{"id":554,"date":"2007-05-08T09:14:58","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T14:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/08\/the-power-of-free-speech\/"},"modified":"2007-05-08T09:15:48","modified_gmt":"2007-05-08T14:15:48","slug":"the-power-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/08\/the-power-of-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of (free) speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }\n.flickr-yourcomment { }\n.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }\n.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"flickr-frame\">\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hryckowian\/487454907\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/198\/487454907_820439b4ec.jpg?w=840\" class=\"flickr-photo\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>\n\t<span class=\"flickr-caption\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hryckowian\/487454907\/\">House Poem<\/a>, originally uploaded by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/hryckowian\/\">Hryckowian<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"flickr-yourcomment\">\n\tThis wonderful photograph is of Huang Xiang&#8217;s house in Pittsburgh.  Quoting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/hryckowian\/\">Hryckowian<\/a>&#8216;s description of the image:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/pg\/05296\/592946.stm\">Huang Xiang<\/a> is a poet from the Hunan Province of China. While he has been likened to Walt Whitman, the majority of his countrymen do not know his work, his poetry, or his plight. His work has been banned in China and he was imprisoned for 12 years of his life for simply trying to live a life of creativity. Fortunately, through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cityofasylum.org\/\">City of Asylum<\/a> program, he and his family were brought to the United States and to Pittsburgh, where he has been living since 2004.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/simonk\/127677826\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/49\/127677826_c5ea4c090d_m_d.jpg?w=180\" hspace='10' vspace='10' class=\"flickr-photo\" alt=\"\" align='right' data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/a><br \/>\nAs you can see on the right (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/simonk\/127677826\/\">Huang Xiang: House Poem\/Dream Nest<\/a>, originally uploaded by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/simonk\/\">simonk<\/a><\/em>), the poet has quite literally covered his Pittsburgh home with his writing.  To quote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hryckowian\/\">Hryckowian<\/a> again:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n&#8230;the entire house is covered in characters, poetry, words he would be tortured for in China, but he can share with the world and anyone who cares to pass by here. His words reach from his roof to the foundation, and defy anyone who would try to silence him.<\/p>\n<p>Kind of makes me wish I could read Chinese.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nI&#8217;d never heard of the City of Asylum program, but it sounds very cool.  I wonder if we could ever pull together the resources for Morris to act as a host city?  It wouldn&#8217;t be a trivial thing (a two year stay would easily cost over $100K), but I could imagine that there might be authors out there who would find time in a quiet  rural community very useful.<\/p>\n<p>The other rub, of course, is that much of America (and certainly lots of homogeneous, small town America) is all for free speech as long as you don&#8217;t say too many things we don&#8217;t want to hear.  Bringing a powerful, outspoken writer with that kind of history into a small community could certainly have some unexpected consequences.  But I suspect that could be a <em>good<\/em> thing, and likely a story worth telling.<\/p>\n\n\t<div class=\"st-post-tags \">\n\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/photography\/\" title=\"Photography\">Photography<\/a><br \/><\/div>\n\n\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/11\/18\/wonderful-little-film-about-paul-rand\/\" title=\"Wonderful little film about Paul Rand (18 Nov 07)\">Wonderful little film about Paul Rand<\/a> (0)<\/li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/11\/20\/with-joy-shall-ye-draw-water\/\" title=\"With joy shall ye draw water (20 Nov 07)\">With joy shall ye draw water<\/a> (0)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Poem, originally uploaded by Hryckowian. This wonderful photograph is of Huang Xiang&#8217;s house in Pittsburgh. Quoting Hryckowian&#8216;s description of the image: Huang Xiang is a poet from the Hunan Province of China. While he has been likened to Walt Whitman, the majority of his countrymen do not know his work, his poetry, or his &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/08\/the-power-of-free-speech\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The power of (free) speech&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[21,20,13,7],"tags":[869],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-8W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1263,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2010\/05\/06\/mom-loves-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":0},"title":"Mom Loves Me","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"6 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Mom Loves Me, originally uploaded by nailbender. I don't get enough time to look at the wonderful photos that other people are posting on Flickr, but every now and then I carve out a few minutes. This morning over breakfast I discovered this gem and had to share. There is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":329,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/03\/23\/some-great-photojournalism-on-flickr\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":1},"title":"Some great photojournalism on Flickr","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"23 Mar 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo by Hugo* Please forgive me for another round of pro-Flickr babbling, but I just ran across some really wonderful photojournalism and had to share. The photo above is by Hugo* and is part of an excellent series documenting recent unrest in France. This is truly fine work, and certainly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"March 23, 2006 - 18.08 by Hugo*","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/40\/116848269_c09b2f37ac_d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/12\/16\/midwestern-evening\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":2},"title":"Midwestern evening","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"16 Dec 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Midwestern evening, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Beauty is where you find it...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":468,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/15\/february-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":3},"title":"February Letters","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"15 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"February Letters, originally uploaded by magic fly paula. Just too cool...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/12\/05\/slow-poison-slow-cure\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":4},"title":"Slow poison, slow cure","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"5 Dec 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Slow poison, slow cure, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":469,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/13\/cold-hieroglyphs\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":5},"title":"Cold hieroglyphs","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"13 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Cold hieroglyphs, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Frost makes pretty lines on the windows...Photoshop allows me to play with the colors...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}