14 Jan 19 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104730″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival and Index on Censorship invite you to join them for Unspeakable, a day of challenging and illuminating conversations, performance, exhibitions and workshops hosted by the University of Essex, that explores historic and contemporary issues of censorship, no-platforming, freedom of speech, and taboos.
These events are part of the Essex Book Festival 1-31 March 2019
Each part of the programme requires separate ticketing. See specific instructions with the session. [/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Banned Books: Exhibition and presentation” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104723″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 12.00 – 1.00pm
Where: Special Collections Room, Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex, Wivehoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: Free. No booking required.
Some of the most controversial books in history are now recognised as classics. The Bible, works by Shakespeare, Ovid and James Joyce, to mention but a few. Banned Books delves into the University of Essex’s Archives to reveal a fascinating collection of banned books, pamphlets and texts, some dating back hundreds of years.
The event takes place in the Special Collections Room at the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Burning Question: Trevor Phillips and Professor Shohini Chaudhuri” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104724″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 1.30 – 2.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre
Trevor Phillips, writer, broadcaster, former president of the NUS, former chairman of the Equality and the Human Rights Commission, and current chairman of Index on Censorship, will discuss the impact of historic and contemporary censorship across art, history and literature with Professor Shohini Chaudhuri from the University of Essex, a film activist as well as educator.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Play’s the Thing: What happens when theatre gets censored” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”90098″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 3.30–4.30pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £7, £5 concessions (27 years and under) via Essex Books Festival / Mercury Theatre
Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine, in discussion with actors from the Globe theatre around the world project and artistic director of The Gate theatre, Ellen McDougall.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of an era, when all plays had to be signed off by the British Lord Chamberlain before performance, the panel will discuss why we should worry about censorship of what we see on stage, and how words and ideas are restricted around the world and in the UK today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Dean Atta: Performance and audience Q&A” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104727″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]When: 7.00 – 8.00pm
Where: Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ
Tickets: £5 via Essex Book Festival / Mercury Theatre
A performance and audience Q&A with poet Dean Atta, as part of Unspeakable at the University of Essex.
Spoken Word Poet Dean Atta’s powerful debut poetry collection I Am Nobody’s Nigger was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Dean has performed across the UK and internationally, including performances at Hay Festival, Latitude and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been commissioned to write poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Dean is currently working on his second poetry collection The Black Flamingo.
During Essex Book Festival 2019, Dean Atta will be in residence at the Pop-Up Essex Writers House, at Metal in Southend. Find out more at www.essexwritershouse.co.uk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104732″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://essexbookfestival.org.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104733″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.essex.ac.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Essex Book Festival is one of the highlights of Essex’s cultural calendar. Each March it hosts over 100 events in over 45 venues across the county, including theatres, libraries, schools, universities, cafes and art galleries. More information is available here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jan 19 | Event Reports, Magazine, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104667″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]“I found it empowering to be told I couldn’t talk about something,” said Gabby Edlin, founder of Bloody Good Period, on the stigmatisation of periods at the launch of the winter 2018 edition of Index on Censorship magazine.
The issue, on the theme of birth, marriage and death, investigates what we are afraid to talk about and why. Whether it’s contraception misconceptions in Latin America, prejudice against interracial marriages in South Africa, or genocides around the world, a plethora of countries and topics were featured in this special report.
Taking place at Foyles’ flagship store in Charing Cross, London, which was once the world’s largest bookshop, Edlin was joined by award-winning author Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self, and Xinran, the internationally best-selling author of The Good Women of China who also introduced the first women’s call-in radio show in China. The panel was chaired by Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine.
Edlin raised the taboo of period poverty, highlighting an unsettling scene in the Bafta-winning film I, Daniel Blake, in which a woman is caught stealing sanitary products and propositioned sex by a security guard in return for her freedom.
She said: “That was the moment that a lot of people woke up to the idea that, of course, women can’t afford this if they can’t afford everything else. But, everyone has experienced not having the product when you need it. It’s absolutely universal, it’s not just women living in poverty, it’s not just asylum seekers. Every single woman who has menstruated knows what it’s like to go without.”[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104670″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104668″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”104669″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Xinran explained the pain of the controversial one-child policy in China: “Countryside women came to the city and realised girls have equal rights but in the countryside, the mother had to kill their daughters or give them away. Still now no-one talks about it.”
However, family policy is changing. “The Chinese published a new stamp because this year is a pig year – with a parent with three babies – that is a signal to a parent that it’s not one child, not two children, it is free now.”
“We think that we are now such an open, liberal society and you can say anything you want on Twitter, but actually we’re still very, very closed and we talk about things without really talking about them,” said Pine, whose Notes to Self breaks down the taboo of miscarriages and sexual violence.
“This woman, who I had never met before, came up to me and said, ‘I had a miscarriage two months ago and nobody knows’, and then just walked away. She walked away I think from having said it as well and from the need to say it. We need to tell our stories.”
For more information on the winter issue, click here. Find out why we find it impossible to talk about birth, death and marriage, according to Rachael Jolley. The winter podcast is also available on iTunes and SoundCloud.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547210035015-71572e6c-f63e-3″ taxonomies=”8957″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jan 19 | Awards, Awards Update, Fellowship, Fellowship 2018, News and features
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Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The Museum of Dissidence
2018 Freedom of Expression Awards at Metal, Chalkwell Park, Essex.
Artistic freedom is under attack in Cuba, but artists are fighting back. Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, members of the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning Cuban artist collective the Museum of Dissidence, along with many others, are putting themselves on the line in the fight against Decree 349, a vague law intended to severely limit artistic freedom in the country. Decree 349 will see all artists — including collectives, musicians and performers — prohibited from operating in public places without prior approval from the Ministry of Culture.
