#45 – How Can Typing in Public Challenge Fear and Defend Free Speech? | Sheryl Oring

Interdisciplinary artist and activist Sheryl Oring returns to The Truth In This Art! 

Oring shares updates on I Wish to Say. "I Wish to Say" is her long-running public art project. For decades, thousands of people have dictated postcards to the U.S. president for this project. It started with just one typewriter. Now, it's a growing collection of public records. It helps fight censorship and shares stories from people rarely heard.

Sheryl had a hard year after her school, University of the Arts, closed. This conversation looks at how that loss, plus listening and old papers, shaped her newest art.

Topics Covered: 

• Fighting censorship: She was the first artist on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
• Typing on tour: She gathered messages from parks, libraries, and schools during an election year.
• Archiving 5,000+ typewritten postcards and the invisible labor of cultural memory
• Post-UArts Philadelphia: navigating grief, disillusionment, and artistic renewal after institutional collapse
• Fear and self-censorship among immigrants, youth, and marginalized communities
• Libraries as sanctuary: preserving democratic space as book bans and closures escalate
• Art as care: on fermenting, gardening, and rituals that ground a life in transition

Sheryl first appeared on The Truth in This Art in 2023—listen to that conversation here.

This episode was recorded during a season that looked at archives, resilience, and artists who work in public spaces.

The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore). 

Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:

• Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
• Edited by Daniel Alexis
• Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor

Photos:

• Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
• Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.

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