Tony Kushner Denied CUNY Honor: His Letter to the Trustees

Tony Kushner Denied CUNY Honor: His Letter to the Trustees

Tony Kushner Denied CUNY Honor: His Letter to the Trustees

Tony Kushner’s full letter to the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York—plus, how you can take action on Kushner’s behalf.

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In a highly unusual move, the trustees of the City University of New York voted on Monday to deny an honorary degree to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Nation editorial board member Tony Kushner.

The vote came after a CUNY trustee, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, said that Kushner had disparaged the State of Israel in past comments, a characterization that Kushner passionately disputed in a moving and angry open letter he released to the CUNY trustees. Download the full text of Kushner’s letter below.

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Click here to download the PDF of Tony Kushner’s letter to CUNY Trustees

 

To read Kushner’s "A Socialism Of the Skin," one of his seminal essays for The Nation, click here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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