The personal slogan of Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a Malaysian cartoonist who is better known by his penname “Zunar,” is: “How can I be neutral? Even my pen has a stand.”

Zunar is best known for his provocative cartoons that lampoon issues of high-level abuse of government power and corruption. His portraits are published both in books and on the Malaysiakini news website, one of the country’s few independent news publications. Malaysian police and authorities have claimed on several occasions that Zunar’s cartoons are “detrimental to public order” and run afoul of the country’s sedition law.

A photojournalist who was found dead in Mexico City after he fled harassment in his home state appears to have been tortured before he was shot dead, the head of a free press advocacy group said on Sunday.

Ruben Espinosa sustained severe injuries to his face before he was killed, said Dario Ramirez, director of the Article 19 group.

Espinosa was found dead late on Friday in an apartment in Mexico City. Three women who lived in the apartment and their housekeeper also were killed. They appeared to have been tortured and sexually assaulted before being shot, Ramirez said.

• by Jillian Steinhauer

This weekend artist Tania Bruguera was arrested once again in Cuba, along with dozens of other activists, and was manhandled by the police. As with most information about Bruguera over the past few months, the news — which Hyperallergic has not been able to independently verify — comes via the Facebook page for her project #YoTambienExijo (“I also demand”), which was a planned participatory performance on New Year’s Eve in Havana’s Revolution Square that led to Bruguera being arrested multiple times. Cuban authorities also confiscated her passport and are allegedly pressing charges against her.

In the wake of the deadly attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week, we recognize more than ever the need to uphold the fundamental principles of free expression, open communication, and a respect for differing points of view by creating spaces for dialogue and deep reflection. We join our colleagues around the world in condemning the killing of these artists and in supporting their families. - the fD team

We the undersigned members of Artsfex condemn an alarming worldwide trend in which violent protest silences artistic expression that some groups claim is offensive. People have every right to object to art they find objectionable but no right whatsoever to have that work censored. Free expression, including work that others may find shocking or offensive, is a right that must be defended vigorously.

We call on artists, arts venues, protestors and the police to work together as a matter of urgency, to stand up for artistic free expression and to ensure that the right to protest does not override the right to free expression. This means that every possible step is taken to ensure that the art work remains open for all to see, while protesters voices are heard.

Words without Borders, in collaboration with freeDimensional and Verso Books, present a reading from WWB’s September issue, dedicated to writing exile. The reading aims to draw attention to the voices of writers forced from their homes, and will feature contributors and other special guests reading selections from the issue. To accompany the reading, freeDimensional will present an exhibition of work from contemporary visual artists who use creativity to fight injustice, and have experienced persecution and forced displacement as a result of their artistic practice.

17 July, 2014

We, cultural workers representing the majority of Palestinian performing art organizations, condemn the current Israeli attack and aggression on Gaza, and the indiscriminate killing and maiming of mainly civilians, among them many children and women.

As artists, the most powerful weapon we have is our ability to play, dream and imagine. The oppressive forces fear this weapon because as long as we are able to imagine another kind of reality, we have the power to pursue it – a free and just Palestine.

freeDimensional has posted the following blog as part of the World Policy Institute’s  Arts-Policy Nexus

A theatre director is beaten and stabbed to death in front of his apartment. Another is shot to death in front of his wife and child. A filmmaker is kidnapped, his fingers cut off, and he’s left to bleed along the roadside. A radio DJ wakes to see his car in flames. A writer comes home to a house drenched in kerosene. A dancer is raped. A performance artist is kidnapped and beaten. A singer is imprisoned for years. A television comedian is kidnapped, threatened and told to never work again or be killed. These are real cases of artists whose artwork speaks truth to power and upholds social justice.

Open Letter to the Moroccan Minister of Justice and Liberties El Mustapha Ramid on the Four-month Sentence Against Musician Mouad Belghouate (aka El Haqed)

7 July 2014
Mr El Mustapha Ramid
Minister of Justice and Liberties
Ministère de la Justice et des libertés Place El Mamounia – BP 1015
Rabat
Morocco
Fax:+212 537 73 47 25
We the undersigned organisations committed to the defence of the rights to freedom of expression, culture and the arts, condemn the four-month sentence served against musician Mouad Belghouate (aka El Haqed) following a trial that fell short of international standards. We are concerned that the sentence has been given in retribution for his involvement in Morocco’s pro-democracy movement, and specifically his condemnation of corruption and police violence through his music.

If you would like to send support letters to the Moroccan musician, Mouad Belghouate (aka El Haqed), please note:

- keep messages short with simple message wishing El Haqed well and that he will soon be free.
- no political or religious comment or images ( tourist cards are appreciated….)
- Give return address/email.

Send to:

 Mouad Belghouate

Prison local Oukacha 

Quartier Oukacha 

20 580 Casablanca, Morocco

The Central America Regional Forum on Arts, Culture and Human Rights takes place June 18-20 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras

freeDimensional (www.freedimensional.org), Colectivo Hormiga (http://colectivohormiga.com) HIVOS (www.hivos.nl) are pleased to announce the launch of the Central American Regional Forum on Arts, Culture and Human Rights, June 18-20 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The Forum is the first-ever three-day participatory forum aiming to support, unite and inspire the arts & culture and human rights sectors in Central America to collaborate, uphold freedom of expression as a basic human right and acknowledge artists and culture workers as primary defenders of it. Approximately 50 Central American cultural and human rights organizations will participate.

Senegal exhibition, part of the Dak’Art Biennale, closed due to pressure from extremist Islamic groups.

By: Anny Shaw

The Senegalese government has shut down one of the first exhibitions in Africa to focus on homosexuality on the continent. The move comes several weeks after an attack on the Dakar gallery by Muslim fundamentalists, says the French-Algerian artist Kader Attia. “Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness” opened at Raw Material Company on 11 May, but a day later, the non-profit art centre was vandalised and the building damaged, according to Attia, whose video about the lives of transsexuals in Algiers and Mumbai was included in the show. No one was hurt in the attack.

China Loses by Forgetting about Tiananmen Square

by: Ai Weiwei

In the last month, in two separate cities, I was involved in events related to the rewriting of the history of Chinese contemporary art. In Shanghai, two of my works, “Stool” and “Sunflower Seeds,” were included in an exhibition commemorating the 15th year of the Chinese Contemporary Art Award. A half-hour before the show opened, local officials had my name erased from the exhibition’s wall text and barred the artworks from being displayed.

By: Arahmaiani

In 1993, I was confronted by an improbable and inextricable problem. A group of people claiming to be pious Muslims “secured” 2 of my works (an installation and a painting) part of a solo exhibition titled “Sex, Religion & Coca -Cola”. They were adamant that I had committed blasphemy against Islam, because in my installation a copy of the Koran was presented next to a pack of condoms. While in the painting there were Arabic letters adjacent to the Lingga-Yoni, which was a picture of a phallus and a vagina. Their interpretation of the visualization or these works was so negative that they were compelled to without any hesitation, “secure” the works.

By: Chaw Ei Thein

In 2006, I came to New York for a yearlong artist residency program and during that time, I was warned that my safety could not be assured if I were to return to Burma. The reason I could not return was my artwork, interviews I had given with the international media and newspaper articles about my work as it related to a critique of the political situation in Burma at that time. Unable to return home, I was facing very difficult time settling in to life in New York; I was totally frustrated and very worried about how to live, find a way to survive and uncertain as to whether I could continue my career as an artist in this new place with its new challenges.

U Win Tin, a journalist, author and poet who became a leading opponent of the military rulers of Myanmar, where he was imprisoned and tortured for 19 years, died on Monday in Yangon, formerly Rangoon. Sources differ on whether he was 84 or 85.

The political party he helped found, the National League for Democracy, announced the death. Reports in the local news media said his kidneys and other organs had failed.

Inspired by the French photographer JR, who installs hugely magnified portraits of local people in the landscape, a group of artist-activists travelled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the scene of a US drone attack last November. With them they brought a giant poster of an unnamed child who is said to have lost both her parents and two younger siblings in one of the attacks. Having secured the agreement of local people, they unrolled the picture and fixed it flat on the ground in a field beside a group of houses.

A New Generation of Palestinian Artists Converges in New York

How Green Was My Valley opens April 3 at Whitebox Art Center and runs through April 27, 2014.

In 2005, ArtPalestine International was formed to promote Palestinian artists in the US, offering them a visible, public platform through exhibitions and programming. As a dispersed and dislocated population, Palestinians navigate myriad challenges, whether it’s deep restrictions on mobility and uncertainty about statehood in the West Bank and Gaza or finding cultural identity in the diaspora.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/El_Salvador_Legal_Authorities_Keep_Victor_Rodriguez_out_of_jail/?fbss

Víctor “Crack” Rodríguez is facing up to six years in prison for a performance piece.   After the general election in El Salvador that split the winning left party from the right by a margin of less than 1% percent, tensions in the country are high, especially amongst the nation’s community of artists, who are rallying to defend Rodríguez, one of San Salvador’s celebrated contemporary artists.

On March 9th, 2014 Rodriguez walked in to a ballot station and announced, “this is an artist action,” then proceeded to eat half of his ballot in front of polling station onlookers before casting the remaining half.  A video of the artist’s performance went viral.  But the situation quickly turned ugly as the Salvadoran legal system reacted, accusing the artist of electoral fraud — a criminal offence punishable by up to six years in prison.

The Arab Fund for Art and Culture and the Prince Claus Fund in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in partnership with the Magnum Foundation in New York, USA, are launching the Arab Documentary Photography Programme (ADPP). The ADPP will run from 2014 to 2016, targeting creative documentary photographers in the Arab region. Up to 10 grantees will be selected to receive financial and professional support to complete their proposed photography projects.

On the night of December 16th 2012 a young woman and her male friend boarded a bus in urban Delhi heading for home. What followed, changed the lives of these two people and countless others forever. Internationally acclaimed playwright and director Yael Farber has created a searing new work that cracks open the cone of silence around women whose lives have been shattered by gender-based violence.

Nirbhaya (Breaking the Silence) will be  performed in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore India from March 17th to 28th, following its 2013 premier at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award given to an outstanding Fringe production which raises awareness of human rights, the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Award for Outstanding New Play.

