Creative Expression Part II

The Guardian 2025

A few blogs back “Creative Expression,” posted on August 9, 2025 I discussed the arts as a vital medium of creative expression and the essential role they play in a free society. In that post, I briefly mentioned the cancellation of Amy Sherald’s upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian, with particular concern surrounding one image: a transgender reimagining of the Statue of Liberty. Reportedly, the concern was that the image “may provoke the President” (Pogrebin, 2025), and according to the article, Smithsonian leadership had even received threats.

But my question is: What, exactly, would provoke such concern?

One of the fundamental purposes of art is to provoke thought at least for those who are willing to think. Art doesn’t have to appeal to everyone. That’s the very foundation of freedom of expression. Art is subjective.

Amy Sherald’s reinterpretation of Lady Liberty as a Black trans person is a powerful, symbolic gesture. Whether it is the trans identity, the Blackness of the figure, or the iconic representation of liberty itself that is provoking controversy perhaps all three it forces us to confront our discomforts and assumptions. And that is the work of meaningful art.

Let’s also be clear: Sherald’s piece, titled “Trans Forming Liberty,” is not just about identity; it’s about reclaiming a symbol and infusing it with new meaning, urgency, and visibility. In her version, Lady Liberty holds not a torch, but flowers a striking contrast that shifts the symbol from one of traditional power and enlightenment/illumination to one of peace, vulnerability, and even resistance. In today’s climate of rising hatred and intolerance, this feels especially poignant.

And let’s not overlook the deeper irony here. Sherald’s work is being silenced, yet we’ve recently witnessed the gilded ornamentation of the “People’s House” the White House transformed to resemble a European palace. A space meant to symbolize democracy, now evoking monarchy. That, too, is a statement. But I’ll leave that for another post.

Let’s return to Lady Liberty herself, who has long been mischaracterized as a symbol of immigration. Her actual history tells a different story. The statue was commissioned in 1865, shortly after the end of the Civil War, and intended to commemorate the abolition of slavery. The artist, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, originally depicted Liberty with broken chains in her left hand. Today, those chains lie discreetly at her feet largely unnoticed, untaught, and unacknowledged.

“Liberty Enlightening the World” was a gift from France not for immigration, but in celebration of America’s independence and its supposed move toward justice and equality. But the shackles at her feet tell the truth: she was born from the promise of emancipation not Ellis Island.

In this light, Sherald’s “Trans Forming Liberty” reminds me of the freedom that still eludes so many Black and Brown people, the LGBTQ+ community, the poor, the displaced. It reminds me that the promise of America is still unfulfilled.

And what irony while this art is censored, immigrants are being kidnapped, deported, and denied due process, even as Lady Liberty stands adorned with the words:“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

To breathe freedom, it seems, is a privilege still limited to a few.

BEing and BElonging remain radical acts. And art, when it tells the truth, often pays the price.

#emphathy

#smithsonian

#Amy Sherald

#transgendered

#black

#statue of liberty