Charlotte Canning

@cmcanning.bsky.social

1790 Followers 891 Following

Performance historian. Reader. Teacher. Feminist. Views my own and represent no one else. She/hers

Tree with bouquets of flowers at its roots and a banner that read “#JusticeforSandra”
Framing Christopher Columbus's landing and exploration of the New World as a murderous genocide and "unsettling" of the continent to be lamented, not celebrated, including: i. Calling Christopher Columbus a "murderer," "slaver," "killer," and "thief," urging the abolition of Columbus Day (pg. 104); and ii. Creating NMAH's Many Voices, One Nation exhibit, which portrays the European settling of America as a "profound unsettling of the continent" with a section entitled "Unsettling the Continent, 1492-1776" that states that "Our world today grows out of that unsettling history" (pg. 104).
Cover of coming-of-age in Mississippi by Ann Moody. A young black woman looking off the frame of the picture.
A school bus painted with multi-colored rectangles on the style of Piet Mondrian with six people hanging out the window. There is a mother and three sons and two daughters.
Poster for Yale Innovation Summit with five circles of photos and the date 27 May 2026
1944 protest march in Austin TX. Several men in suits march down the center of the street carrying a coffin with the sign academic freedom.
A large group of people sitting in a bookstore
Handwritten sign on white paper by black marker tape to a brick wall. “Signs and videos were removed by the order of the Trump administration due to the presence of facts about slavery.“
L: Annette Gordon- Reed on a black suit and red shirt holding a microphone while sitting in a chair. R: Lonnie Bunch III. In a black suit, white shirt and red tie also sitting and holding a microphone.
Blonde woman holding a phone wearing a black T-shirt that says FOIA & Find Out
AI image of President Trump in a blue suit walking down the stairs of Air Force One holding a very large white flag.
WHAT SPECTACLE CAN BE MORE EDIFYING OR MORE SEASONABLE, THAN THAT OF LIBERTY & LEARNING. EACH LEANING ON THE OTHER FOR THEIR MUTUAL & SUREST SUPPORT? James Madison
President Richard Milhous Nixon "America's performing arts stem from the spirit of the country and the soul of its people, and they impart to the Nation's life a beauty, a grace, and a deep and special communion without which that life would be incomplete. It is especially fitting that they now should have this magnificent new Center in the nation's capital. The opening of the John. F. Kennedy Center is the fulfillment of a dream shared by Americans in every walk of life. Its completion now, as the nation prepares for the approaching celebration of its bicentennial, gives proud emphasis to our rich artistic heritage, and helps ensure that in the third American century that heritage will continue both to grow in vigor and to gain in recognition and support by the public it serves."
Key Characters & Actors: • Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Bob, described as a "dude-like" revolutionary. • Sean Penn plays the villainous Col. Steven J. Lockjaw. • Benicio Del Toro also appears in the film.
Cover of book universities under dictatorship edited by John Connolly and Michael Grüttner. Cover is abstract yellow and orange shapes with a fragmented black tower.
RECOMMENDATION The Chancellor and the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs recommend that the U.T. System Board of Regents approve The University of Texas System Expectations of Academic Integrity and Standards for Teaching Controversial Topics. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The University of Texas System affirms teaching as a solemn covenant between faculty and students, grounded in academic integrity, open inquiry, and respect for diverse viewpoints, especially when addressing controversial or contested topics. The Expectations of Academic Integrity and Standards for Teaching Controversial Topics outlined below reflect the understanding that a university is a place of ideas where different perspectives are welcome, and the recognition that we hold a special position of public trust to achieve a vital Teaching is a solemn covenant between faculty and students that, when done well, develops knowledge, cultivates skills, hones wisdom, and fosters lifelong curiosity and learning. The University of Texas System demands the highest quality in our teaching and learning and recognizes the essential role our faculty play in delivering on this mission. We also recognize the serious responsibilities that come with that role, particularly in teaching controversial and contested topics. Regents Rule 31004 (Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty Members) asserts that "Faculty members are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his or her subject.... This freedom must be balanced by a faculty member's responsibility to adhere to principles of academic integrity and their duty to protect student rights. This includes the responsibility to: foster classroom cultures of trust in which students feel free to voice questions and beliefs, especially when those perspectives might conflict with those of the instructor or other students
Die gedanken sind frei My thoughts freely flower Die gedanken sind frei My thoughts give me power No scholar can map them No hunter can trap them No man can deny Die gedanken sind frei I think as I please And this gives me pleasure My conscience decrees This right I must treasure My thoughts will not cater To duke or dictator No man can deny Die gedanken sind frei Tyrants can take me And throw me in prison My thoughts will burst forth Like blossoms in season Foundations may crumble And structures may tumble But free men shall cry Die gedanken sind frei
Large steer with a nose piece reading Bevo and he’s crying
A white dog and a black dog look up at the camera
Book, Puerto Rico: A National History by Jarrell Mélebdez-Badillo with a light blue cover and a dark blue outline of Puerto Rico
Two pictures of figure skater Amber Glenn. On the left she wears a ball cap and white top at a press conference. On the right she’s kneeling down and wearing the US Olympic teams uniform of white duffle coat, fair isle sweater, and white pants. The caption reads “They hate to see two woke bitches winning If "Woke" means people who use their platforms to advocate for marginalized communities in the country that they are actively representing...... Then yeah sure? #olympics #TeamUSA @frigouscigous”