Just a few days after all the works by Saudi publisher Arab Network for Research and Publishing were removed from the Riyadh International Book Fair for violating the Kingdom’s laws, the works of globally celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish caused protests and have reportedly been withdrawn from the fair and are not to be sold:

Numerous news sources were reporting the removal of the books, while images and videos circulating on Twitter purported to show the protests against Darwish’s ouevre as well as the packing-up of Darwish’s books.

Queens Museum - Open A.I.R. & fD present Kumbia Queers with Que Bajo: Redefining Cumbia, Love and Latinamericanidad

Mar 6 2014, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

An open conversation with the members of Kumbia Queers and Que Bajo regarding cumbia, gender and love in Latin America. Followed by an acoustic set by the Kumbia Queers.

Guests: Kumbia Queers (Argentina-Mexico), Gecko Jones (NYC-Colombia-Puerto Rico), and Uproot Andy (NYC-Canada)

Moderated by: Santo Padre (Mexico-NYC)

Castillo Theatre presents a play reading of:

The Acquittal by Shahid Nadeem // reading directed by Dan Friedman

Saturday, February 22 at 5:00pm // Admission is free. Reservation required. To make your reservation call 212-941-1234 or email boxoffice@allstars.org

The Castillo Theatre invites you to a reading of The Acquittal by the award-winning playwright, Shahid Nadeem, (translated from Urdu by Tahira Naqvi). The reading is being directed by Castillo’s artistic director Dan Friedman and will be held on Saturday, February 22 at 5:00 p.m.

Theatrum Mundi, in partnership with the American Institute of Architects, New York, has launched a “Designing for Free Speech” challenge. The challenge asks architects, designers, activists, artists — and anyone interested in imagining new spaces in the city for free expression — to identify public spaces in New York City and propose re-designs that transform them into places that activate the rights enshrined in the First Amendment.

Applicants will propose architectural or performative designs (temporary or permanent) that transform spaces in New York City into places for public “demonstration.” This challenge is about re-imagining and idealizing existing spaces that have the potential for animating the public, especially spaces that are not traditionally considered in this frame. Submissions will be accepted through March 31, 2014.

Statement by the Anonymous members of Pussy Riot: Garadja, Fara, Shaiba, Cat, Seraphima and Schumacher

We, the anonymous members of Pussy Riot, would like to say many thanks to all the people who have supported us, those who demanded the release of our members, those who sympathised with us and sympathised with our ideology. We are very grateful to all of you; we deeply appreciate and respect everyone who has contributed to the Pussy Riot campaign.

‘Public Secrets’: Arts, Culture and Contemporary Indonesian Politics after the Fall of Suharto

Location: Project Reach NYC. 39 Eldridge Street, 4FL. New York NY, 10002

Performance by Arahmaiani /Screening of Erika Baglyas’s film Honestly featuring CM Rien Kuntari

Conversation with Arahmaiani & CM Rien Kuntari

1998, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and the resignation of General Suharto after 32 years in power, was a tumultuous year for Indonesia. Promises of long-overdue democratic reform were quickly overshadowed by persistent political and economic instability, rampant corruption, civil unrest and terrorism. Performance artist Arahmaiani and war journalist Cordula Maria Rien Kuntari were witness to this important historical moment and its aftermath, both as insiders and outsiders. In addition to a shared national identity, both women share the common experience of being forced to leave their countries of origin as a result of their professional practice as it served to interrogate abuses of power and the hypocrisy of politics in their country.

The Levermore Global Scholars Program is partnering with freeDimensional to bring guest speaker Ademola Bello, an international artist, to campus.

Thursday, December 5, 2:00–3:00 p.m

Location: Campbell Lounge, Room 1

About the Artist:

Ademola Bello is a Nigerian playwright, journalist, and novelist who has used his plays and dramatic writing to give a voice to oppressed communities and speak truth to power around the world. He will share his international journey, experiences, and struggles to use the arts as a tool for social change.

On November 13 & 14, fD in partnership with El Centro Cultural de Espana in Mexico is hosting a two day consultation meeting on free expression and cultural rights in Mexico and Central America. 45 representatives from the arts, culture and human rights sectors will attend the consultation to exchange experiences, issues and problems, and mechanisms of support as they relate to different forms of creative activism.

What: 2-day consultation / workshop with artists, culture workers and activists from Mexico and Central America

Press Release: 30 October 2013

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is encouraged by the decisions passed on Wednesday 30 October 2013 by the Constitutional Court in two constitutional matters brought before it challenging the constitutionality of some offensive provisions of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

In the case of Mr Tendai Danga, the Constitutional Court struck off the matter from the court roll after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) withdrew the charges preferred against the Bulawayo resident. Tendai Danga faced charges of undermining authority of or insulting President Robert Mugabe in contravention of Section 33 (2) (a) (ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) in a matter that commenced more than two years ago.

Emcee: Negin Farsad Main Dish: Alex White Mazzarella & Artefacting With: Caron Atlas, Stephanie Gooel, Brian Halloran, Niki Singleton, Lawman Lynch, Chloe Bass, Dave Ruder, Abigail Levine and Wen-shaun Yang

Location: Bowery Poetry Time: 6-8pm $10

{Each evening begins with a happy hour from 6pm to 7pm, and a live radio broadcast from 7-8pm.}

ABOUT THE SERIES

Dates: Mondays, Oct 21, Nov 18, Dec 16

The United States Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) and the Associação Espaço Cultural Lanchonete (aka Lanchonete) are taking over Bowery Poetry for a series of evening encounters and exchanges, one part happy hour and the other part radio talk show… shaken, stirred, and served straight up on the airwaves! For three evenings this Fall, Situational Junta poses a simple question: If artists are empowered to innovate on a large enough scale to interrupt the status quo, what would that look like?

Arts/Rights/Justice Working Group presents UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Report on The Right to Freedom of Artistic Expression & Creation - October 2 - Brussels

The presentation of the UN Report, “The Right to Freedom of Artistic Expression and Creation” at the European Parliament in Brussels on 2nd October 2013, from 11:30-14:30 in the Paul Henri Spaak Building, Room P5B001.  Presenting the report will be its author, Mme Farida Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights.

Luiza encounters regular violence and intimidation in her work helping women survivors of state-sponsored violence. Living under the Chechen regime, activist women need a combination of self and community care. 

by Keely Tongate

Luiza has seen many attempts to silence Chechen human rights activists.

There was the car with tell-tale tinted windows and no number plates that tried to run over her sister, after she gave a speech attacking Chechnya’s poor human rights record. The constant emergency trips to neighboring republics with her children, having faced by threats from gangs on the government payroll. The drive-by paintball shootings. These were thugs trying to keep activists in check, part of a wider effort to enforce women’s compliance with a strict Islamic dress code.

More literal and visceral, Syrian poetry is being spread on social media and chanted in the streets.

Ghada al-Atrash, a Syrian-Canadian writer and translator, has been studying Syrian poetry for decades.

Yet in all her years of work, she says she has never encountered works of poetry such as the ones emerging today from the depths of a Syria in the throes of an increasingly deadly civil war.

“Today there is literature coming out of Syria that we could have never even dreamed of just a few years ago,” Atrash says.

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead an Indian author in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, police say.

Sushmita Banerjee, the writer of a popular book about her dramatic escape from the Taliban in the 1990s, was shot dead on Wednesday night, police announced on Thursday.

“We found her bullet-riddled body near [a religious school] on the outskirts of Sharan city [Paktika’s provincial capital] this morning,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran told the AFP news agency.

“The story that is behind a censored film can help us to understand better our society”

CENSURADOS Film Festival will take place in Lima (Peru) on December 2013 with the aim to give voice to those fiction, documentary and animation films that have been censored in different countries for political, religious, sexual or environmental reasons, among others. The Festival wants to open a new space for directors and producers that their films have been prohibited and wants to know and talk about the story that is behind each censure. Since the beginning of cinema many films and scenes have been prohibited by different social, religious and political groups. Yet in 1894 we can find the first images censored in United States (“Carmencita”) that were prohibited by two local politicians because the scene shown the underskirt of the dancer. Others films such Clockwork Orange and The Great Dictator were also censored in the past and nowadays are some of the greatest films of cinema’s history. These are only some examples of how the censure has been very close to the history of the cinema and the documentary films.

Natalia Zabolotna’s primary job as director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal art museum in Kyiv was to oversee the pieces under her roof.

But on July 25, the night before a visit by President Viktor Yanukovych and the opening of an exhibit meant to celebrate Ukrainian heritage, she took a can of black paint and doused a piece that she deemed “immoral.”

A day later, the destruction of artist Volodymyr Kuznetsov’s “Koliivschina: Judgment Day” has prompted the resignation of the museum’s deputy, helped fuel a street protest, and triggered alarm within the country’s artistic community.

by Pelin Tan

“An event is political if its material is collective, or if the event can only be attributed to a collective multiplicity.” —Alain Badiou

Before the Turkish government brutally invaded Taksim Square and Gezi Park with water cannons and tear gas last Saturday, protesters held forums to discuss sustainable action that would continue the resistance beyond the park’s occupation. The Gezi Park experience is about collaboration, solidarity despite differences, voluntary shared labor, an agonistic democratic platform, and friendship. Whatever form of protest the next demonstrations take, they must contain these core aspects of the “Gezi Park Experience,” with art and its dissemination playing a crucial role.

Statement from Malaysia political cartoonist, Zunar. Zunar vs the police and the Malaysian government (Unlawful Detention under The Sedition Act): An appeal at the Appellate Court on the 18th June 2013

The Appellate Court has set 18th of June to hear my appeal on the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s ruling regarding detention of me under the Sedition Act three years ago.

In his ruling on July last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera rules that the detention was lawful, even though in the other part of the judgment the court had instructed the police to return all my books and drawing and pay the damages.

Forced to Flee: Exiled Voices and Visions of Justice

Tuesday, June 11 @ 12PM PST / 3PM EST

Greetings!

We are pleased to announce our upcoming conference call Forced to Flee: Exiled Voices and Visions for Justice, which we are presenting in collaboration with Arts & Democracy Project.

Emotions conveyed and evoked by art and culture can open hearts and minds, heal and transform, build community across difference, and promote peace, equality and justice, advancing positive social change. In Forced to Flee, we will hear refugee artists, artists forced into exile, cultural organizers and their allies talk about how they are using the power of art and culture to amplify the voices and visions of those forced to flee their countries of origin.

