Art in Danger, Artists at Risk

NYU Skirball will join with The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, PEN America and CUNY’s Segal Center to present “Art in Danger, Artists at Risk,” a free panel discussion on political censorship of the arts, at NYU Skirball on Sunday, March 8 at 1 pm. The panel will be followed by a marathon reading of Kafka’s seminal novel The Trial at 3 pm, featuring authors Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith; actors Kathleen Chalfant, Scott Shepherd and Jim Fletcher;  and philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, editor of The N.Y.Times’ “The Ethicist” column.

Participants will include Polish Theater Director Krystian Lupa; Holly Hughes, proud member of the NEA Four;   Monika Fabijanska, former Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York; author André Lepecki, who will speak on censorship in Brazil;  Julie Trébault, Director of PEN America’s Artists-at-Risk Connection; and Dr. Felix Kaputu of Scholars At Risk, who will speak of  academic freedom in his home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The panel will be moderated by scholar Catharine R. Stimpson.

The panel and reading are in response to the cancellation of Krystian Lupa’s The Trial, based on the Kafka novel, due to the withdrawal of financial support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), the international exchange program of the Polish Cultural Ministry. The production was scheduled for March 7 and 8  at NYU Skirball. “Kafka’s The Trial is the story of political corruption, government censorship, and social malevolence – a story that mirrors our current global realities,” said NYU Skirball Director Jay Wegman. “Sadly, and ironically, the Polish government has pulled its funding in an attempt to silence Krystian Lupa, making this North American premiere impossible.”

The Trial was one of the most keenly anticipated theater works in Poland in recent years, controversial even before it opened. Lupa had selected Kafka’s novel as a source partly for its implicit reflection on illiberalism. NYU Skirball’s presentation had been planned for over a year, with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute pledging financial support to subsidize travel and hotel costs for the 46-member company. However, the grant was rescinded in December. Barbara Schabowska, IAM’s recently appointed Director, would not release the funds.

In a statement written in response to NYU Skirball’s cancellation, Mr. Lupa wrote: “The declaration of Minister Glinski (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland) is clear: Artists who do not sympathize with the current leadership’s cultural policy, who criticize its values, decisions and actions will be treated as enemies of Poland and will not be supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in any form.”

The March 8 panel and reading will be free, but reservations are recommended and can be made at www.nyuskirball.org.  The panel begins at 1 pm; the reading begins at 3 pm. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.