We send our warmest greetings in this strangest of summers, a season of uncertainty and turmoil, awakening and hope. We wanted to catch you up on what we’ve been up to and invite you to lend a hand.

A busy time for ICOA

As you may know, ours is a two-part mission: to provide refuge in Ithaca to persecuted writers and artists and to speak up about freedom of expression and human rights. Our artist-in-residence, Pedro X. Molina, has been at the center of both those efforts.

Since arriving from Nicaragua in December 2018, Pedro has become an important voice in our community. In addition to teaching an Honors course at IC and guest lecturing in other classes, he has given talks and interviews, sat on panels, curated exhibitions, and participated in numerous public activities and events. This summer he will be working with local children through the Village at Ithaca.

All this while sending six cartoons a week to the Nicaraguan news outlet Confidencial, publishing two books of his work, and contributing to Counterpoint, Politico, and other national and international publications.

In the last year, Pedro has spoken (or been invited to speak) in Amsterdam, Austin, Berlin, Chapel Hill, Columbus, Costa Rica, Lisbon, Miami, New York City, Paris, Strasbourg, and Toronto. Other achievements include a World Press Cartoon prize, Columbia Journalism School’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on the Americas, and an Excellence in Journalism Award from the Inter American Press Association. We are very lucky to have him here.

Despite all this, these have been hard times for the Molinas, who have been largely confined to their apartment and cut off from friends and family as the coronavirus ravages their home country.

What’s next

It is looking increasingly unlikely that Nicaragua will be safe enough to return to when Pedro’s term with ICOA is officially over next May, so we have been working with him and his family on a plan for the future. Our capacity to help is diminished by the fact that we have lost important funding from Cornell. We have also begun our search for a new resident, but we’re unsure about what we’ll be able to do given our limited resources. This is troubling, as the risk for outspoken writers and artists is greater than ever.

To that end, we have been working to strengthen the network of cities of asylum around the U.S. and the world, partnering with City of Asylum in Pittsburgh on programming (see below) and sharing our experiences with groups in New York, Detroit, Arkansas, and elsewhere. We have also been monitoring cases of harassment and imprisonment of writers, journalists, and artists through ICORN, PEN, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and other organizations. 

How you can help

Please consider making a donation to Ithaca City of Asylum today. ICOA is an all-volunteer project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 organization. Donations are tax deductible. Donating is easy online via GiveGab. You can also mail a check to ICOA, c/o CTA, 119 Anabel Taylor Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. Please make your check out to the Center for Transformative Action and write ICOA on the memo line. We will send donors who give $500 or more a copy of Forbidden Voices, a handsome book that features our former writer-in-residence Sonali Samarasinghe. 

Save the date!

Please plan to join us on Friday, October 2, 7 p.m. for “Crossing the Line,” our first-ever virtual Voices of Freedom celebration to mark Banned Books Week. We are teaming up with City of Asylum in Pittsburgh to bring you an illustrated conversation between Pedro Molina and Rob Rogers, an internationally acclaimed editorial cartoonist who was fired by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018 for his cartoons critical of Donald Trump. Both Pedro and Rob have paid a stiff price for publicly calling out their countries’ political leadership. It should be a mind-opening (and even humorous!) evening. More details later this summer. Thanks to the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County for their support for this event. 
 
Shoot us an email if you have any thoughts or questions. You can also follow us on Facebook and bookmark our website. And feel free to forward this message to anyone you think may be interested!
 
P.S. Our thoughts are with the nearly 80 million forcibly displaced people who have had to survive the Covid-19 pandemic in places other than home. More than 30 million of those are refugees and asylum seekers. We’re determined not to forget them as we deal with our own challenges.