This entire body of work is a true testament of perseverance
but everything that came after being doxxed was truly where I was tested the most. My lawyer, Jonathan Wallace, fought by my side in the student disciplinary hearings and through his help and community mobilization, I beat suspension but was sanctioned.
I firmly believe NYU’s stake holders and New York’s “influential” Tisch family did not want to see me graduate. They absolutely didn’t want me there which is why they labled me Persona Non Grata (PNG). By definition, ‘Persona Non Grata’ is a Latin phrase that means "unwelcome person".
The sanction felt intentional and directly targeted due to my action of tearing down Israeli hostage flyers, which was not even on university campus nor are they “university property” as they state in my sanction letter. Given how the hostage flyers were/are being used to fuel a war and dehumanize Palestinian life, I firmly stand behind my actions. I absolutely did nothing wrong and all the other students /professors nationwide who also have been charged/suspended/deported/expelled for protesting against the zioninst regime and the ongoing genocide should be cleared of every charge.
One of the reason’s why I believe this was directly targeted was because my graduate program was in Tisch School of the Arts and the Tisch family felt so strongly about the Israeli hostage flyers that believe it or not, they projected the faces of the Israeli hostages on the side of NYU’s library.
For a second, think about how much power the Tisch family has got to have to project the hostage flyers on NYU’s Bobst library while NYU students and faculty faced consequences and disciplinary action for reading Palestinian poetry at the very same library. The Tisch family is one of the wealthist families in the United States (ranked #43) and own a variety of businesses, including 50% of the New York Giants. Let that sink in.
Part of my sanction was prohibiting me access and entry to NYU facilities which meant I could not use LaGuardia Studio or Tandon MakerSpace. This ultimately meant if I wanted to fabricate the enclosure for this device I would have to come out of pocket. As a working class artist, I had to work incredibly hard to put myself through grad school while also still paying my overpriced rent and needs. I was so gutted when they denied me access to these facilites that could help me properly make the enclosure. Facilites I paid for within my tuition. Tuition that I paid $25,000+ out of pocket (and this was on top of taking out an unsubsidized loan both years through FAFSA and a hefty scholarship I was awarded).
Despite encountering censorship and violent repression from the NYU administration, I refused to be coerced into silence. The question I had now was how was I gonna continue to speak truth and design this thing with no facilities and no library access?