 2 to October 4. The program includes public artworks, concerts, and exhibitions, bringing together artists and cultural organizations to challenge what organizers describe as an increasingly authoritarian Trump administration.

The initiative is spearheaded by cultural workers such as artists Dread Scott and Jenny Polak, playwright Lynn Nottage, and writer and curator Laura Raicovich. Fall of Freedom had its first successful run in November of last year. Scott told Hyperallergic via email that fascism is gaining ground in the United States, citing record deportations of migrants, a crumbling rule of law, and attacks on the arts.“They want to silence us,” Scott stated,“But artists and musicians are unruly and we refuse to be quiet.”

Nottage, a playwright and MacArthur“Genius” Fellowship recipient, developed Undersiege as a central event for Fall of Freedom, in collaboration with fellow playwright Dominique Morisseau. This production features monologues from over 40 Black women and femmes. The National Black Theatre and the Studio Museum in Harlem will present this performance at the uptown museum on Friday, October 2. Nottage commented to Hyperallergic that artists are united in asserting their voices cannot be silenced. She added,“It is beautiful to witness how many people across the country have responded to this call to action by organizing concerts, readings, workshops, exhibits and salons centering art as a form of resistance, celebration and liberation.”

Organizers expanded the movement earlier this year, holding art and activism events nationwide around May Day. The administration's alleged efforts to influence programming at the Smithsonian Institution, brand its name on the Kennedy Center, and target public artworks like Joel Shapiro's“Blue” (2019) and José de Rivera's“Infinity” (1967) highlight its perceived escalating attacks on the arts and free speech.

This fall's schedule features a Roger Guenver Smith one-man show honoring painter Jean-Michel Basquiat at the New York Theatre Workshop, a zine-making workshop in Little Rock, Arkansas, and a gathering at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where participants are encouraged to share favorite stories about the institution. During last year's Fall of Freedom, organizers staged a dance protest at the Kennedy Center in response to Trump's policies. The name“Fall of Freedom” serves as a dual reference to both hope and uncertainty in the current political climate.

Kris Grey, a transgender and nonbinary artist who participated in the first edition, wrote in an essay for Hyperallergic last year that creativity itself is a practice of resistance. Grey explained,“Art is not a luxury in moments like this; it is a survival strategy.”

Source: Hyperallergic

MENAFN01102026005694012507ID1111749128