Back in the 193os a scholarly intramural feud to choose the inscription for the new library at my future alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, ended in a draw. From many nominations the competition came down to two finalists. Both said the same thing in different tongues: "Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free," from the biblical Gospel of John, and its Latin counterpart: "Cognoscetis Ventatem et veritas liberabit vos." Fortunately—at least for me—the selection committee chose English. As I crossed that plaza as a student in the I950s, and twice later when I spoke at commencement, I would look up (mainly to check the time on the huge clock high on the iconic tower rising above the library), catch a glimpse of the inscrip-tion, and be grateful that so many of my professors had fought hard to prevent the politically appointed Board of Regents from dictating exactly what truth could be taught. Some paid a dear price for defending academic freedom, among them survivors of a ferocious campaign waged the previous decade by the state legislature to fire the university president, a political assault bravely resisted by many faculty and students alike.
Painting of four young girls in dresses and pinafores in a large, formal room. Three are standing and the smallest one sits on the floor with a doll in her lap.
Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry février 15th century farm yard in the foreground, a woman in a blue dress, warms herself by the fire. In the middle ground is the farm yard itself with sheep in a shed and some farm implements around the yard. the background chopping wood at another is driving some kind of farm animal towards the town.
Donald Trump Truth Social post from a year ago: At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP! Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth - THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
Immersion (Piss Christ) is a 1987 photograph by the American artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a small glass tank of the artist's urine. The colors are intensely saturated reds and yellows and the texture is broken up by small bubbles.
A drawing of a group of peasant or working-class men and women marching some with scythes or other implements.
The Martyrdom of St Apollonia by Jean Fouquet (c.1452). A a woman tied to a board being tortured by several men while a large crowd watches and a man with a book reads it aloud.
SIR THOMAS MORE Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I'll tell you. You had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another.
Three gold numerals fives decreasing in size in front of abstract red boxes and rectangles against a larger grey background evoking city streets at night
1882 painting by Edourad Manet depicting a woman in black standing behind a bar. There’s a mirror behind her reflecting the crowded room.
White wall with equipment on it and a poster that says “protect trans youth”
Painting by Maud Lewis of two people skating on a small pond near three buildings and several trees weighed down by snow
Weather map of Maine but instead of inches of snow, it tells us how many books to read.
Graph showing results of a survey on public trust demonstrating that about 70% of people find public research institutions very trustworthy
Image of Trump at a press conference where reporters have their hands up. “An unfettered Trump enters his second year on his own terms.”
Image of actor playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan in the role of Cato
"The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world-and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end-is being destroyed."
Painted church with blue ceiling painted with white stars.
Outdoor billboard with weather update. Weather is disrespectful, wind is dog breath, dew point is mosquitoes, and feels like the swamp.
Post from Facebook about the landing of the British settlers in Massachusetts in the 17th century
Cover of Shadow of the New Deal by Josh Shepperd
World AIDS Day logo of a map with a big red ribbon
Footnotes that reads “The footnote system used here in is that of Professor WH Cowley, School of Education, Stanford University. Each footnote includes the author‘s last name, date of reference publication, and the number by which the reference may be located in the bibliography.
Joseph Goebbels at the Degenerate Art exhibition
Peter Falk as TV detective Colombo.
Cover of Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock
THE CURE OF TROY Human beings suffer They torture one another, They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song Can fully right a wrong Inflicted and endured. The innocent in gaols Beat on their bars together. A hunger-striker’s father Stands in the graveyard dumb. The police widow in veils Faints at the funeral home. History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave… But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme. So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here. Believe in miracles And cures and healing wells. Call miracle self-healing: The utter, self-revealing Double-take of feeling. If there’s fire on the mountain Or lightning and storm And a god speaks from the sky That means someone is hearing The outcry and the birth-cry Of new life at its term. It means once in a lifetime That justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme. by Seamus Heaney
People marching in NYC with signs that say “workers unite,” “we want our country back,” and a quotation from a Seamus Heaney poem.
Notice saying that due to the tariff situation, this publisher no longer ships to the United States
It’s easy to dismiss the idea of Greek and Roman roots to the modern west as old-fashioned, and you certainly won’t find it in serious modern scholarship, or even in standard textbooks. But it’s still around, it’s getting more popular, and it’s part of a bigger problem. Civilizational thinking in beds, an assumption of enduring and meaningful difference between human societies that does real damage. People die at the hands of zealots for a white West, while different attitudes expressed in some European countries to refugees fleeing wars in Syria, and Ukraine demonstrate the power of civilizational exceptionalism to erase human suffering.
Cover of the People’s Project curated by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
One controversial way in which they did so was by throwing suspected fugitives into the Blue Jug-even if they were free. "In Washington," wrote an incredulous Dickens, "any justice of the peace may bind with fetters any negro passing down the street, and thrust him into gaol: no offence on the black man's part is necessary. The justice says, 'I choose to think this man a runaway? and locks him up. Public opinion empowers the man of law, when this is done, to advertise the negro in the newspapers, warning his owner to come and claim him or he will be sold to pay the gaol fees. But supposing he is a free black, and has no owner, it may naturally be presumed that he is set at liberty. No: HE IS SOLD TO RECOMPENSE HIS GAOLER.
Riotsville USA documentary poster
Book description with ages 8 and up highlighted