NEA Funding Coverage

In regard to Parachini’s May 8 report, “More Arts Groups Threaten to Reject NEA Money,” in which I was quoted, I would like to expand on my position.

My NEA grant was given on the basis of work that was highly critical of U.S. foreign policy. I have no doubt that Sen. Jesse Helms would find my politics “obscene.” I will continue to write, as I always have, without fear of censorship. I will also use my work as a means to be critical of the growing censorship in this country. (I’ve just written a scene in which a theater is not doing any work in English at all because the theater’s leaders feels that if the NEA can’t understand the work, it will be less likely to cut off funding.)

I will use my NEA money to write what I feel is true. If it is deemed obscene by some, so be it.

LISA LOOMER, Los Angeles

Loomer is a recipient of a 1990 National Endowment for the Arts playwrights fellowship.