From the literary world to college campuses the relationships between art, identity, appropriation, and free speech are hotly contested. Increasingly the value of freedom of expression is ranked in opposition to the harm caused by certain forms of speech that are believed to undermine the dignity and humanity of marginalized communities. In an intimate dialogue, Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies), the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, novelist, and President of PEN America and Interfaith America Founder and President Eboo Patel (We Need to Build) explore the climate of self-censorship facing writers, question whether marginalization is a useful category in art, and discuss the dangers of sacrificing freedom of expression to the shifting social and cultural mores of the day.
