“Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has declined to accept an award from the Noguchi Museum in New York in protest at its new staff dress code which led to the firing of three employees for wearing the keffiyah, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.
Last month, the art museum announced an internal policy reportedly prohibiting employees from wearing clothing or accessories that expressed “political messages, slogans or symbols.”
“Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy,” the museum said, according to The New York Times.
“We respect her perspective and understand that this policy may or may not align with everyone’s views,” the statement reportedly added in a statement emailed to the paper on Wednesday.
Pulitzer winner Jhumpa Lahiri declines award over New York museum's keffiyeh ban | Reuters#Gaza #Genocide #Nakba https://t.co/TOomo6Bsb6
— Noura Erakat (@4noura) September 26, 2024
The museum said it remained “committed to our core mission of advancing the understanding and appreciation of Isamu Noguchi’s art and legacy while upholding our values of inclusivity and openness.”
Support for Student Movement
Born in London, the award-winning author is a Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University.
Lahiri was one of thousands of scholars who signed a statement to university and college presidents across the United States in May expressing “solidarity with the students, staff, and faculty who are peacefully and courageously protesting the Israeli government’s ongoing war on Gaza.”
Following the adjustment to the museum’s dress code, 50 staff members signed a petition to oppose the new rules and also staged a walkout in protest.
“The museum has not made any public statement surrounding the ongoing war in Gaza, but by changing the dress code to ban the kaffiyeh it is taking a public stance,” the petition reportedly said.
‘No Political Statements’
Museum Director, Amy Hau, said the decision was made “to update our dress code policy and reemphasize that we do not allow any political statements in the workplace.”
‘Stupidity and Irony’ – Noguchi Art Museum Fires Employees for Wearing the Keffiyah
The decision, Hau said in a statement on the museum’s website, was “intended to prevent any unintentional alienation of our diverse visitorship, while allowing us to remain focused on our core mission of advancing the understanding and appreciation of Isamu Noguchi’s art and legacy.”
The museum was founded nearly 40 years ago by Japanese-American sculptor and activist Isamu Noguchi.
‘Stupidity and Irony’
Natalie Cappellini, one of the three fired gallery attendants, called out “the stupidity and irony of a cultural institution banning a cultural garment.”
“How naive can you be? To be inside of a museum of a man who self-interned with his oppressed Japanese American brothers and sisters in World War 2; a museum filled with sculptures dedicated to the memory of those killed by atomic weapons. How dare they say this place is a sanctuary away from politics!” Cappalini said at a rally outside the museum earlier this month.
The statement asked “a straightforward but weighty question: Is your university profiting from or otherwise complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza, and its occupation of Palestinian territories more broadly?”
It called on the presidents to, amongst other requests, “Treat the student-led protests for what they are: a moral stance against their university’s potential complicity in war crimes, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
According to the NY Times, Lahiri declined to comment.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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