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** Updates From the Frontlines of Expression:
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** October 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.


** "Book bans do not protect kids. They remove the resources that they need to deal with an increasingly difficult world"
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**
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** — Jodi Picoult
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** Legal Advocacy
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The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), joined by right to read advocate Steven Pico, has filed an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court. In May 2025, a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Little v. Llano County that library patrons have no First Amendment right to receive information and ideas from the government in the form of library books. A plurality of the court took this a step further, finding that the curation of public library materials amounts to a concept known as “government speech,” meaning that the addition or removal of books from public library shelves is not subject to the limitations of the First Amendment. The plaintiffs in Little, who are Llano County library patrons, have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court requesting that they reverse the Fifth Circuit’s egregious ruling. NCAC’s brief supports this petition, arguing that the right to receive information is well established under the
First Amendment and the removal of a library book based on disagreement with its viewpoint violates the Constitution – a standard established over forty years ago in Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, a case taken to the Supreme Court by then-plaintiff, and current amicus partner, Steven Pico in 1982. NCAC and Pico were represented by the First Amendment Clinic at SMU Dedman School of Law.
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** Arts & Culture
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** Advocacy Program
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** Apply for this year's Curatorial Workshop!
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Our 7th Curatorial Workshop is a day-long workshop that brings together curators and leaders of cultural institutions to discuss strategies for curating exhibitions and cultural programs. Through speaker presentations and group discussions led by Claudia Zapata (Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin), Noam Segal (Guggenheim Museum), and Denise Ryner (ICA Philadelphia) and others, participants will examine case-studies in which curators have had to navigate targeted pressures, the workshop invites cultural leaders to discuss and identify strategies for maintaining creative and scholarly autonomy.

Apply Here ([link removed])


** Pepperdine University Censorship Sparks
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** Artist Protest at
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** Weisman Museum
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At the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, an exhibition titled Hold My Hand In Yours was shuttered nearly six months early after several of its artists withdrew their works in protest of the University’s censorship of two installations that were part of the show. The University claims that the two censored artworks contained “overtly political content” which they inferred would affect the University’s nonprofit status, but these concerns are misguided.Virtually any artwork responding to current events can be interpreted as expressing a political position and crucially, the exhibition of an object in an University museum does not mean that the University endorses the ideas it expresses.

We urge Pepperdine University to take steps towards the reinstatement of the exhibition and call for the University to adopt a statement affirming the value of free expression and develop guidelines for the exhibition of art on campus.

Full Letter Here ([link removed])


** Youth Free
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** Expression Program
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** Film Contest Winner
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The winner for this years Youth Free Expression Film Contest is Marie Hyoju Kim for her film “Art Is.” Selected from nearly 300 submissions, this 16-year-old filmmaker captured the spirit of creativity and freedom in her stunning film about all the things art is, can be, and should be.
Click Here to Watch the Full Film ([link removed])


** 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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