Vanessa Place

Poet and criminal defense attorney Vanessa Place divides her time between Los Angeles and New York. Her conceptual poetry, which is often provocative, explores the impact of context and expectation. In 2015, Place was attacked over a long-running social media performance, where she tweeted the full text of the novel Gone With the Wind. Her critics contend the work was a racist appropriation, while Place argued she was commenting on the racism of the novel. A petition succeeded in having her removed from a subcommittee at an academic conference associated with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Soon afterwards, the Berkeley Poetry Conference scrapped its entire program in connection to Place’s presence, and the Whitney Museum canceled an event that included her in its program.

Art, Freedom, and the Politics of Social Justice

36 min Read Now

In partnership with National Coalition Against Censorship

Art, Freedom, and the Politics of Social Justice

By Sam Durant Noelle Garcia Hou Hanru Oleg Mavromatti, and 5 more

Introduction Over the past few years, artworks that touch upon painful histories have sparked heated controversies. While the artists behind such works have invariably had a social purpose and sought