After a series of peaceful demonstrations for preserving a recreational area in Istanbul city centre, which is planned to be demolished for the construction of a shopping mall, Turkish police attacked the protesters at 05:00am on Friday morning violently with tear gas and water cannon, directly targeting their faces and bodies. Dozens of protesters are wounded and are being treated by doctors outside hospitals as they are not welcome there or are not able to reach the Emergency Rooms. Some are even reported dead.

Save the Date: Friday, May 24 6:30-9:30PM

Join us at Project Reach in Chinatown, New York City for an art exhibit, silent auction and performance to fund a mobile clinic this summer in rural villages in Cameroon.

Since 2009, the partnership between the U.S. charity organization Bush Medicine Partnership (Drexel University) and Hope International For Tikar People – a Cameroonian community based organization – have served more than 8000 people in the isolated communities in the rain forest of Cameroon.

A Blade of Grass, established in 2011 as the first grant-making organization solely dedicated to socially engaged art, today announced its second round of organizational grantees.  The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and The Laundromat Project were selected to receive project support in the amount of $20,000 each, and freeDimensional has been selected to receive $20,000 in general operating support.  A Blade of Grass will honor these grantees at a private reception in May.

Winter of Discontent screening @ 2013 Alwan Film Festival Thursday May 2, 6:30 PM - Anthology Film Archives

Co-presented by freeDimensional

Ibrahim El-Batout, Egypt, 2012, 94 mins

Set against the momentous backdrop of the mass protests of Cairo’s Tahrir Square that began on January 25, 2011, this film takes us on a compellingly raw and moving journey into the lives of an activist, a journalist, and a state security officer. Winter of Discontent poetically explores the anguish of a victim of state terror in 2009, presaging and intertwining with the pivotal events in 2011 that changed the face of Egypt. As the stories of the characters unfold, we are propelled headlong into the heady, often surreal atmosphere of terror and uncertainty that characterized the last days of Mubarak’s rule.

freeDimensional in partnership with the Brian Morris Gallery invites you to attend a group exhibition launch and fundraiser, Fragile States, on April 25, from 6-9PM.

Fragile States is an exploration of the physical and psychological experiences of persecution and forced displacement. The artists featured in the exhibition share a common experience of having to leave their country of origin after facing threats, violent assault, imprisonment or torture as a result of using their creative practice to voice the concerns of their communities.

DEADLINE: 1 May 2013

submissions@artraker.org

The Artraker Fund awards art that makes a direct positive change in countries that have experienced social upheaval and violent conflict. The Fund was created in 2012 by International Conflict and Security (INCAS) Consulting Ltd.

The prize of GBP2500 is awarded to the winning submission in London on International Peace Day (21 September) each year.

An international panel of judges from both the art and peace-building disciplines assesses submissions for the Artraker Award. They look for experimentation and engagement, audacity, change and capacity to inspire.

March 13, 14, &15

John Jay College of Criminal Justice 524 West 59th. Street New York, NY, 10019

Independent Artists Projects, NYC

Chaw Ei Thein (Burma/NYC) “Living Monuments.” With respondent Emily Hue.

Kymbali Craig and Samuel Encarnacion (Bailey’s Café, Brooklyn, NY,) “Skin Deep, Skin Tight.”

Racquel De Loyola (Philippines,) “Blinded.”

Margit Edwards and Seth Baumrin (NYC) “Subpoetics – raw material, roots, and ethnodramaturgy.”

Vernice Miller, Soraya Broukheim, and Winsome Brown (A Laboratory for Actor Training, Brooklyn, NY) “Experimental Theatre and Social Transformation.”

Help Belarus Free Theatre tour an important piece of theatre, Trash Cuisine!

Click here to donate a few Pounds Sterling!

Trash Cuisine is a dynamic, affecting and innovative piece of theatre devised and developed from first degree research collected in Asia, Africa, U.S. and Europe by Belarus Free Theatre with the support of Amnesty International.

Hugely well received at its premiere in Stadsshouwberg, Amsterdam on 5 October 2012, supported by the European Cultural Foundation, Trash Cuisine explores issues behind imprisonment and torture with particular focus on the death penalty to create a challenging and nerve shredding performance.

Radio Taboo is a development project and documentary film about Issa Nyaphaga, a political journalist in exile returning to his small village in West Africa to build a community radio station to educate his community about subjects that are often too taboo to talk about. Issa was a journalist in Cameroon in the 1990s where he was jailed and tortured for his political cartoons. He is now heading back to his village in Cameroon to build a community radio station to educate villagers about Public health, environmental issues, women’s issues and rights of gay and HIV infected people. Nditam, his village, has no running water, no electricity, no schools or hospitals and no public news service. The film follows his struggle to raise funds, get the materials, gather manpower, build the station, train citizen journalists and make the station work for the betterment of his community. It will be an adventure to travel with Issa as he fights against all odds to create this amazing project. The radio station will run on renewable energy and will feature citizen journalists reporting on local issues to 1 million people in the remote rainforest of Cameroon.

Zunar’s Press Release, 2nd January 2013

My latest cartoon book,“Lawak & Lawan” to protest Malaysian draconian printing act

My latest cartoon book, Lawak & Lawan (Fun & Fight) is produced to protest the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA). Among cited in this Act under section, 11 (2) requires the name of the printer to be printed in each publication. Failure to comply can be punished with imprisonment not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding RM5000 ( about USD1800) or both.

SANTIAGO, Chile — Eight retired army officers were charged on Friday with the murder of a popular songwriter and theater director, Víctor Jara, who was tortured and killed days after the 1973 military coup in a stadium that had been turned into a detention center.

Judge Miguel Vásquez charged two of the former officers, Pedro Barrientos and Hugo Sánchez, with committing the murder and six others as accomplices. Mr. Sánchez, a lieutenant colonel, was second in command at the stadium. Mr. Barrientos, a lieutenant from a Tejas Verdes army unit, currently lives in Deltona, a city southwest of Daytona Beach, Fla., and was interrogated by the F.B.I. earlier this year at the request of a Chilean court. Attempts to reach Mr. Barrientos for comment were unsuccessful; his two listed telephone numbers had been disconnected.

“All that is banned is desired”,

When art turns into a reflexive power, to get banned!

-1-

In the Norwegian capital sleeps on the shoulder of water Oslo opera house. It is a peaceful structure breathing below a changeable weather that displays simply the “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unrest”. The weather of Oslo resembles a state of instability. Political in the first sense and in a country somewhere, thousands of miles away from Oslo city. The “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unrest” are three vertices, each of particular dimension, that induce a temptation into the artist/writer/activist to move within and try to come up with a result. Yes, if these three vertices got joined together in a triangle, nothing can fit inside better than a chart of “politics of nowadays”. That may sort an elementary exercise in geometry. Is it easy to construct a triangle when the three points are located on the page? May be. A matter again to be thought about! Not that easy in fact. You have to cling in your neck a basket of requirements! Metaphorically speaking, to be able to connect the three vertices, you have to distinguish them first. And to be distinguished, an effort has to be done as they wouldn’t be located so clearly. And the medium that hosts them should be already existing, but either translucent, either turbid or dirty. However, you need also to track the “why” behind their location as well! Is that too complicated? The simplest way then, sounds to go backwards. If you know that the paper (the medium) we are talking about is nothing but the country, any country under political and military conflict, ethnic struggle, civil war, revolution, or any other kind of tension, then you can find your way to the “why” and you can understand how it means “translucent, turbid or dirty”. You will end up most probably pointing your finger to each of the vertices: the “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unstable”.

A Bolivian radio journalist has been attacked while he was conducting a radio show in the southern city of Yacuiba.

Staff at Radio Popular said four masked men broke into the studio, poured petrol over presenter Fernando Vidal and set him alight.

Mr Vidal, 78, and another staff member are being treated for burns.

Relatives said Mr Vidal had been reporting on smuggling in the border area when the attack happened.

Popular Somali poet, playwright and songwriter Warsame Shire Awale has been killed in the capital, Mogadishu.

He was shot by unknown gunmen near his home on Monday evening.

Mr. Awale wrote and acted in radio plays critical of the militant group, al-Shabab, who he accused of misleading people in the name of Islam.

According to information received by NUSOJ, Warsame Shire Awale, a renowned poet who worked for Radio Kulmiye, was attacked on the evening of 29 October 2012 near his house in the Waberi district. He was reportedly shot several times by unidentified gunmen and was immediately rushed to the Daru Shifa hospital, where he was declared dead.

MUSIC, TOLERANCE & DEFIANCE: An evening with Shahin Najafi & Mohsen Namjoo

Shahin Najafi and Mohsen Namjoo are among the leading Iranian musical artists working today.

Najafi is visiting the U.S. for the first time since the fatwa and death threats against him in May 2012 resulting from the release of his satirical rap, “Naghi.” His speaking tour includes Berkeley, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orlando. In 2009, Namjoo was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for insulting religious sanctities by singing some Quranic verses to music in a private recording, which was later released without his authorization.

UNESCO has expressed concern at the death threats to Manish Harijan, a Nepali painter whose works are on show at one of Kathmandu’s art galleries.

“The right to freedom of expression must also apply to artistic expression. Tension that may arise between artistic creation and religious and ethical values should be openly discussed instead of becoming subject of intimidation or even death threat to the artist”, a press statement issued by UNESCO on Wednesday quoted Axel Plathe, Head of the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu, as saying.

fD Board members Martin Rosengaard and Todd Lester have partnered with the S17 Support Group to set up a hosting system in New York city for Occupy Wall Street’s one-year anniversary weekend: Host an Occupier.

The Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street is upon us. Organizing work is nearly complete as cities across the country and the world prepare to celebrate the progress of our first year in the fight for economic justice. A “Festival des Indignées” is being planned in Paris. An “Open Knowledge Festival” kicks off in Helsinki, Finland.

Activists on Friday slammed Uganda for arresting a British theatre producer who staged a play about a gay man in defiance of a ban by the country’s media authorities.

Producer David Cecil was charged in court Thursday with two counts including one of “disobeying legal orders” and sent to prison pending a bail hearing next week. He faces up to two years in jail if found guilty, his lawyer said.

