Street protests are one side of a worldwide citizens' movement. Another side is the increasing use of boycotts, one of the most powerful weapons in the organizer's arsenal: it is an effective and moral lever for civil rights, most notably today in its adoption by the BDS movement.

Since the days of the 19th century Irish land wars, when Irish tenant farmers defied the actions of Captain Charles Boycott and English landlords, "boycott" has been a method that's had an impact time and again. In the 20th century, it notably played central roles in the liberation of India and South Africa and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.: the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is generally seen as a turning point in the movement against segregation.

Assuming Boycott is the essential reader for today's creative leaders and cultural practitioners, including original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. It is about consequences and causes of cultural boycott. Far from withdrawal or cynicism, boycott emerges as a productive tool of creative and productive engagement.

About the Author
Laura Raicovich is President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum of the City of New York. A champion of socially engaged art practices that address the most pressing social, political, and ecological issues of our times, she has defined her career with artist-driven projects and programs. Recent projects at the Queens Museum include "Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art"; "William Gropper: Bearing Witness"; "Mickalene Thomas: Untitled"; "Mariam Ghani: Garden of Forked Tongues"; "Duke Riley: That's What She Said"; "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk," as well as a series of programs designed with Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly Shapiro to launch their "Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas." She lectures internationally, has contributed regularly to The Brooklyn Rail, and is the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties and At the Lightning Field.

Reviews
Praise for Assuming Boycott

"Artistic resistance has seldom proven so socially useful, or as complicated. This intellectually engaging study targets the paradoxes, limitations, and media spectacle of organized cultural boycotts and state-sponsored censorship from South African apartheid in the 1980s, to present day Israel-Palestine, Cuba, the Gulf States, the United Kingdom, and the United States among other geopolitical zones of conflict." -Gregory Sholette, artist and author of Delirium and Resistance: Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism

"Assuming Boycott defiantly holds the best arguments regarding boycott. It shows that boycott is not only a form of sanctions but also an invitation to dialogue. This collection of essays offers a historical perspective with comparative case studies, making it the ultimate resource to help decide where to draw the ethical line." -Galit Eilat, writer and curator, co-curator of 31st Sao Paulo Biennial

"Assuming Boycott is an essential contribution to an ongoing, urgent conversation about how artists, writers, and thinkers have time and again created subtle, meaningful, powerful, and vibrant ways to engage the political sphere. This book is a valuable guide to cultural boycotts from South Africa to Palestine." -Walid Raad, artist, professor, Cooper Union

"The brilliant writers and debaters assembled here come at the issue from different angles, all from the central belief that art is never not political." -Holland Cotter, co-chief art critic, The New York Times

"An essential guide to the terrain of cultural politics today. With colleagues and comrades like these, one feels not only bolstered but downright emboldened." -Hal Foster, Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University



Book Information
ISBN 9781944869434
Author Kareem Estefan
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint OR Books
Publisher OR Books