CBA Community Members Against Censorship and for a Free Palestine

Update - NYABF - April 26th, 2024

On January 21st, 2024, the Executive Director of Center for Book Arts was invited to view a performance of ‘The Eagle And The Tortoise’ to see if it would be possible to put on at CBA. The artist, Sister Sylvester, invites the audience into a live sound, video, and sculpture installation where they collectively read a handmade book. Made by a team including Jewish, Kurdish, and Turkish artists, 'The Eagle and The Tortoise' traces the story of a young Turkish woman in relation to the US's shameful complicity in the genocide against the Kurdish population by the Turkish state. Sister Sylvester called for a Free Palestine at the end of this particular performance.

On January 30th, 2024, The Executive Director of Center for Book Arts reached back out to Sister Sylvester and stated, "Unfortunately, the subject may be too closely aligned with the current conflict in Gaza for us to present the performance at the moment--I feel very strongly that Center for Book Arts studios needs to remain a resource for all (especially now when the need for free speech and the free distribution of ideas is so important)." 

Sister Sylvester and ‘The Eagle And The Tortoise’ team (including Civan Özkanoglu, Efrin Özyetis, Bruce Steinberg, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, and Marin Day) responded with a moving call against censorship and for a Free Palestine. They waited an additional day for a response from CBA, and when they did not receive one, publicized the email and their response on February 9th. They asked the following important questions: "If institutions are afraid to program art that has resonance with our contemporary world, what are we left with? Who will be left to speak? And how is this art, how is this freedom?" Their statement rightfully recalled the deep history of political radicalism in book arts. They went on to state, "although our performance is not about Gaza, we do not hesitate to stand against this genocide, and join the voices that call for a Free Palestine."

Rather than seeing this performance and any possible response to it as an opportunity to have a dialogue around past and current global events, Center for Book Arts has instead chosen to silence artists who address the difficult topic of genocide in their work. It is disappointing that CBA would think so lowly of its audience and community as to seek to protect them from art dealing with the subjects of the horrors of our world.

The National Coalition Against Censorship, in response to the situation, reached out privately to Center for Book Arts, offering resources to help CBA stand by its own stated values pertaining to freedom of artistic expression. Leadership refused to engage with this offer, and did not respond. The NCAC and nine other national arts and human rights organizations put out a statement on March 7th: “suppressing art because it relates to political conflict is a violation of artistic freedom.”

Leadership at the Center dragged their feet in responding to the public outcry. It took six weeks for the Board of Directors to respond in a letter that was emailed to an incomplete list of community members, and was not posted publicly. In this letter, the Board claims that leadership have “begun a process of healing” with staff, while offering no details as to what that process might consist of. Healing is not done inwardly and with no discussion, as the Board’s statement would imply. We demand an emergency town hall of community members, staff, union members, and the full Board of Directors. The CBA community has been asking for this since February 10th. Ongoing, we also demand a regular meeting of a coalition of board, staff, union, and community members to form lines of communication and foster relationships.

In their March 27th statement, the Board also says that the accusation of censorship is unfounded, and frames the issue as one over whether the performance was ever formally scheduled or not, implying dishonesty from Sister Sylvester. But they also state that the piece is "outside the bounds of CBA’s mission and objectives" because at the performance attended by the Executive Director, the artist said the words “Free Palestine.” Somehow those two words, which are not part of the performance, made Sister Sylvester’s work unsuitable for Center for Book Arts.

We as members of the global book arts community understand that a Free Palestine is personal. CBA’s own mission statement refers to “furthering the book arts & book art through education, preservation, exhibition, art making, and community building.” Our knowledge of historical book arts and papermaking processes is deeply intertwined with conservation and preservation efforts dedicated to protecting cultural heritage across indigenous populations worldwide. We mourn the unfathomable loss of human life in Gaza, and by extension loss of indigenous knowledge. Israel’s ongoing and documented acts of genocide against Gaza, the intentional targeting of Gaza’s centers of knowledge—including libraries, archives, universities, art centers, and their respective stewards—is an act with tangible consequences for the field of book arts and its practitioners. We insist that a sincere implementation of Center for Book Art’s mission includes endorsing the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). We cannot reclaim the historical manuscripts, rare books, and artifacts that are forever lost to humanity, but we can take a principled stance against Israel’s corrosion of the very knowledge Center for Book Arts claims to protect.

We as the teachers, artists, members, students, donors, visitors, and more, stand with Sister Sylvester and with Palestine, and demand that Center for Book Arts address and retract their statements as well as re-extend the invitation to perform. We demand a clear statement on their position regarding the genocide in Gaza. We demand an answer to the question of why this performance would have been against the mission of the organization, whose own DEAIs statement says, “In solidarity with Black lives and in our efforts toward utilizing the book arts as a tool toward liberation, the Board and Staff of Center for Book Arts are committed to anti-racism and actively work against violence in all its guises.”

For more information on ‘The Eagle And The Tortoise,’ the original statements from CBA’s Executive Director and Sister Sylvester, the full board statement, the statement from the National Coalition Against Censorship, and more, please select "more information +" at the top of this page.