On the 9th of September Zakaria Zubeidi announced that he will embark on a death fast, a complete food and fluid strike, in response to the continuous postponement of his release from Palestinian Authority prison. This effectively means that unless the Palestinian Authority releases Zakaria he will most probably not make it through the week. 

Zubeidi, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre and former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, has been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for close to four months. No charges have been made against him, no evidence presented and throughout his imprisonment his rights have been severely violated, as described by among others Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/27/israelpalestinian-authority-theater-group-hit-both-sides).

Witness:

In November 2011, as armed conflict raged in Syria, a young acting troupe called Masasit Mati launched a ground-breaking, finger-puppet show: Top Goon: Diaries of a Little Dictator, which mocks the Syrian regime in ways never seen in public before.

Living in exile, the four actors in Masasit Mati broadcast their show online, attracting a growing audience and positive reviews around the world.

But Top Goon’s success puts the actors themselves in danger and the widening split in Syria between those who favour a peaceful resolution and those prepared to use armed force mirrors that within the troupe itself.

Syrian filmmaker and producer Orwa Nyrabia was arrested in Damascus International Airport while traveling to Cairo at noon on Thursday, August 23rd, 2012. Nyrabia’s family still have no information about the reasons for his detention and his whereabouts are still unknown.  freeDimensional joins the Nyrabia family and the international community calling for the immediate release of our friend and colleague Orwa Nyrabia.

Nyrabia graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 1999. He participated at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004 for his lead-role in the film “The Gate of the Sun” by Yousry Nasrallah which was based on the Lebanese Elias Khoury’s novel.

A statement by Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar in response to the court ruling regarding his detention -  1 st August 2012

I am extremely disappointed with the Malaysian High Court’s ruling that my detention under the Sedition Act in September 2010 was according to the law.

On the 24th of September 2010, I was arrested and jailed for two days just a few hours before the launching of my new comic book, Cartoon-O-Phobia.

From July 6 – 13, freeDimensional and Musagetes Foundation convened a Collaboration Laboratory (COL:LAB) on Wasan Island, Canada to solidify existing partnerships and explore possibilities for new models of cross-sectorial work engaging art, human rights and social justice. Through a series of dialogues, presentations and working sessions participants delved deep into conversations around international and cross-cultural exchange, strategies for strengthening regional networks, shifting funding paradigms, and the development of new mechanisms of support for artists at risk. Working groups developed actionable plans for moving forward on collaborative projects to be realized in the coming months and years.

STATEMENT:

I would like to refer to the ruling made by the Election Commission of Malaysia which bans the use of cartoons in the campaigns for the up-coming General Election. (General election’s date in Malaysia can only be decided by the Prime Minister, but must be called before the current term ends in March 2013).

The banning of cartoons during the election is comical and ludicrous. This is because cartooning is a legally-practiced medium in Malaysia and therefore the Commission does not have the right to forbid its use. Moreover, this is contradicting to the freedom of expression as provided to all citizens in Malaysian Constitution.

Press Release by The Freedom Theatre, June 6, 2012

At approximately 03:15 am this morning the Israeli army entered the home of Nabil Al-Raee, Artistic Director of The Freedom Theatre, and took him to an unknown location.

Nabil’s wife, Micaela Miranda explains what happened: “The dog started barking so I went outside and saw soldiers jumping over the gate and come into the yard of the house. They asked for my husband and I asked what for, that it’s my right to know and it’s my house. The soldiers replied that they were not going to tell me. They then took Nabil, brought him to an army jeep and drove off. We are very worried because we don’t know where they took him and why.”

Seven Burmese performance artists will face charges in a Mandalay court on Thursday after they allegedly broke an obscure law last week by performing in public with five foreigners who were subsequently deported.

Officials from Mandalay’s Police Station No. 2 charged the seven artists on Tuesday with violating Section 11 of the 1964 Library, Museum and Exhibition Monitoring Act for performing near the north side of Mandalay’s moat on May 24.

First Breakout – Artistic Expressions from the Heart – Exhibition by Kyaw Thu

“I have been denied all rights to artistic creation in Myanmar since September 2007, when I offered alms and water to monks walking in peaceful protest and reciting prayers of love during the Saffron Revolution, all the way to my current visit to the United States. I would like to call it the first breakout, the first artistic expressions from the heart, to be able to publicly exhibit the heartfelt works I have painted during my visit to America.” - Kyaw Thu (film actor, director, producer, painter, undertaker)

fD Director, Sidd Joag joins more than 100 delegates, guest writers and observers from as many as 32 different countries heading to Stockholm Wednesday 9-Friday 11 May, to take part in the 2012 International Cities Of Refuge Network General Assembly. Established as an independent, international organisation since 2010, more than 30 ICORN member cities from all over Europe and beyond will be represented when it all breaks loose at Kulturhuset in Stockholm.

Forum & Opening Reception for Partnership Gallery Exhibition in Collaboration with Drik Picture Library, Dhaka.

Bangladeshi photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam’s Crossfire exhibition will open in the Partnership Gallery at the Queens Museum of Art on 15th April, 2012 and run until May 6th, 2012. The exhibition aims to gather international support for a campaign to end extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh by state forces, usually called “crossfire.”

In 2004, responding to a perceived law and order “crisis” the Bangladesh government created a new, armed enforcement agency, called Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The agency was formed by taking officers from the Bangladesh Police, Army, Navy and Air Force. Over time, the agency’s budget and power grew until today it is one of the largest and most feared groups inside Bangladesh. From the very early days, RAB became notorious for killing people it was trying to capture, often during gun battles, which the government always claims is due to “crossfire.”

Art for Health is a charity event that is hosted every spring to support innovative medical projects in Cameroon, Africa. Through art exhibitions, performance, live music, body painting, as well as slam and spoken word poetry, the artist’s creative energy is channeled towards supporting health projects for indigenous communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as towards promoting the message of social justice and free expression for people world-wide.

Since 2009, Hope International for Tikar People, founded by Cameroonian native and activist Issa Nyaphaga and the Bush Medicine Partnership, founded by students from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia have been working together to improve the quality of life in the Tikar villages in Eastern Cameroon as well as other marginalized communities with no access to medical care. Thus far, the partnership has served the urgent health needs of over 8,000 people in the isolated tribal communities of Cameroon.

Chaw Ei Thein (2011 Mentee Alum, Burma), is a painter and performance artist whose work stems from her contrasting experiences of growing up in a politically oppressive Burma and then shifting to a very different landscape in the United States. Chaw Ei’s emotionally charged work of addressing these conflicts in her native country has earned her critical acclaim, awards, and residencies in the U.S. and abroad. However, it has also forced her to live in political exile in which returning to her native country could mean reprisal from the Burmese government. Between her experiences in the U.S. and her desire to return home, Chaw Ei balances multiple tensions in her work. She shares how she deals with her experience and how she has found her Mentorship with Alexandra Pacula in the NYFA Mentoring Program helpful to her artistic career and personal pursuits. The Mentoring Program collaborated with freeDimensional to pair Chaw Ei with her Mentor.

Press alert: Music Freedom Day  - a global manifestation for freedom of expression for musicians on Saturday 3 March

In 48 hours, on this Saturday, the annual Music Freedom Day is marked with events, seminars, exhibitions, film shows, radio programmes and news paper articles on freedom of expression for musicians and composers all over the world.

List and programmes of events  Events are currently being prepared in 19 countries: Activities on Music Freedom Day 2012

The Malaysian government has defended its deportation of a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet

Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the deportation to Saudi Arabia was legal and that Malaysia cannot be seen as a safe haven.

Hamza Kashgari, 23, was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Mr Kashgari’s controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats. Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

Dear friends,

On the 2nd February 2011 our friend Víctor Leiva, known as “el Mono”, left the cultural center where he was taking dance classes. Moments later a firearm cut his life short.

Víctor was 24 years old when he was murdered. He was an http://www.gooakley.com/ artist and human rights defender, focusing particularly on the rights of young people, with whom he also worked.

This deplorable act of violence was condemned by civil society and national and international human rights organizations. A letter sent to Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor on the 2nd August 2011, marking six months since his death and requesting the prompt investigation of his murder, was signed by 44 organizations and over 400 individuals from 26 countries. 

Salman Rushdie has canceled his talk at Jaipur’s literary festival after hearing rumors that there were plans to assassinate him.

The controversial author was due to speak about his early work Midnight’s Children at India’s biggest literary festival, which began on Friday, though influential Muslim cheap oakley sunglasses clerics had protested his participation, BBC News reported.

“I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ’eliminate’ me,” Rushdie said in a statement that was read out at the festival.

****Kuala Lumpur 18.01.12: Celebrated Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar (née Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque) appeared at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today for the first hearing of a civil suit brought by himself against the government and the police, in which he challenges them for his wrongful arrest and detention in September 2010.

Represented by the group Lawyers for Liberty, Zunar is seeking the return of confiscated property as well as aggravated losses and damages incurred in the incident which took place on 24 September 2010. That night, hours before the launch of http://www.troakley.com/ Zunar’s latest compilation of political cartoons titled ‘Cartoon-O-Phobia’, the police raided the artist’s office in Kuala Lumpur, seized all copies of the book and arrested him for sedition.

Zakaria Zbeidi, the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin who was pardoned by Israel two years ago, has been added to Israel’s wanted list again.

In recent days, Palestinian security services informed Zbeidi that upon Israel’s request, he must remain in the Palestinian Authority’s detention facilities during all hours of the day and night, otherwise Israel will arrest him.

Zbeidi confirmed the report to Haaretz, yet cheap oakley said he did not know why the pardon was rescinded. Last week, Palestinian security forces arrested one of Zbeidi’s brothers, along with one of the workers at Jenin’s Freedom Theater, which Zbeidi directs.

Vaclav Havel, the writer and dissident whose eloquent dissections of Communist rule helped to destroy it in revolutions that brought down the Berlin Wall and swept Havel himself into power, died on Sunday. He was 75.

