On Friday, Nov. 21, the University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology hosted two events highlighting the importance of freedom of expression and the role of museums in protecting the exchange of ideas.
The first event was “Lexicon of Liberty,” a celebration of banned and threatened books. Maxwell Museum Preparator Chris Albert and Curator of Education and Public Programs Julián Antonio Carrillo led the event, sharing statistics on who bans books, why and how. The second event, “Designed to Disrupt,” was a round table event where attendees were invited to play “Designing to Disrupt,” a card game by museum worker Chaya Arabia, designed to teach what can be achieved with activism.
“We’re gonna be using it in a way that’s going to hopefully uncover and discover the body language of the Maxwell Museum, which are these sort of invisible signs of how people read you. For example, the design of the museum or who your staff are — their race or sexual orientation. All of these factors of what constitutes your museum, what signals you’re sending out to the public,” Antonio Carrillo said.
Albert said the events coincide with the nationwide “Fall of Freedom,” a national banding together of artists, writers and culture workers to honor free speech and find opportunities to take action to defend it.
“There are a lot of things happening that are improper, illegal, contrary to the foundational principles of this nation and I feel like even elected leaders who share that opinion and sentiment are kind of gone. I mean, they’re there, but I think a lot of people on the ground — everyday individuals — are looking for suggestions of what they can do, how they can be empowered to act,” Albert said.
The event featured an infographic on how book bans are initiated. The infographic shared information from the American Library Association stating that there were 821 censorship attempts in 2024, 26% of which were from pressure groups, and 36% of which came from school boards and administrations.
Participants at the Lexicon of Liberty event were also invited to read from a threatened or banned book, or any literary passage relating to the concept of free speech.
“The museum is a cultural institution, I think any museum has a responsibility to nonpartisanally really examine and support freedom of expression,” Albert said.
One banned passage was shared by Antonio Carrillo from a book titled “Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano. The book investigates the impact of slavery and imperialism in Latin America, and has been banned and challenged throughout Latin America, including in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.
One attendee, Kee Warner, said that he decided to visit the event while passing through town, as he has visited Maxwell Museum before.
“I thought it was very interesting and it was informal, but it was clear that there were people who had prepared to come and share some personal thoughts about censorship and banning books,” said Warner. “It wasn’t just what I expected. It was a range of things and people driving from their own personal experiences.”
Maxwell Museum Director Carla Sinopoli also brought “Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie to share. She spoke of the importance of free speech and discourse as factors that allow a museum of anthropology to function as it is intended.
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“If we want to understand each other and understand — as an anthropology museum — the richness of human diversity, we have to be able to communicate honestly and openly,” Sinopoli said.
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
