Artists around the country are organizing events, making zines, and planning performances for next month’s Fall of Freedom, a “wave of creative resistance” in defiance of authoritarianism. And you’re invited to participate.

The “decentralized, open-source initiative” is envisioned as a collective movement of individual actions, planned independently but unified by a shared resistance to rising American fascism. Fall of Freedom events are set to start on November 21st and 22nd.

The project is the brainchild of a group of artists, but is not centrally planned like a traditional festival or conference. Instead, 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.”

I sent some questions via email to writer and curator Laura Raicovich and writer Hari Kunzru, both of whom have been involved in the collective brainstorming and planning that became Fall of Freedom. The open-source, anti-hierarchical structure came partially out of necessity.

“This is the only way it could be bootstrapped into existence in such a short time,” Kunzru said, “but also philosophically, this is about resisting an attempt to impose a single, top-down vision on the world, so of course it should be done like this.”

Raicovich said the structure aims to be inspiring, and that decentralizing “has the profound added benefit of giving people agency to do what they feel is necessary, which we hope will build the solidarity of working in concert with one another.”

This open invitation asks Americans to imagine their own creative ways to resist. Making culture expresses our values, which Kunzru described as a core function of art, which is able “to open up new possibilities, to expand the field of action.”

This imagination, expressed in a nationwide constellation of creative resistance, might point a way forward for a democratic society. Artists work in “spaces of the imagination,” Raicovich said, and create works that are “the canaries in the proverbial coal mine of freedom, provid[ing] tools and directions for us to realize the world we would like to live in.”

“Making art requires freedom,” Raicovich said, and is a form of anti-fascism in which “we fundamentally resist the forces that are attempting to shift access to individual and community rights and the rule of law.”

Both Kunzru and Raicovich have used their work as expressions of their values. Kunzru’s nonfiction and novels, particularly 2020’s Red Pill, have attempted “to address the slide towards Fascism,” he told me. Raicovich was formerly the director of the Queens Museum, but left in 2018, a difficult decision which she wrote about for Hyperallergic. Stepping away from this position reinforced her conviction that “we must form solidarities in spite of the risks they present to us personally,” values that are also reflected in Fall of Freedom.

“Collective mobilization has given me a great deal of hope, personally,” she told me, “and I hope that others will find some measure of fellow-feeling and inspiration by working side-by-side. This is a moment where we must be bold, standing together.”

The collectivity is the point, Kunzru said, with no individual event being more important than any other. Fall of Freedom is “an event that only has meaning as an aggregation of individual gestures.”

“We make culture, and values emerge from that,” Kunzru said. “We’re sick of being dictated to—figuratively and literally. We are asserting our power to shape reality, and our solidarity with each other.”

Fall of Freedom promises to be a mass demonstration of art, solidarity, and resistance. It’s also about choosing to use our creativity and talents for something worthwhile. The role of art in a just society, Kunzru told me, is “to refuse to decorate dictator’s ball rooms.”

If you want to get involved, there’s a lot more information on the Fall of Freedom webpage, including information on how to participate.