A shy yet resilient, unfailingly polite but dogged man Oakley Sunglasses cheap who articulated the power of the powerless, Mr. Havel spent five years in and out of Communist prisons, lived for two decades under close secret-police surveillance and endured the suppression of his plays and essays. He served 14 years as president, wrote 19 plays, inspired a film and a rap song and remained one of his generation’s most seductively nonconformist writers.

fD joins the Artsfex summit in Copenhagen on 9-11 December 2011 along with several prominent national and international artists’ networks, and freedom of expression organisations. The summit is organised by Freemuse and Danish PEN, and funded by the Danish Ministry of Culture. Participants will present http://www.raybani.com/ recent examples of censorship of the arts, and discuss the effects of censorship and repression of artists. Featured presenters include founding members of the Belarus Free Theatre, currently living in exile.

fD joins Trans Europe Halles, Freemuse and the International Coalition of Arts, Human Rights and Social Justice in denouncing the continued persecution of Bahraini artists and intellectuals. Since the popular uprisings began this past spring, several hundred culture workers have faced threats, harassment, loss of job, torture and imprisonment.

Several weeks ago we submitted a letter in support of Bahraini culture workers to the Ministry of Culture, to which we have received no response. In our letter, we expressed concern “that some artists and intellectuals in Bahrain may be in danger of losing their capacity to foster healthy and http://www.usofacomputers.com productive international exchange between Bahrain and other countries, due to recent infringement of human and cultural rights in Bahrain.” We further admonished that in light of Manama being named 2012 Arab Capital of Culture, continued persecution of artists and intellectuals would garner significant, negative international attention.

fD founder Todd Lester joins a panel at ‘Networked: Dialogue and Exchange in the Global Art Ecology’ in London, England.

Organized by the Triangle Network, the conference featured representatives of arts and cultural networks and organizations from around the world. Topics covered include: the principles and http://www.raybani.com/ ethics that guide cultural networks, the use of network practices in developing programs, why artists use and create networks, the environments in which networks develop and operate, support systems and challenges faced by networks, and approaches to supporting artists and grassroots initiatives.

BILBAO, Spain. November 10, 2011 - 

ZUNAR a.k.a. Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, who has been drawing  editorial cartoons for the past 20 years in Malaysia, was awarded the “Courage To Fight Censorship” Award at the VI. Festival Against Censorship.

ZUNAR uses his drawing pen as a weapon to fight state  corruption and abuse of power. He has turned the spotlight on     local public-interest issues such as the politically explosive  (literally!) and unsolved murder of a Mongolian woman, the  political conspiracy against the former-deputy-prime-minister-  turned-Opposition-Leader Anwar Ibrahim, the domineering  wife of the present prime minister, and the shady Scorpene submarine purchases that are now being investigated in France.

fD program coordinator Sidd Joag joins a roundtable discussion at the VI. Festival Against Censorship in Bilbao, Spain.  Now in its 6th year, the Festival is organized by the Basque production company Serrano in collaboration with FREEMUSE and in 2010 honored fD with its annual No Censorship award.

Highlights of this year’s Festival program include fD stakeholders:  Malaysian cartoonist ZUNAR, and Zimbabwean artist Owen Maseko.

“Zunar has been drawing editorial cartoons for the past 20 years in malaysia. Zunar uses his drawing pen as a weapon to fight state corruption and abuse of power. seven of his books are banned by the malaysian government.”

fD program coordinator and visual artist Sidd Joag joins a panel with poet Suheir Hammad, filmmaker Iara Lee and Paul D. Miller a.k.a D.J. Spooky, to explore the role of the artist in a global society, including that of the diasporic artist. The panel will be moderated by http://www.raybandasoleit.com/ NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Arts and Public Policy Chair Randy Martin.  7-9PM @ NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò

As part of the program, fD and Residency Unlimited will facilitate a working session on a new residency and resource mapping  initiative for artists-in-exile in New York City, including invited guests and open to the public. 3-5PM. @ NYU Institute for Public Knowledge

According to an opposition website [www.kalameh.com] and as reported on 10 October 2011 by the Associated Press, Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr, wife of film director and screenwriter Nasser Taghvai, has been sentenced to one year in jail and 90 lashes for Ray Ban outlet appearing in a movie critical of the Islamic republic’s hard-line policies.

Vafamehr was arrested the first week of July 2011 in Tehran and was held in detention until 25 July 2011 when she was released on bail.

On Friday, September 30, from 4pm to 8pm, performance artist and painter Chaw Ei Thein and radio journalist Lawman Lynch will create “social space” in Creative Time’s ‘Living as Form’ exhibition at the Essex Street Market. [www.creativetime.org/livingasform]

Transit Lounge/Waiting Room captures the experiences of fD’s New York stakeholders (artists displaced from their home countries as a result of their artistic activism) through http://www.gooakley.com/ performance, visual art, and video interviews. Transit Lounge/Waiting Room will highlight the situation in Burma, in particular the continual attacks on free expression. It explores the experience of displacement and acclimatization to a new environment when an artist is forced to depart their home country.

Hadi al-Medhi, one of the main organizers of a mass demonstration on September 9, was found assassinated in his home one day prior. Hadi, an outspoken critic of government corruption and the denial of basic rights, had experienced threats, kidnapping and torture earlier this year. On February 25, after participating in the ‘Day of Rage’ protests in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Hadi along with three of his friends were beaten and kidnapped by nearly 15 soldiers. He told Amnesty International that he was taken to a detention center located in a former building of the defense cheap oakley ministry, where he was beaten, electrocuted and threatened with rape. He was released in the early morning hours of February 26.

Special Forces of the Israeli Army attacked the Freedom Theater in Jenin Refugee Camp at approximately 3:30 Wednesday morning. Ahmad Nasser Matahen, a night guard and technician student at the theater woke up by heavy blocks of stone being hurled at the entrance of the theater. As he opened the door he found masked and heavily armed Israeli Special Forces around the theater. Matahen said that the army threw heavy blocks of stone at the theater.

The centerpiece of freeDimensional’s three-year strategy is the development of an Ray Ban outlet international system of Regional Triage Teams to support culture workers in distress. Six regional triage teams representing Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, South America, and Europe are meeting from July 13-20 on Wasan Island in the Muskoka Lakes of Ontario, Canada, hosted by the Breuninger Stiftung.  freeDimensional organized a skills-sharing workshop on the logistical, administrative and resource identification (e.g. psycho-social, legal, income generation, health care) aspects of case management.   In turn, participants from Canada, US, Belgium, Colombia, France, India, Uzbekistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Guatemala, Germany, Argentina, Denmark, UK, and Iraq helped to construct regional snapshots of political conditions for artists, and shared their concerns through an experimental Cultural Rights Clinic.

El músico argentino murió en un ataque perpetrado por un grupo armado mientras se trasladaba a bordo de una camioneta por el bulevar Liberación, de la capital del país. 25 impactos de bala recibió su vehículo cuando se dirigía al Aeropuerto La Aurora, luego de una semana de presentaciones  El cantante argentino Facundo Cabral fue asesinado http://www.gooakley.com/ en la capital guatemalteca la madrugada de hoy por un grupo armado,  en el momento que se trasladaba al Aeropuerto La Aurora a bordo de una camioneta. 25 impactos de bala recibió su vehículo, que terminó dentro del cuartel de bomberos de la ciudad, donde el piloto trató de refugiarse.   El periodista Erwin Dávila, director de prensa de TGW Radio Nacional de Guatemala, sostuvo en Radio 10 que se trató de un “atentado” y aclaró que “no fue un robo más”.  Los hechos ocurrieron sobre las 5:20 horas (local, 11:20 GMT). El  vocero del gobierno, Ronaldo Robles, condenó y lamentó el hecho, y afirmó que las fuerzas de seguridad, por instrucciones del presidente Álvaro Colom, ya iniciaron las investigaciones para esclarecer “lo más inmediatamente posible” lo cheap oakley ocurrido.  Cabral había salido de un hotel donde se hospedaba y se dirigía al aeropuerto para abandonar la ciudad. Estaba acompañado por otra persona que también fue herida de bala, aunque se desconoce su estado de salud.

Chronicler of Iran’s Green Movement, cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani speaks out on the hunger strike by political prisoners in Iran (see video), and Nikolai Khalezin, co-founder of Belarus Free Theater writes The Last Letter to Sasha, an open letter to President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

BEIJING — China said Thursday that dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who was released from jail a day earlier, remained under investigation and would be prohibited from leaving Beijing for at least the next year as a condition of his bail. “Ai Weiwei is still under investigation,” Hong Lei, the foreign ministry spokesman, told a regularly scheduled news briefing.  “He is not allowed to leave his area of residence.”  Lei said the “area of residence” referred to Beijing, and that Ai was not being placed under house arrest.

A two-day event that engages artists, independent arts organizations, residency programmers, and community initiatives on specific areas and cheap oakley sunglasses conceptions of conflict. Issues for discussion will include mobility, community outreach, and exchange of knowledge through the broadly-interpreted artist residency model.  Art Residencies & Conflict Areas is initiated by Residency  Unlimited, and  jointly organized by Residency Unlimited, freeDimensional & the Creative Resistance Fund, and independent researcher Gaby Ron.  The program is supported by the Goethe-­Institut New York.  Get more information here

Border Statements is a community arts initiative and artist residency in Ruili City, Yunnan province, on the China-Burma (Myanmar) border, which uses arts and cultural programs to counteract the adverse effects of the Golden Triangle drug trade, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS on ethnic http://www.raybani.com/ minority youth. Launched in 2007 by Zero Capital Arts, the project relies on a network of international and local artists, educators, volunteers, and businesses to provide artists, culture-bearers, community members, students and youth with opportunities to collaborate and develop strategies for cultural preservation.

From July 15-20, freeDimensional is training 12 knowledge workers from around the world on our resource mapping methodology for supporting artists whose activist work puts them in danger.  If you know someone well-suited for this role, please share our Case Consultant Terms of Reference.  We will be hosted by the Breuninger Stiftung on their Wasan Island conference facility in the Muskoka Lakes of Ontario, Canada.  The event is made possible through the expertise and financial support of partners such as Latin American Network of Art for Social Transformation and Arts Network Asia.

Maria do Espírito Santo and her husband, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva fought against illegal loggers and had received death threats but were refused police protection. They were killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state on May 23, 2011. In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November, Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence them. “I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal Ray Ban outlet producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, ‘are you afraid?’ Yes, I’m a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.”

