After thousands of people signed a petition on change.org indicating their desire to ban artist Action Bronson from this year’s NXNE, organizers of the festival have decided to pull the plug on his scheduled free show this summer.
As stated on the NXNE website: “A significant number of Torontonians have indicated their desire to have Action Bronson not perform at the Square. As annual guests in this space we feel we must accede to the strong wishes of the community and honour their input. As a result, we will not be presenting Action Bronson at Yonge-Dundas Square but, hopefully we will still be presenting Action Bronson as part of Northby. We remain fundamentally committed to presenting this artist on a Toronto stage. We are not moving the Action show because we believe in censoring him or any other artists. In fact, we find the limiting of artistic expression distasteful. When artistic expression is limited, freedom and the evolution of ideas is often the casualty. Hopefully, Action Bronson will accept our invitation to play at another, ticketed venue in the city so the public can decide for themselves if his work has merit.”
According to the petition, Toronto residents were against Action Bronson performing, saying that he “glorifies gang-raping and murdering women. It is an insult to the people of Toronto for NXNE, Now Magazine, Vans Footwear, and the City of Toronto.”
Mayor John Tory was among those who spoke out against the lyrics in the New York rapper’s song “Consensual Rape,” but Tory said it was up to the show’s organizers to decide whether it happened (CTVNews.ca). “I find the trend toward this kind of disrespectful – you might even argue it’s abusive – language to be astonishing and very disturbing,” Tory said Thursday.
Photo: Change.org
