Two events will be held in DC this weekend in coordination with the national Fall of Freedom day of action.
Fall of Freedom is a national arts movement organized by playwright Lynn Nottage, visual artist Dread Scott, and many other artists to unite the American arts community in response to what it describes as “authoritarian forces sweeping the nation” since the Trump administration came into office.
Fall of Freedom aims to “activate a nationwide wave of creative resistance.” This weekend, on November 21 and 22, the organization is encouraging artists and organizations of all sizes to host exhibitions, performances, and public events at galleries, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country to “channel the urgency of the moment.”
The following events will be hosted by Washington, DC-based performing arts institutions:
Town Hall at Woolly Mammoth
Sheldon Scott, Woolly Mammoth’s Connectivity Artist-in-Residence, will facilitate a community discussion for citizen-artists living in DC right now. Join us to share your experience, listen to your neighbors, and become part of a living archive of our time. This event is organized in collaboration with the Fall of Freedom movement to protect artistic expression and freedom of speech.
- Friday, November 21 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
6-6:30pm Happy Hour
6:30-7:30pm Fall of Freedom Town Hall
How: RSVP here
Protest at the Kennedy Center
Hands Off the Arts and The Movement Movement will participate in the national Fall of Freedom day of action with a protest at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, reprising a February 2025 protest that featured Pina Bausch‘s Nelken Line. Organizers are expecting over 50 people to join, bringing attention to escalating threats to artistic freedom and labor rights facing artists and workers at the Kennedy Center since President Donald Trump became the organization’s chairman early this year.
Gathering near the Center, artists, cultural organizers, workers, and community members will stage a demonstration combining dance and speeches from fired Kennedy Center workers. Protesters are demanding the reinstatement of the Kennedy Center’s recently dismissed Dance Programming staff and the immediate recognition of the Kennedy Center United Arts Workers labor union by the Kennedy Center management.
The protest will join hundreds of actions happening nationwide as part of the Fall of Freedom mobilization, a coordinated response to policies, political rhetoric, and institutional decisions that restrict access to the arts, silence marginalized communities, and undermine democratic participation. Hands Off the Arts and The Movement Movement emphasize that changes at the Kennedy Center since President Trump became chairman are a demonstrable example of these threats.
Participants are encouraged to come regardless of dance background and to wear orange or red. The program will include a brief class to teach the simple choreography.
- What: Fall of Freedom Protest
When: Saturday, November 22, 1 – 2:30 PM
Where: The Kennedy Center
How: Sign up online for full details
Please alert DC Theater Arts to additional events, and we will add them here.
