50 STATES OF
RESISTANCE
in partnership with
Our 2026 project, 50 STATES OF RESISTANCE, brings artists and activists together to shine a light on the many different ways that people can fight back against authoritarianism and support democracy. On October 2nd, 3rd and 4th, artists of any discipline will sit down with activists, in person if possible, and listen to their stories. The conversations will express what actions activists have taken, what motivates them, how it feels, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and all the myriad human interactions that taken together are our country’s resistance. Our goal is to have at least one interview in every state (and D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam).
Each participating artist will identify an activist, meet and record the conversation, transcribe it and edit it down to a five minute monologue. Civilians can provide support for each of these steps. The interviews will be used for a live performance in New York City and they will be made available online to the Fall of Freedom network and others with an invitation to create performances in other parts of the US. Some of them will be turned into songs which we will record and share online.
The Civilians did a similar project during the Occupy movement. Interviews were conducted at occupations across the country, which were then edited and shared online in a searchable database. Later, various groups including activists, theaters, university students, even a performance event in Lithuania hosted Occupy performances centered on the reading selections of the collected interviews.