“349 is the image of censorship and repression of Cuban art and culture, and is also an example of the exercise of state control over its citizens,” Otero Alcántara tells Index. “Artists, in a spectacular way, must work in a state of double resistance, as artists and as activists, because the system has control over all opportunities for artistic growth.”
For their role in peacefully protesting Decree 349, Otero Alcantara and Nuñez Leyva were among 13 artists arrested, including Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera, in Havana on 3 December 2018. Index joined others at the Tate Modern in London on 5 December in a show of solidarity with those jailed.
Protest in support of jailed Cuban artists at the Tate Modern gallery, London, October 2018.
On Human Rights Day on 10 December 2017, US Assistant Secretary of State Kimberly Breier tweeted: “[O]ur minds turn to the people of #Cuba, who have endured decades of repression and abuse at the regime’s hands, most recently via the creativity-crushing #Decree349.”
“The international help is positive because it makes visible the abuses of the Cuban regime against the people, but I think we must sacrifice ourselves in body and spirit — in a peaceful way — if we want to achieve our freedom,” Nuñez Leyva tells Index on Censorship. “We are very grateful for any help and pronouncements against 349. The redaction of the decree and the silence of the authorities is demonstrating that in Cuba there is a dictatorial regime in which no type of political, economic or social opening is taking place.”
In the days following all arrested artists were released, although they remained under police surveillance. Cuba’s vice minister of culture Fernando Rojas at the time told the Associated Press that changes would be made to Decree 349 but failed to open a dialogue with the artists involved in the campaign against the decree. A version of the law came into force on 7 December.
“We are determined to continue demanding the full repeal of 349,” Nuñez Leyva says. “We do not want to continue living in this perennial state of vulnerability.”
The persecution of the Museum of Dissidence isn’t limited to arrests. On 9 November Otero Alcántara took to Facebook to call out a campaign to discredit him. State security had been sending texts and holding meetings with his neighbours in what the artist said was a “desperate attempt” to “sabotage our activities”.
“The rhetoric that the government uses is well known to all — that we are mercenaries — and although most people no longer believe it, some of them decide to exclude you because you are a ‘marked’ person like you have a contagious disease,” Otero Alcántara tells Index. “You are a socially excluded and politically persecuted.”
“We try all the time not to give it too much importance, we try to smile because we really do not want to feel any bad energy,” he adds. “Our principle is love, dialogue, peaceful struggle. If they wish to defame us, it is on their conscience, not ours.”
Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Yanelys Nuñez Leyva, members of the Index-award winning Museum of Dissidence
Nuñez Leyva describes the efforts to dissuade Cuban artists from protesting 349 — including the seizure of anti-349 t-shirts emblazoned with three wise monkeys when re-entering Cuba after attending the Creative Time Summit in Miami — as “a mechanism to prevent the spread of the truth and above all, to make us tired and to resort to leaving the country”. But the Museum of Dissidence will not be deterred. “To achieve that, they will have to be more vicious.”
“The government spends innumerable resources to repress any type of expression that makes it uncomfortable,” Otero Alcántara says. “It seeks to discredit activists and artists all the time by isolating them from society, from their friends, from their family.”
After a seven-month campaign to attain visas to enter the UK — which saw the Museum of Dissidence denied visas on three occasions, causing them to them miss the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards ceremony in April 2018 — Nuñez Leyva and Otero Alcántara were finally able to receive their award at Metal Culture, an arts centre in Chalkwell Hall, Southend-on-Sea, on 18 October 2018. The artists were in residence at Metal for two weeks in October as part of their partnership with Index on Censorship.
“Southend-on-Sea generously gave us all its warmth. Staff at Metal, the uncharacteristically warm climate, the brick architecture of the place, the low tide river, the local legends told by a science fiction writer, the banks that paid homage to the deceased, the interest of the local media in the Cuban cause were encouraging for us,” Nuñez Leyva says. “To realise that a calm, inclusive city is possible opens us up and make us less naive when going back to face the Cuban reality.”
Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara as Miss Bienal
During his time in the UK, Otero Alcántara performed in Trafalgar Square on 26 October as Miss Bienal, a character he created in 2016 to symbolise the mulatto woman typified in clichés by tourist and for artistic consumption.
“Entering the National Gallery in a rumba dress without censorship made us realise the context of freedom and acceptance of difference that is breathed in London,” he says. “London is a giant city with so much art, diversity and history, it makes the body detoxify a bit from the bad energy you get living in a system like the Cuban one.”
Mohamed Sameh with Yanelys Nuñez Leyva and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara in London
While in London, the pair met with Mohamed Sameh, co-founder and international relations advisor at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, winner of the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning. ECRF is one of the few remaining human rights organisations in Egypt, a country that often uses its struggle against terrorism as a justification for its crackdown on human rights.
“We shared with Mohamed the desire for prosperity in our respective countries, but also the smile that we shared, which we hold on to all the time,” Nuñez Leyva says. “The contagious smile of Mohamed is similar to that of, not only of the Museum of Dissidence in Cuba, but also Amaury Pacheco, Iris Ruiz, Coco Fusco, Student without Seed, Michel Matos, Aminta D’Cardenas, La Alianza, Yasser Castellanos, Veronica Vega, Javier Moreno, Tania Bruguera, and other artists who at this moment are fully engaged in the improvement of Cuba.”
“Although our contexts are different, we feel a total empathy with the struggles of Mohamed, because in our work we put ourselves at risk all the time for our rights and total freedom of expression, principles that for Mohamed are also non-negotiable.” [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1547483905239-0a56285c-5eb0-10″ taxonomies=”23707″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
