Fall of Freedom, an “urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation,” according to its organizers, will have a local expression on Saturday at the Masonic Temple in Sag Harbor.
From 7 to 10 p.m., the venue will host Freedom Crawl Sag Harbor, with a lineup of music, readings, comedy, and visual material by artists including Inda Eaton, Christine Sciulli, spitnkitn, Dianne LeVerrier, M Takes the Mic, Judy D’Mello, Ur Mom, Alex and Erica-Lynn Huberty, Candace Hill, Lindsay Morris, Ruby Jackson, Liz Joyce, Kathleen King, Veriphonic, Adelaide Mestre, Andrea Cote, Jeremy Grosvenor, Kate Mueth, Erling Hope, Scott Bluedorn, and Ross Watts. Each performance will be up to five minutes in length.
Until the lineup reaches capacity, those wishing to participate as performers have been invited to send a direct message to Freedom Crawl Sag Harbor via its Instagram page. “People are reaching out and wanting to be part of it,” said Ms. Sciulli, who is among its organizers.
Admission is by way of an item of nonperishable food for donation to a local food pantry. All ages will be welcomed.
“Threats to free expression are rising,” according to the nationwide events’ initiators, who include artists, playwrights, novelists, and filmmakers. “Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.”
Tomorrow and Saturday, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that “channel the urgency of this moment,” organizers said. Fall of Freedom “is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part — and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.”
In Sag Harbor, Saturday’s Freedom Crawl will be a collective expression of freedom and anti-censorship, Ms. Sciulli said. The purpose of the national movement is to “stand against authoritarianism and to exercise our creative expression to the fullest extent.”
Dread Scott, a visual artist and an organizer of the nationwide Fall of Freedom gatherings, attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Ms. Morris, who is another organizer of Freedom Crawl Sag Harbor, a photographer, and the vocalist and guitarist of spitnkitn.
“Aside from voicing our grievances with our politicians and participating in protests, I think we’ve all been feeling only mildly effective,” Ms. Morris said. “Organizing and performing with spitnkitn in Fall of Freedom is our way of saying, ‘We see what’s happening, and we’re not sitting it out.’ The Fall of Freedom event is an opportunity for our creative East End community to gather with its collective imaginative energy, reminding people that freedom isn’t something we inherit; it’s something we continually create and protect together.”
Sag Harbor, she said, “has a long history of artists shaping the culture around them, and bringing this event here feels like continuing that tradition at a crucial time.”
“People should never be afraid to say what they stand for,” Ms. Sciulli said, referring to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech on election night. Directing his words at President Trump, who was watching the speech, the mayor-elect said that “to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
“The important thing is about standing up publicly,” Ms. Sciulli said.
“Art matters,” Fall of Freedom’s organizers wrote. “Artists are a threat to American fascism.”
