We are still calling on communities to email the SF Public Library Commission and administration using our one-click tool to demand that the Wall + Response exhibition moves forward, free of censorship.
Please take action now!
Wall + Response is curated by artist and CAMP co-director Megan Wilson and poet Maw Shein Win, participants include:
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Poets Heather Bourbeau, Aileen Cassinetto, Tongo Eisen-Martin, and Chris Stroffolino responding to the mural Justice for Luís D. Góngora Pat by Marina Perez-Wong and Elaine Chu, working with Justice4Luis
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Poets Karla Brundage, Jennifer Hasegawa, Tureeda Mikell, and Kim Shuck responding to the work What We Want! by Emory Douglas/Black Panther Party / remix by CUBA D8, Mace
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Poets Celeste Chan, MK Chavez, Paul Corman-Roberts, and Tim Xonnelly responding to the mural Affordable Housing/Vivienda Asequible by the SF Print Collective working with the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP)
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Poets Youssef Alaoui, Jason Bayani, Genny Lim, and Michael Warr responding to the mural The Arab Liberation Mural / Will To Live by Art Forces, Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC), and Arab Youth Organizing (AYO)
Following the ACLU of Northern California’s denouncement of the San Francisco Public Library’s censorship of the Arab Liberation Mural as part of CAMP’s Wall + Response exhibition, we’ve received the following press:
CBS News
San Francisco Public Library accused of censorship, Islamophobia over mural project
SAN FRANCISCO – Organizers of a mural project and their supporters are accusing the San Francisco Public Library of censoring a mural and failing to be an inclusive, equitable community space.
“Wall + Response,” a project organized by the Clarion Alley Mural Project inviting 16 Bay Area poets to respond to four murals on Clarion Alley in San Francisco, was scheduled to open at the Main Library branch on March 12 and have public programming at the library through the summer.
However, one week before the event, San Francisco Public Library informed project organizers that one of the murals, “Arab Liberation Mural,” had to be removed for the event to proceed.
continue reading …
Middle East Eye
San Francisco library cancels exhibition over ‘Zionism is racism’ phrase
by Zainab Iqbal
It began with a mural in 2017.
Five years ago, the “Arab Liberation Mural” went up in San Francisco’s Clarion Alley. It was made in partnership with the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (Aroc) and created by community organisations like the Clarion Alley Mural Project and artists and Jewish allies who wanted to honour Arab, Muslim and migrant histories and their struggles against racism and xenophobia.
The mural features five Arab leaders including Rasmea Odeh, Mehdi Ben Barka, Nagi Daifullah, Leila Khaled and Basel al-Araj.
The project also has an audio programme where people can hear interviews and descriptions of each person portrayed. The mural features statements like “Stop urban shield”, “Sanctuary for all”, “No war”, and “Zionism is racism”.
The latter would become a problem five years later.
Now, the San Francisco Public Library is under heat for censoring the “Arab Liberation Mural” and their arguments that the phrase “Zionism is racism” is antisemitic and harmful.
In March, the Clarion Alley Mural Project organised “Wall + Response” in collaboration with local poets and organisations, and featured poems responding to the political, social and racial justice narratives depicted in four murals in Clarion Alley.
The project was scheduled to be featured in the Bay Area’s main library branch on 12 March and would have public programming throughout the summer, CBS reported.
The San Francisco Standard
ACLU Challenges Cancellation of Mural Exhibition, Citing First Amendment Concerns
by Sarah Wright
A new letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California raises First Amendment concerns after the San Francisco Public Library decided to omit a line it called antisemitic from a Palestine-focused mural in an exhibit that was supposed to appear this summer.
The exhibition, which was canceled in March as a result of the controversy, was focused on racism and xenophobia against marginalized groups, including Palestinians. The mural in question featured a sign with the phrase “Zionism is racism.”
The library raised concerns about the phrase and discussed removing it with the curators, according to an SFPL statement sent to The Standard. The group declined to make changes to the exhibition, said Christopher Statton, co-director of Clarion Alley Mural Project, the Mission District-based group that organized the mural exhibition.
“It may create discussions that are difficult and messy, but it’s harmful not to have these discussions,” Statton said.
In her letter, ACLU Staff Attorney Hannah Kieschnick agrees, arguing that the library, as a public space that often promotes and displays speech that doesn’t represent its views, cannot discriminate that speech by its viewpoint or concerns it is controversial.
Bulletin Reporter
San Francisco Public Library Accused Of Censorship, Islamophobia Over Mural Project
by Aaron Sittig
SAN FRANCISCO – Organizers of a mural project and their supporters are accusing the San Francisco Public Library of censoring a mural and failing to be an inclusive, equitable community space.
“Wall + Response,” a project organized by the Clarion Alley Mural Project inviting 16 Bay Area poets to respond to four murals on Clarion Alley in San Francisco, was scheduled to open at the Main Library branch on March 12 and have public programming at the library through the summer.
However, one week before the event, San Francisco Public Library informed project organizers that one of the murals, “Arab Liberation Mural,” had to be removed for the event to proceed.
“Arab Liberation Mural” features six Arab leaders, including Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, Moroccan educator Mehdi Ben Barka and photojournalist Yasser Mortaja.
Ultraviolet
Censoring Palestine — Bay Area Style
by Deeg
The Berkeley Book Festival wants you to understand that they did not disinvite Alice Walker because of her consistent and vocal support for Palestine. And the san francisco public library wants you to understand that they weren’t censoring Palestinians when they cancelled the Clarion Alley Mural Project’s Wall + Response exhibit.
Alice Walker, famously the author of The Color Purple, had been scheduled to interview Fanonne Jeffers at the headlining event of the festival in May, at Jeffers request. Walker has been outspoken throughout her life on racism, sexism, queer issues, genital mutilation, and has often taken a lot of flack from people who should have been her allies. She has been a consistent advocate for Palestine, and joined Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza in 2011, an actual and symbolic attempt to break israel’s deadly blockade.
The Festival’s decision was publicized in March in j-weekly, who reported, “After festival organizers learned from those inside and outside the organization about Walker’s history of remarks widely criticized as antisemitic, and of her support for Icke, they canceled her invitation on Thursday.” (david icke is a british conspiracy theorist, who has made statements widely considered antisemitic.)
