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** Updates From the Frontlines of Expression:
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** August Dispatch
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From art to books to protest, we are witnessing an unparalleled era of censorship and propaganda in 2025. We – the staff, board, supporters, and allies of the National Coalition Against Censorship – are working hard to ensure our free expression principles survive this moment and thrive in the next generation and beyond. Your support of the NCAC is essential and gives us the purpose and resources to fight this onslaught.
With your help, the National Coalition Against Censorship has been leading the charge against the censors with our public voice, arts advocacy, investment in community leaders, youth programming, legal strategy, coalition-building, and direct intervention in reports of censorship. And wherever possible, we do this work in coalition: this is a moment for collective action.
** “The state crafts the rules and pressures districts to follow them, while school boards often act out of fear of punishment for being found out of compliance. This is not a case of local control gone awry or state overreach in isolation — it is a coordinated system that effectively censors access to books without meeting constitutional standards.”
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** — Stefana Ferrell
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** Arts & Culture
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** Advocacy Program
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** Launch of
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** Collective Courage
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In May 2025, NCAC and the VLC convened a group of cultural leaders to assess needs and develop strategies in response to present threats to artistic and curatorial freedom and institutional independence. This meeting led to a call to action for an alliance of institutions and individuals working across the cultural sector to unite behind shared values. A subset of the group drafted The Statement articulating a set of foundational principles and shared values that unite America’s diverse arts and cultural field. The Statement reasserts the arts sector's commitment to retain programmatic independence and resist pressures of institutional self-censorship, which is the only way to ensure that future generations inherit robust cultural institutions that stimulate the imagination, engender free thinking, and incubate new futures.
Sign the Statement and join us.
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** Legal Advocacy
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We are standing with FIRE to defend student editor David McNicholas. After publishing editorials in The Young Warrior criticizing administrators at the Institute of American Indian Arts, McNicholas was hit with probation, housing suspension, and demands for public retractions. Punishing students for speaking out is censorship. At a public college, it’s also a violation of First Amendment rights. Protecting McNicholas means protecting every student’s right to question authority without fear.
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** Youth Free
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** Expression Program
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** Right to Read Night
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At a moment when books are being targeted for removal, educators and librarians are under attack, and the freedom to read is at risk, local groups are gathering together across the nation for the
Right to Read Night!
We call on allies of the freedom to read across the country to host a local Right to Read Night during Banned Books Week (October 5 - 11, 2025). Participants will gather for a discussion of our featured selection, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson! Just one of the thousands of books targeted by censors, this deeply moving novel tells the story of an enslaved teenager’s struggle for freedom in the time of the American Revolution.
These community conversations will invite us to think about why the book is important, what attempts to ban it mean for free expression, and how to defend the right to read.
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** Wrapping Up the
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** Teen Advocacy Institute
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This year’s Teen Advocacy Institute: Power to the Readers has officially ended. Our trailblazing group brought together incredible young leaders who learned, created, and spoke out for change. We can’t wait to see what they—and next year’s cohort—will accomplish next.
** Annual Gala
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Join us for a night of celebration and reflection at the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Annual Gala as we honor free speech champions whose tireless commitment to protecting artistic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and the fundamental right to speak one’s mind has inspired us and made us all more free.
Get Tickets Here! ([link removed])
We cannot fight the censors alone. In moments of repression, moral courage is essential…and contagious. We are standing up to this moment of censorship because you stand with us.
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Copyright (C) 2025 National Coalition Against Censorship. All rights reserved.
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