Kristiania Joins the First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces Project, February 2017

“First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces” For Performance and Cultural Spaces

First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces is an initiative that aims to create a network of performance and cultural spaces, as well as places of worship, that pledge to uphold the foundational elements of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment at a time when enforcement of these fundamental constitutional guarantees is not assured. Already, two dozen New York City entities have joined First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces, ranging from theaters and cultural institutions, such as La MaMa and the Public Theater, to such significant houses of worship as Riverside Church and the Albanian Muslim Cultural Institution. (See list below.)

With this announcement of the First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces project, something unique and new is born: a New York City network of cultural institutions that publicly declare their commitment to embracing, embodying and practicing the main tenet of a free and open society — freedom of speech in all its forms. As sanctuary institutions, they pledge to make safe spaces for freedom of expression, association and belief, and defend all the guarantees of the First Amendment.

“We believe we are living in a political climate where basic human rights and forms of expression are in great jeopardy. The new leadership of the executive branch of the federal government has publicly articulated its aims to imprison, deport and denounce any and all people, or expressions by people, that it deems to be ‘un-American.’ For this reason alone, we stand firm and resolute to defend and support, in perpetuity, all forms of expression that are protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” says project creator and performance artist George Emilio Sanchez.

“First Amendment Sanctuary Spaces” in NYC

The following list was complete as of January 2017. For additional sanctuary spaces, please refer to facebook.com/FirstAmendmentSanctuarySpaces.

BRONX
* BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
* Pregones Theater

BROOKLYN
* BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange
* The Bushwick Starr
* Irondale Ensemble Project
* JACK
* Kristiania Writer’s Collective

MANHATTAN
* Abrons Arts Center
* Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
* Chen Dance Center / H.T. Chen & Dancers
* Danspace Project
* Dixon Place
* Gibney Dance
* Harlem Stage/Gatehouse
* Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
* Judson Memorial Church — New York City
* La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
* Movement Research
* New York Live Arts
* New York Theatre Workshop
* Performance Space 122
* The Riverside Church in the City of New York

QUEENS
* The Chocolate Factory Theater
* Topaz Arts

STATEN ISLAND
* Albanian Muslim Cultural Center
* Art Lab