Arts Collaboratory and the Triangle Arts Trust invited fD founder, Todd Lester for a Knowledge & Skills Sharing Residency at one of the few artist residency programs in Central America, Espira / La Espora.  One of the outcomes is a community forum on Friday, May 27, 2011.

fD Management Coordinator, Dana Penrod participated in the NYC  edition of The School for Creative Activism (SCA).  SCA is a participatory workshop infusing community organizing and civic engagement with culture and creativity.  Working directly with organizers and community actors, the SCA leverages the strengths of grassroots activism and the attention grabbing and complex messaging of art through a curriculum designed to:

• Teach cultural tactics and creative strategies employed effectively by organizers in the past.
• Recognize and draw upon the cultural resources and creative cheap oakley sunglasses talents residing within individuals, organizations, and communities in the present.
• Collectively run scenarios and plan campaigns that utilize culture and creativity.
• Build a network of organizers and artists using a model of creative organizing more effective in our media-saturated, spectacle-savvy world

Provisions Learning Project and Lambent Foundation invite you to the Aesthetic Justice Seminar, curated by Thomas Keenan and Niels Van Tomme.  The seminar is organized within the framework of Provisions’s current Aesthetic Justice exhibition at Lambent Foundation, which features the works of Alyse Emdur, Rajkamal Kahlon, Carlos Motta, and Larissa Sansour. This daylong seminar will stage a number of http://www.troakley.com/ thought-provoking dialogues between the artist in the exhibition and renowned human rights practitioners, scholars, writers, and journalists. The aim is to explore the intersections between artistic practices and the field of human rights, and to discuss implications for the notion and practice of justice.  Saturday, May 14, program runs from  10 AM to 6 PM – RSVP for the seminar and learn more about the exhibit.

From April 14-17, freeDimensional’s program coordinator Sidd Joag was invited to present Art Spaces Hosting Activism and Strengthening Community Engagement at the Trans Europe Halles Meeting 71, titled ‘Shifting Gears’ in Tartu, Estonia.  The meeting brought together representatives from nearly fifty of Europe’s leading independent cultural institutions and was an exciting opportunity for fD to present its Creative Safe Haven model to a wider European audience. Special thanks to Lemmitt Kaplinski for joining fD’s workshop and discussing his process and challenges in providing safe haven for cheap oakley Georgian poet Zurab Rtveliashvili, adding the necessary personalized perspective.  ‘Shifting Gears’ included several performances, short presentations, workshops and discussions investigating the potentials for creative collaboration, artist mobility, resource exchange and capacity building between TEH member organizations.  Congratulations to the Creative Center Carnation for hosting an exciting and productive meeting. As Tartu’s first full engagement with the international arts community, Meeting 71 was an important moment in the history of that city’s growing art and culture scene. 

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd), La Maison des journalistes in Paris hosts the ‘Exile’ International cartoon exposition. ‘Exile’ is the brainchild of La Maison des journalistes resident, fD partner, and renowned Iranian cartoonist, Kianoush Ramezani.  The international expo, will take place on May 3rd 2011, and bring together a hundred cartoons by some of the most talented cartoonists in the world. A touring exhibition will start in the building of La Maison des journalistes in Paris and will then move to Ray Ban outlet several cities in France and Europe.  The main goal of the expo is to attract the media and public attention to the critical work performed by La Maison des journalistes, in helping exiled journalists who were forced to leave their home countries to escape persecution. La Maison des journalistes provides them with a housing solution and helps them through the many difficulties they face at the time of their arrival in France.  Posters, postcards and a catalog of all the ‘Exile’ cartoons will be created and sold to support La Maison Des Journalistes.

The following account is taken from the website of The Freedom Theatre –  On the 4th of April 2011, at 16:00 outside the entrance to The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, a traitor’s hand shot and killed the Palestinian thinker Juliano Mer-Khamis whilst he was driving home with his baby son and babysitter. Juliano was shot in his head and died in a few instants, the remains of the Ray Ban outlet bullet lodged in the babysitters arm.  Juliano Mer-Khamis, actor, director, filmmaker and cultural activist, son of Arna Mer and Saliba Khamis, was one of the founders of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp in 2006. All his life Juliano longed to fight against occupation using the arts as a model of social change. The people in the camp condemn what happened and have called it “a coward’s act”.

Some weeks ago, we broadcast news of well-known artist and activist, Ai Weiwei’s studio being demolished.  Fearing an uprising like those sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, the Chinese government Ray Ban outlet recently detained Ai Weiwei and now the government has virtually deleted him from the Chinese internet.  AccessNow is building up a petition on his behalf; click here to sign the petition and learn about other steps you can take to let the Chinese government know that we are watching their actions.

From March 22-27, 2011, freeDimensional director, Todd Lester was invited to present the publication Art Spaces Hosting Activism & Strengthening Community Engagement - a Tactical Notebook made in collaboration with New Tactics in Human Rights - at two venues in Lima, Peru.  This was the second meeting of Residencias en Red [iberoamérica].  R_en_R [i] was founded in November 2008 at a meeting organized by the Cultural Center of Spain in Sao Paulo.  The initiative supports the creation of a network intended to strengthen the organizational capacities of residency programs and to generate a space for dialogue between art spaces at the regional level, as well as promoting artist Gafas Ray Ban outlet mobility.  There were over 20 artist residency programs in attendance at the encounter, which gave freeDimensional a wonderful opportunity to share its model of Creative Safe Haven more broadly in the region.

To gather support for children who lost their parents in the earthquake and tsunami, artist Emiko Kasahara is collaborating with Japanese NGO Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi (Children without border ) by offering a print of “Maria & Eve –loop-” as a gift to people making donationas of $150 or more to the organization. Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi (KnK) is a humanitarian educational association founded to support disadvantaged youth in Asia and raise international awareness, particularly in Japan, of the situation of those underprivileged children. KnK was established in 1997 to support educational activities throughout Asia.

On June 14, 1985, Thami Mnyele was shot dead by South African Defense Force (SADF) soldiers outside his home in Gaborone. He had expected to move to Lusaka the next day and large collections of his art works that were packed into a portfolio were taken by the SADF. A week later, his work was displayed on SABC television as evidence of Thami’s ‘terrorist’ activities. In the early 1980s, Thami worked with ANC printers designing posters, mastheads, and stickers under the ANC’s name. He designed the first draft of the current ANC logo during this period. Learn more about Mnyele’s role in the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Makan(dot)NOW at Makan House in Amman, Jordan – In response to these electrifying historical days in the region, Makan opens its doors wide inviting you to meet, chat, collaborate and make artwork. Imagine Makan as a podium, a theater, a screen, a lab, a friend. Come meet in Makan, on the balcony when it is sunny, on the couch to keep warm, we have chairs, tables, internet and tea. Bring your maglie calcio poco prezzo conversation, your blog, dreams, ideas, your worries; bring food and friends. Suggest a poetry reading session, a cultural dialogue, a film screening, a mural, or … or …

The Arts & Democracy Project (with moderators Andrea Assaf and fD founder Todd Lester) invites you to join a nation-wide conference call discussing the role of arts and culture in the extraordinary people’s movements in Egypt and Libya and the protests for democracy sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East. Gain insights on Arab and Arab-American perspectives, and learn about how artists and cultural organizers in the Cheap NFL Jerseys region and in the U.S. are participating and responding. The call features Dalia Basiouny, writer & theatre artist (Egypt); Ahmed Issawi, Alwan for the Arts (NYC); and Khaled Mattawa, poet & professor (Michigan). Wednesday, March 2, 12:00pm EST/9:00am PST. RSVP for the call-in number at rsvp@artsanddemocracy.org

Youth and Human Rights Organizations express their anguish at the murder of Victor Aroldo Leiva Borrayo on February 2, 2011:

The life and projects of Víctor Antonio Leiva “Mono” were brought to an abrupt end when on 2nd of February he was murdered in the Historical Centre of Guatemala City where in recent years he walked and shared so much of himself. Víctor, only 24 years of age, was a young artist who was a member of Colectivo Caja Lúdica for several years. As facilitator and activist dedicated to community arts, his work brought him the appreciation and love of his working partners. This killing adds to the 3000+ (over three thousand) crimes perpetrated during the year http://www.gooakley.com/ against youth including amongst the victims young artists, spiritual leaders, community leaders, human rights activists, free thinkers and free creators. The victims are those who due to their way of thinking, dressing and expressing themselves are stigmatized by the authorities and society. Their cases are forgotten by the authorities who make no attempt to solve the case or bring to justice those responsible. Even members of those institutions are part of the “organized crime” therefore a vast number of crimes are treated as revenge between delinquent groups; the investigations then, are disallowed. As a result cases are abandoned with total impunity. The characteristics of this case replicate the modus operandi used by the illegal and clandestine apparatus linked to the security system which, with total impunity, act against youth; extra-judiciary  acts form part of the genocide directed at Guatemalan youth nowadays. Unidentified vehicles, large calibre weapons, more than one person involved, delayed action by the authorities who show at the crime scene are some of the elements that characterize this and many other events of this kind. Death walks its painful blow for the country that tragically suffers the loss of its youth with impotence facing silence, injustice and impunity.

On February 18th there are both presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda.  If you know of someone who is running for a parliamentary seat, ask them to support the human rights of the LGBT community in Uganda!  If you want to voice your support for Brenda Namigadde not being deported from the UK back to Uganda, get involved with the AllOut campaign on her behalf!!

On January 26th, David Kato, a school teacher and leading gay rights activist whose photo was printed on the front page of a Ugandan newspaper that called for homosexuals to be hanged was bludgeoned to death at his home near Kampala, reports Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19. His death came just three weeks after winning a court case against the Ugandan tabloid “Rolling Stone”. The Supreme http://www.raybani.com/ Court ruled that “Rolling Stone” violated Kato and others’ right to privacy. The victory prevented the paper from repeating stories similar to one in October that had a “Hang Them” headline, alongside pictures, names and residential addresses of members of the gay community.  Read the full article on IFEX and David’s obituary on the BBC. In London, news of David’s death slowed the deportation of Brenda Namigadde, an out lesbian who was refused political asylum.  Learn more about the UK’s Asylum & Immigration Tribunal here.  Quoting Brian Whitaker’s article What in the World? in the April 2009 Gay Times:

Turkey continues to prosecute its intellectuals and artists. At a concert in 2006 Ferhat Tunç  praised 17 people who died in a military operation against the illegal Ray Ban outlet Maoist Communist Party two years earlier in 2004. Some of those killed were friends of the singer, who frequently talks about the necessity of creating peace and granting Turkish minorities equal cultural and political rights.  The Public Prosecutor claimed that the song entitled “17 lives” performed by the singer “praised crime and a criminal”.  While Tunç did not attend the hearing on Thursday (27 January 2011), his lawyer Osman Süzen claimed that the speech and the song performed at the Nazımiye Düzgün Baba Festival did not constitute any criminal offence. Tunç commented, “It is rather thought-provoking that an artistis punished because of his speeches and that a folk song he performed is used as evidence against him in a country that is said to be democratic”. He added that he was going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with this “document of shame”.  To learn more about this case, visit FREEMUSE, the world’s leading organization advocating freedom of expression for musicians. Also, don’t forget Ferhat and other musicians taking a stand for marginalized communities on March 3, Music Freedom Day, a time to celebrate musical expression worldwide.

