Not Here, Not Now, Not That!

Protest over Art and Culture in America

Steven J. Tepper

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780226792873, 9780226792866
• eBook ISBN: 9780226792880
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

In the late 1990s Angels in America,Tony Kushner's epic play about homosexuality and AIDS in the Reagan era, toured the country, inspiring protests in a handful of cities while others received it warmly. Why do people fight over some works of art but not others? Not Here, Not Now, Not That! examines a wide range of controversies over films, books, paintings, sculptures, clothing, music, and television in dozens of cities across the country to find out what turns personal offense into public protest. 

What Steven J. Tepper discovers is that these protests are always deeply rooted in local concerns. Furthermore, they are essential to the process of working out our differences in a civil society. To explore the local nature of public protests in detail, Tepper analyzes cases in seventy-one cities, including an in-depth look at Atlanta in the late 1990s, finding that debates there over memorials, public artworks, books, and parades served as a way for Atlantans to develop a vision of the future at a time of rapid growth and change.

Eschewing simplistic narratives that reduce public protests to political maneuvering, Not Here, Not Now, Not That! at last provides the social context necessary to fully understand this fascinating phenomenon.

INDEX

accountability, 268–69, 279. See also democracy, substantive

Acoma Indians, 42

Advocate (magazine), 158, 161, 331

African American Parent Coalition, 204, 210, 211, 212

African Folktales: Traditional Stories of the Black World (Abrahams), 176

AIDS, 3, 29, 68, 114–15, 124, 131, 251, 266

Albuquerque, NM, 10, 22, 42, 132, 172, 189–220, 248

Allen, Steve, 225

Allentown, PA, 30, 132

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 9, 31, 53, 111, 129, 141, 154, 166–69, 201, 272, 301

American Conservative Union, 329

American Family Association, 6, 10, 28, 30–33, 46, 51, 56–57, 157, 161–62, 266, 279

American Jewish Committee of Cleveland, 202

American Library Association (ALA), 7, 40, 111, 154, 163, 272

American Life League, 30

American Temperance Movement, 64, 67, 70, 88. See also temperance

Anderson, Bob, 161–64

Angelou, Maya, 80, 58, 176, 184, 188, 257

Angels in America (Kushner), 9, 29, 124, 171, 176, 178, 180–83, 186–87, 257–58, 281, 284

animal rights, 176

Annie on My Mind (Garden), 80, 158, 164–68, 249, 257

anti-busing, 141

anti-Hispanic defamation league, 42, 199

anti-obscenity campaign, 75

anti-pornography campaign, 65, 154. See also pornography

anti-vice campaigns, 65, 67, 71, 156

Artistic Freedom Under Attack (People for the American Way), 11, 56, 124

arts funding, 9, 124, 188, 257, 260, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Social Nature of Offense and Public Protest over Art and Culture
• One: A Bird’s-Eye View of Cultural Conflict in America
• Two: Social Change and Cultural Conflict: Uncertainty, Control, and Symbolic Politics
• Three: Some Like It Hot: Why Some Cities Are More Contentious than Others
• Four: Fast Times in Atlanta: Change, Identity, and Protest
• Five: From Words to Action: The Political and Institutional Context for Protest
• Introduction to Chapters Six, Seven, and Eight: Profiles of Contention
• Six: Cities of Cultural Regulation: Cincinnati, Dayton, Kansas City, and Oklahoma City
• Seven: Cities of Contention: Dallas, Fort Worth, Charlotte, and Denver
• Eight: Cities of Recognition: San Francisco, Albuquerque, San Jose, and Cleveland
• Nine: On Air, Our Air: Fighting for Decency on the Airwaves
• Conclusion: Art and Cultural Expression in America: Symbols of Community, Sources of Conflict, and Sites of Democracy
• Epilogue: Reflections on Cultural Policy, Democracy, and Protest
• Methodological Appendix
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index