And the beat goes on...JUST TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT my response to the Dont Buy Miss Saigon campaign on their recent post re my letter: It was NEVER my intention to infer that anyone from Don’t Buy Miss Saigon was calling us sell-outs. When you use language like “When Mr. Mendoza was publicly challenged…he admitted…etc.” it makes it sound as if I was intentionally placing false blame on Don’t Buy Miss Saigon when in actuality, I had never heard of your campaign at the time I wrote the letter. The letter was specifically for Sheila Regan, Marianne Combs, and Juliana Hu Pegues. Ms. Regan responded right away and asked if my letter to them could be published in TC Daily Planet, to which I gave my blessing. In no part of my letter do I mention your campaign or members of your campaign. If Ms. Regan, Ms. Combs, or Ms. Hu Pegues are members, I certainly wasn’t suggesting that they were calling us sell outs. If it appears that way, then I truly apologize. But I stand by what I said in subsequent interviews. If you have a problem with this piece, then you have a problem with me. As an artist, I stand behind my work and my choices of employment 100%. I don’t think you realize how truly empowered we are. No, I didn’t have to take this job for money. I took this job because I believe in this piece. I believe you are seeing the piece through a very narrow lens. I believe most of your allegations of negative impact to the API community are unfounded and what you’re promoting by demanding an arts institution NEVER to do a piece again is damaging to ALL of our future artistic endeavors. You have every right to hate this piece. I will fight for your right to do so. But you don’t have the right to impose your beliefs on someone else by taking away their own right to choose. If you successfully ban this piece from the Twin Cities area, you will be doing yourselves a great disservice, not just for this piece, but for any piece that any artist may create that is deemed “unacceptable.”
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 06:57:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015