It is 2200 kilometers from Cairo to Budapest; 2090 kilometers from Cairo to Tunis; and only 1396 kilometers from Tunis to Budapest. Whereas the revolt in Tunis has inspired other North African uprisings, it is fair to ask why the the media played an Ray Ban outlet enabler for Tunisia while being collectively ambivalent on similar conditions in Egypt. A friend of freeDimensional and artist in Cairo wrote to say that ‘yesterday was the most significant day of my life’ referring to a street protest (pictured in at bottom right) he participated in on Tuesday, January 25.  Twitter is down reports Laura Flanders and we’re all wondering why Obama didn’t add the word Egypt when he spoke of the fight for democracy in Tunisia in his State of the Union address.  Is Tunisia - smaller, not as strategically-situated, and practically jutting across Europe’s frontier - a safer expenditure of newsprint and airwaves?  Take Hungary for example - the current seat of the European Union presidency - where the “national public media is being concentrated, slimmed down and is now managed by government appointees.”  The same BBC article reports that “Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sought to defuse the crisis by accepting that EU legal experts will now go through the new legislation with a fine-toothed comb.” Can the west’s support of Tunisia hold water if support is not also given to the protestors in Egypt.  When the EU shows signs of tolerating rightwing populism (e.g. Hungary) – and with a new enough legal system that related populism across Europe can inform interpretation at the macro-level – can we also expect that Europe’s immigration concerns and their depiction in the http://www.raybanoutletit.com/ media will take primacy over aspirations for democracy just across the Mediterranean?

The Chobi Mela VI - International Festival of Photography will be held from 21 January to 3 February, 2011 in Dhaka Bangladesh and will present the work of creative artists participating from 30 countries. The festival with its theme “Dreams” is designed to be a birthplace of ideas, and a crossover meeting point for many artists. It will open http://www.raybandasoleit.com/ a portal to a mystical world of images showcasing new trends in photography and bringing to the fore issues of our troubled world. In congruence with the exhibitions there will be 8 workshops, 2 portfolio reviews and a week-long discussions, seminars and lectures at Goethe-Institut Auditorium that will initiate debates and discussions on issues central to contemporary photographic practice. The main attraction on the 22 January at Goethe-Institut will be a video conference with Dr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court. In this position, his mandate is to select and trigger investigations and prosecutions of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely genocide, crimes against Ray Ban outlet humanity and war crimes. The Inaugural ceremony and the evening presentations will also be broadcast live on the internet and you can read the festival blog here.

The exhibition Freedom of Speech at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and Kunstverein Hamburg questions and analyzes the concept of freedom of speech and the ideological role it plays in Western democracies. Everything revolves around the questions: What if only those who tell the truth were allowed to speak? What consequences does freedom of expression have for our society?  The accompanying symposium will discuss the central issues via an interdisciplinary approach.

World Policy Institute Senior Fellow Susan Benesch, who directs the project, Dangerous Speech on the Road to Genocide and writes the Voices that Poison blog says “Thanks to new media, inflammatory speech is more pervasive and more influential than ever before. It is easy to jump to conclusions about that influence in particular Ray Ban outlet cases, but more research is needed in order to better understand the impact inflammatory speech has on individuals and groups. Responses to limit inflammatory speech need not be limited to government regulation; there are other ways of reducing the danger.”   freeDimensional works on cases dealing with freedom of expression everyday; we would love to hear your views on whether freedom of speech, expression and thought is a relative issue, or (stated differently) what advice can you offer a US-based non-profit organization that seeks to have a non-nationalist, global approach to supporting free expression.  Let us know your thoughts!

Belarus Free Theatre is performing at the Under the Radar festival this week in New York.  fD joined Trans Europe Halles to launch a solidarity fund for Belarus Free Theatre back after the December 19th elections when their members were either in hiding or in jail. freeDimensional worked with Arts & Democracy to publish a Bridge Conversation with Natalia and Nikolai, co-founders of the Theatre,  drawn from our October 2010 Political Salon hosted by the World Policy Institute. Mischief + Mayhem Books continued their readings around the US in support of the Belarus Free Theatre, and on Wednesday, January 19th - the day before they travel back to Belarus - PEN American Center is hosting a celebrity reading on their behalves at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

BEIJING — The studio would have stood at the heart of an embryonic arts cluster on the outskirts of Shanghai, drawing luminaries from around the world. It took two years to build, and one day to tear down. The new Shanghai studio designed by Ai Weiwei, a protean artist who is one of the most outspoken critics of the Chinese Communist Party, was completely Ray Ban outlet razed at the order of government officials on Tuesday, Mr. Ai said in a telephone interview from Shanghai on Wednesday. Mr. Ai said a neighboring studio he had designed for a friend had also been destroyed. “Everything is gone,” he said. “It’s all black now. They finished the job at 9 o’clock last night.” It is the latest act in Mr. Ai’s escalating conflict with government officials over the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule — a clash that Mr. Ai now views as performance art. Mr. Ai said he did not know why officials decided to destroy the studios, but suspects it was because of his political activities. Excerpted from a New York Times article by Edward Wong__.

Malangatana Ngwenya, one of Africa’s best-known contemporary artists, whose phantasmagoric paintings were inspired by political conditions in his home country, Mozambique, died on Wednesday in Matosinhos, Portugal. He was 74. Mr. Ngwenya, a beloved national hero in Mozambique, was one of the few African artists to gain substantial worldwide recognition Ray Ban outlet while staying in Africa — an international profile that was enhanced by an expansive personality. Even after he took up art full time in 1981 and his fame grew, he remained a highly visible political and civic presence. He was a founding member of the Mozambique Peace Movement and served as a representative to parliament from 1990 to 1994. He was instrumental in establishing the National Museum of Art of Mozambique in Maputo, the capital, and undertook several large public mural projects. He established cultural programs in his home village, and taught art to children in his home. In 1997 he was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Simultaneously, he was writing poetry, a lifelong practice. His poems were was first published in 1963. At the time, when many African countries were struggling for independence from Europe, he also became politically active. After joining a nationalist guerrilla group called the Front for Liberation of Mozambique, known by the acronym Frelimo, he was arrested by the Portuguese military police and spent 18 months in jail. Excerpted from a New York Times article by Holland Cotter.

The cast of Rituals a sequel to the play Heal the Wound (2009) which dealt with the wounds of the political violence in Zimbabwe’s harmonized general elections of 2008, was arrested in the city of Mutare, Zimbabwe where they are currently touring. In an interview last night, Daves Ray Ban outlet Guzha the Producer of the play said that “it is unfortunate that the police arrested the cast when the play was cleared by the censorship board.” Guzha and the Lawyers for Human Rights group are working together to facilitate their release.  Due to this incident and other repressive acts, the Zimbabwe Theatre Association (ZiTA), Bulawayo Arts Forum (BAF), Visual Art Association Bulawayo (VAAB), Savanna Arts Trust, Global Arts Trust, the Nhimbe Trust and Homegrown Arts have joined to create a new alliance called the Coalition against Censorship Zimbabwe (CACZ).  CACZ seeks to:  Educate and empower art creators, promoters and consumers to defend the freedom to create; Monitor, document and issue Alerts on current censorship issues and violations on free creative expression; Inform and influence judicial opinions, policy and legislation impacting on freedom of creative expression; and Provide educational resources, training and legal aid to individuals and http://www.jovencitosconcamara.com cultural organizations responding to incidencies of artistic censorship.

Taalifkat Tudunya, which translates from Woloff as “writers in the world,” is a ten-day writing and arts workshop for writers and artists hosted in collaboration between the Pirogue Collective and the Gorée Institute on Gorée Island, Senegal. The next edition is January 5 – January 15, 2011. Four workshops in poetry, prose, visual arts and texts will be led by world renowned writers and visual artists and will be complemented by African academics and/or local creative practitioners. Participants stay in one of the Institute’s tranquil residences on http://www.magliettedacalcioit.com Gorée Island. In addition to joint public readings and exchanges with local associations of women, artists, writers and activists, the framework engages themes such as Translation, African languages, African thought systems, Mixed Media-the interaction between visual arts and literature, poetry and prose writing.  freeDimensional respects the holistic work of the Gorée Institute, thoughtfully merging issues of civil society with the potential of culture and creativity for social change.  We look forward to finding ways to support and collaborate the Institute, Pirogue Collective and future editions of Taalifkat Tudunya.  Also on Gorée Island is the Atelier Moustafa Dimé, a member of freeDimensional’s Emerging Art Space Support Initiative (EASSI), which recently hosted a Gambian journalist when he was forced to flee Banjul due to a backlash from his writing about that country’s government.

Dear fD friend****: Can you make a donation of $10-25 so we can continue supporting courageous artists like Kianoush in 2011?

A green ribbon tied to a forlorn tree stump, its shadow creating an outline of a human hand. The index and middle finger are raised—a peace sign. This cartoon, by exiled Iranian artist Kianoush Ramezani, comments on Iran’s budding Green Movement. The movement, and the cartoon, has stirred up controversy.

