Three ways to speak out against music censorship

 By Jess Santacroce
Music Writer, 95.5 The Heat, Phoenix Radio
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Near the end of April, the Kennedy Center quietly announced that all LGBTQ Pride events would be canceled or moved to other venues. Officially, the decision is not related to censorship, but this shift in programming does come on the heels of President Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center. Earlier this year, in February, a show at the Art Museum of the Americas featuring Caribbean and African artists was among the first to be shut down as funding was cut under Trump’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion executive orders. Current policies put the arts at risk, including music. Searching for ways to combat current and future efforts to shut down the arts through censorship only generates multiple pages hosted by organizations and activists urging us to “speak up”...and usually donate to their organization. But how can we really use our voices, and the many other avenues available for self-expression these days...to fight censorship in music and other art?

Practice your own art

Once a novel or short story is written and shared in any form, whether that be through a commercial publisher, small press publication, self-publication, or just passing it around unpublished, it is out there to be read. Paintings and drawings and sculptures cannot be unseen once they are created and seen, and music can be played and sung, whether it is funded or even legally allowed or not.
If you produce any type of art, keep going. Create your art and share it in whatever way you decide is best for your art, no matter what might be going on with policies and funding. Now might even be the time for you to address issues of censorship, authoritarianism, disregard for the foreigner, disdain for the poor, and other problems that seem to have gained new life over the past one hundred or so days.
You never know when your work might be exactly what someone needs to keep going, or when it might give someone else an idea that changes their life or the life of yet another person.
One such opportunity for young Utica artists is the “Juneteenth” celebration scheduled for June 19, 2025 at the Utica City Hall. Share your art in support of this important national holiday by reaching out to local event sponsor “For the Good, Inc.” at “[email protected]” Be sure to include “Juneteenth performance” in your subject line and address your message to T.K. Howard, Sr.

Support local artists, venues, and organizations

Every “speak out” page ending with a link to give money to some national or regional non-profit organization or the other grows tiresome pretty quickly. While many of these organizations are no doubt doing real work to fight censorship, many likely aren’t doing much except collecting your money and paying their CEOs a corporate salary. Sorting through them all and finding out which ones are truly worthwhile recipients can amount to a whole project by itself.
Supporting individual artists, local organizations, and venues in your community that support the arts and artists is a much more effective tactic. While there is nothing wrong with seeing your favorite nationally or internationally known band on tour or taking a special trip to see somebody at Madison Square Garden or Red Rocks, remember that most of these large scale events involve corporate sponsorship. While this can be beneficial in that it allows more people to experience the work, it carries with it the risk of corporate influence on the event. If an artist takes a large sum of money from a corporation to perform onstage each night, they’re not likely to risk losing that by performing work that goes against that corporation’s values or interests.
Small neighborhood venues and organizations are much more likely to truly be places where artists can say whatever they feel called to say without interference.

Research carefully before you vote or support political candidates
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Trump’s far-fight censorship is the censorship making the news right now, but at least in the United States, both sides of the political spectrum have been and can continue to be guilty of trying to censor messages they disagree with. And if censorship is wrong, then it’s wrong when those you agree with much of the rest of the time do it too. While both sides can engage in “cancel culture,” the practice of ruining someone’s career and even their entire life for producing content somebody deems “offensive,” in any way has largely been perpetrated by the political left. Do a little digging into past speeches, writings, and legislation to learn whether or not someone has championed this practice before making the decision to vote for them.
Fighting efforts to censor the arts can be especially difficult when the project is something you find distasteful, or something that conveys messages you disagree with, but this is the time that it is most important.
No matter what happens, keep staying informed. Keep enjoying your local arts scene. And always keep creating your art.