Expression is the action, Courage is contagious, Art matters This is the call for Fall for Freedom—a weekend of positive protest organized by prominent artists and organizations including open-source initiatives assembled by a collective of artists including Dread Scott, Lynn Nottage, Jenny Polak, Laura Raicovich, and Cassils. Key theater organizations like the Public Theater and Broadway Advocacy Coalition have also joined, along with other institutions such as the Brooklyn Public Library.  Above: Jerry Kearns, Slip Sliding Away (detail, 2025) is part of the Clemente Center's exhibition Cancel This Show!

As the Trump administration’s mission to diminish creative exploration in the arts is unlike to slow down, thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations will host events such as readings of banned books, art exhibits, art workshops, family art activities, protests and performances this weekend. Hyperallergic has put together a list of local events to start out with. For the full lineup, coast to coast, go  here.

Cancel This Show! at The Clemente Center Friday, November 21, 6:30pm

Cancel This Show! features work at the intersection of art, activism, and dissent by artists including Molly Crabapple, Jenny Polak, Shellyne Rodriguez, Theodore A. Harris, Dread Scott, and Todd Ayoung. The exhibition takes influence from the 1967 artist-led Angry Arts Week in New York City and the nationwide campaign Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central America in 1984. Above: Molly Crabapple, Whores but Organized, 2019

Continuing through December 20 at The Clemente Center, 107 Suffolk Street,  New York, NY 

An Incomplete Haunting at 601Artspace. Friday, November 21, 6–8pm (Saturday gallery hours 1-6pm)

“Lately I have been thinking about the idea of a shadow book—a book that we don’t have, but know of, a book that may haunt the very book we have in our hands.” —Kevin Young, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness

Curated by Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, this show coalesces various research-driven creative practices rooted in illuminating and reclaiming suppressed histories. Among the featured artists are Nicholas Galanin, Alicia Grullon, Yevgeniy Fiks, Dread Scott, Kenneth Tam, and the late Nona Faustine — each known for restaging harsh American truths and what they’ve yielded for marginalized populations across the country through photo, video, sculpture, installation, and reinterpreted archival materials. Above: Nona Faustine,  Dorothy Angola Stay Free, In Land Of the Blacks, Minetta Lane, the Village, NYC, 2021

601Artspace, 88 Eldridge Street, New York, NY

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Reading Room. Friday, November 21, 12–6pm

The Leslie-Lohman Museum, dedicated to LGBTQIA+ art and artists, has carved out a devoted space for queer literature and resistance that invites visitors to read, reflect, and converse with others in the same space. Museum catalogs and other published works from the institution’s store will populate the reading room and be available for purchase at a discount on Friday, November 21, during normal operating hours.

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, 26 Wooster Street, SoHo, Manhattan

To read Hyperallergic’s complete short list, go here