You have seen a series of events, collaborations and blog posts on Belarus from freeDimensional in the past months.  I might ask, “what good did they do?”  Yesterday - December 19th - witnessed a violent crackdown as thousands of people gathered in the center of Minsk to protest electoral fraud after the cheap oakley polls closed.  This includes the detainment of our colleague Natalia Koliada, General Producer of Belarus Free Theatre.  Back in October when Natalia and her husband Nikolai Khalezin were speaking in New York, they explained the complications of protest in Minsk: that for every person brave enough to march on the square, there would be an equal number of armed police … making Belarus a veritable police state.   This morning on National Public Radio, I listened to the wife of Vladimir Neklyayev explain how her husband was beaten and then snatched from the hospital by masked thugs.  She still doesn’t know where he is and based on her account of events, the hospital where he was kidnapped seemed culpable for the breach of his safety and care .  This sounded all to familiar to the account our friends at Belarus Free Theatre gave of a few months ago when a friend and colleague active in the opposition was found hung in his home and the coroner bungled the autopsy report, omitting details that suggested his death was a political http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ assassination.  We also just learned that free expression website, Charter 97 was stormed by police overnight.  When artists, such as Natalia and Nikolia, are doing the work of activists we must listen to them.  When we have every indicator that the rule of law has broken down and the protective layers of civil society stripped away … when we know that journalists have become fearful to give literal accounts of the impunity faced by the people they represent, then we also know that artists who bear witness to the societal condition will face danger.  Here is another account of the the election protests and crackdown from Global Voices, and the World Policy Journal has blogged about the situation here.

You can have an immediate impact on the safety and freedom of those who are using art to change the world. With your year-end donation, support cheap oakley freeDimensional’s Creative Resistance Fund, which provides small distress grants to people in danger due to their use of creativity to fight injustice. Click here to contribute.

Over this Human Rights Day weekend, freeDimensional will be participating in the International Institute of Humanitarian Law’s Workshop on the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict.  The debate on how to protect cultural property was amplified after the pillaging of Baghdad’s museums following the attack on that city.  freeDimensional enters the discussion with the point of view that some of the same conditions which allowed destruction of cultural property in Baghdad were those that adversely affected (or rendered invisible) the city’s artists and culture workers during Ray Ban outlet wartime.  In the words of Mary Ann DeVlieg, Secretary General of the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, “The arts are about looking, critically reflecting and offering a fresh perspective on society. Everyone has the right to express his or her artistic observations, as well as to have  access to the means of producing and disseminating them.  Yet artists - who also often portray human motivations -  can be particularly vulnerable to repressive groups or regimes afraid of this diversity of opinion.  As we reaffirm our commitment to universal values and a democracy based on respect, we need to support the often silenced voices of artists.”  On Human Rights Day 2010, freeDimensional seeks to highlight the role of the artist in protecting human rights, their communities, and the cultural institutions they have built, sustained, depended on and (at times) challenged.

Last night (6 Dec 2010) at the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, writer/painter Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), poet/painter Huang Xiang (China), and performance artists Chaw Ei Thein and Ye Taik (Burma) explored the concept of Art in Exile via text, conversation, and live performances. freeDimensional has been working with Chaw ei Thein over the last year as she filed for political asylum in the US and acclimates to the New York City art scene. For her performance last night, she provided the following note:

freeDimensional is now five years old.  Whereas we have a particular way that we actualize art and social justice by hosting activists and culture workers-in-distress in the surplus (vacant) apartments of artist residencies, we often see amazing projects that inspire us, innovate and show new approaches to advocating freedom of thought and expression.  The Impossible Music Sessions is just such an initiative!  Here’s a clip about Session #3, a tribute to Lapiro de Mbanga, which happened on 16 November 2010 in Brooklyn, New York.  Lapiro is Ray Ban outlet currently in prison in Cameroon on trumped up charges because he challenged the president in one of his songs; if you are interested in helping Lapiro keep his spirits up, look here.  As you can see we have a new section where we feature projects we like such as The Impossible Music Sessions.  We’ll feature a new one each quarter.

The Iron Curtain may have come down, but what remains is still in Belarus. Under Alexander Lukashenko’s stringent regime, the capacity for individual expression is strictly limited. Creative endeavors like plays—regardless of its politics—are censored by the government. The Belarus Free Theatre, founded in 2005, stages modern performances addressing social issues. While the company sells out internationally, they are still forced underground at home—where plays are government-sanctioned—staging covert performances in private residences. Many involved in the Belarus Free Gafas Ray Ban outlet Theatre, including co-founders Natalia Koliada, a human rights activist, and Nikolai Khalezin, a playwright, have suffered for their involvement. They have had several stints in prison and are under constant harassment by the authorities.

Zim Artist Owen Maseko expresses the atrocities of the Gukurahundi (5th Brigade) through his painting, graffiti and 3D installations, with the hope that greater cheap oakley openness about the massacres will lead to reconciliation and national healing. freeDimensional recently provided Maseko a Creative Safe Haven residency in Bilbao, Spain, and we just learned that he is a finalist for the Freedom to Create Prize, which will be awarded at the Citadel in Cairo in December.  Read more about Owen’s ordeal in this Guardian article.

You may remember early this year when an Uzbek court found, Umida Akhmedova, a documentary director guilty of slander for making a film on the difficulties faced by newly married women in the authoritarian Central Asian state.  Umida Akhmedova was convicted of “offence through mass media” by the court in the capital Tashkent after government experts found her documentary “offensive for the Ray Ban outlet Uzbek nation”. She could have been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, but was released under an amnesty in honour of the 18th anniversary of Uzbek independence.  Her film Men & Women will be screened during the New York Eurasian Film Festival.  In the midst of her difficulties with the Uzbek state (and courts), freeDimensional, Producciones Serrano and the Festival Against Censorship worked together to provide her with a two-month Creative Safe Haven residency in Bilbao, Spain.  Read about Umida’s ordeal in the Guardian newspaper here.

Founded in 2005 by a husband-wife team, the Belarus Free Theatre is the only unregistered - thus independent and therefore illegal - dramatic troupe in this post-communist country.  Effectively banned at home, BFT’s performances have taken on an underground Magliette Calcio A Poco Prezzo existence, with audiences alerted via text message or e-mail.  Its covert and uncensored performances have drawn international acclaim. In the buffer-state between the rest of Europe and Russia, ruled by President Alexandr Lukashenko since 1994, the BFT provides a rare voice of dissent in what is being called Europe’s last dictatorship.  This November in a show of solidarity, theaters around the US will host readings of co-founder Nikolai Khalesin’s play, Thanksgiving Day organized by Mischief + Mayhem Books in cahoots with freeDimensional, Art & Democracy Bridge Conversations, and the World Policy Institute in order to raise awareness on the situation in Belarus in the weeks before its next election.  Read DW Gibson’s ‘Free Belarus’: An Introduction in the Mischief + Mayhem’s online magazine, Wild Rag.  See the press release for ‘Free Belarus’ Thanksgiving Day readings all over the US.

In one of the busiest street markets in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), Chaw Ei Thein and a friend, the artist Htein Lin, created a performance to comment on the inflated prices under the current Burmese government. They sold small items like candy and ribbons for miniscule amounts of money. They were arrested, and would have been jailed if the police were too busy to see the arrest through. Their performative acts, criticizing a government where civil rights and freedom of speech is limited, led to Thein’s exile from her country.

freeDimensional director, Todd Lester, gives keynote talk at the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM) meeting in Glasgow, Scotland (4-7 Nov 2010).  IETM is invited to come together in Glasgow this Autumn, to explore our many possible futures together under the working theme of VOICES.  See his hand-drawn slides here!

Issa Nyaphaga is known as the ragman of painting. He creates art out of garbage – anything from mud and sand to feathers and human hair. Nyaphaga gives disposed items a sort of renewal.

But his artwork represents much darker story of rebirth. Nyaphaga was raised in a small village in the equatorial forests of Cameroon. After high school, he worked as a political cartoonist for the newspaper, Le Messager Popoli. In 1994, Cameroon’s regime jailed and tortured Nyaphaga for oppositional ideas expressed in his controversial cartoons. Two years later, Nyaphaga escaped Cameroon to seek asylum in France.

Abazar Hamid has a song hoping for peace in Darfur and a song with visions of a new Sudan—two subjects that the government won’t allow on the radio. Only his most innocuous tunes about love are allowed in public. All Hamid wants to do is reverse the deadly effects Hakama, the traditional Arab singers more locally known as the Janjaweed women, have on communities and on the conflict in Sudan. While Hamid sings about peace and love, Hakama singers go on about killing, raping and pillaging ethnic Africans.

How does artist travel relate to other forms of human mobility? At a time when tensions are high across borders and cultures (and hurdles to mobility increase), citizens, communities and governments are listening to artists and cultural programmers as vanguard voices on complex issues and look to the solutions they propose with renewed interest … even urgency!

Vox Pop - Artists & Mobility: A matter of wealth from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

freeDimensional joins Res Artis and The Upgrade! to collect Mobility Stories from artists and cultural programmers.  We asked participants at the 2010 Res Artis General Meeting (Montreal) and Soft Borders the 4thUpgrade! International Conference (Sao Paulo) to share their success stories, unsuccessful attempts, lessons learned and Magliette Calcio A Poco Prezzo tactics as they attempt to invite and host artists from across borders. Using the first round of interviews, we created a channel entitled Crossing Borders - The state of artist mobility that we encourage anyone who needs anecdotal experience for the purpose of lobbying to use freely!  You are also welcome to add more content; just contact us with any questions or input.  See the Soft Borders programme here and a new link at On The Move.

fD received the annual No Censorship award at the 5th Festival Against Censorship in Bilbao, Spain.  fD and the Creative Resistance Fund work with the Festival Against Censorship to make travel grants and provide local accommodation each year for artists in danger due to their use of creativity to fight injustice. Last year this emergency support was provided to Fahed Halabi, an artist decrying the oppression of women within his own Druze community.  This year the support has already helped Umida Akhmedova, Uzbek photographer who was charged with http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ criminal defamation of the state due to her documentary photography exhibit, Women and Men, from Dusk until Dawn. Umida and Todd Lester, fD director, gave a panel discussion at this year’s Festival Against Censorship.

fD director leads call-and-response panels between activists and residency innovators at the Res Artis General Meeting in Montreal, Canada (Oct 5-10).  Read more about Future Residency - Hosting & Hospitality in the Era of Globalization in the conference programme.

freeDimensional has been making some big changes - including this new website. Welcome!

Also, here’s an action alert where we could use your help: Georgian poets Shota Gagarin and Alex Chigvinadze were arrested for reading Walt Whitman poetry on George W. Bush street in Tbilisi. This was on August 14. Today they face the danger of being arrested again. As these guys figure out their next steps, you can help!

If you want to donate, please say ‘Alex and Shota’ in the topic line of your donation: