Why a group of writers and artists is boycotting the 92nd Street Y.

Today, an organized group of artists and writers announced the launch of 92NO, a collective protest directed at the New York cultural institution 92NY (formally known the 92nd Street Y).

The group represents the formal culmination of a dispute three years in the making. In October 2023, 92NY cancelled a scheduled talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet ُThanh Nguyen after Nguyen signed a letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The novelist’s ousting led to widespread outcry, including cancellations from other cultural figures slated to speak at 92NY. But CEO Seth Pensky defended the decision at the time, and went on to organize “a series of public events boosting cultural and political support for Israel.”

Over the past three years, 92NY has hosted a number of aggressively pro-Israel speakers, including former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the journalists Bari Weiss and Bret Stephens, and the actor Debra Messing.

At the same time, org leaders have squelched all internal dissent regarding Israel. In July 2024, the company implemented a policy banning political expression for all public facing employees.

As 92NO reports in their first missive to the public, 92NY is a thorny target because of its close ties to New York City’s history. First founded in 1874 as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association to serve New York’s American Jewish community, “the space developed a reputation as not only a home for American Jews, but as a mainstay of both American and global culture and art.”

For more than a hundred years, the place has functioned as a crucial cultural bastion, hosting speakers like James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Allen Ginsberg. But the org’s response to the ongoing Palestinian genocide has been devastating.

Given all this, the new protest group is calling on all artists to refuse to allow their names and works to be used to launder the reputation of 92NY.

In a first act of redress, the organizers have also gathered this list of alternative New York City cultural spaces, highlighting the organizations affiliated with the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) movement.

Learn more about 92NO here.