Watch "A Fire in My Belly" on OMB and at ICA Boston, Then Protest Smithsonian Censorship

In November, according to Wikipedia and the mainstream media, G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, removed David Wojnarowicz's short silent film "A Fire in My Belly" from the exhibit "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the National Portrait Gallery. The move came after some bleats of protest from the Catholic League, right-wing talk radio, and the ironically named Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio). Pathetic of the Smithsonian to cave so easily to such censorious sentiments, but cave they did.

Outraged artists and civil libertarians have been showing Wojnarowicz's film in every possible venue - and online - in protest since the incident. The outcry is gaining ground, and the Smithsonian's decision may yet be reversed.

Open Media Boston is pleased to join this protest, and present the Smithsonian edit of the film, plus the two original versions of the film, here for the enjoyment of our viewers. And we mean that sincerely. This film is brilliant, and it's well worth seeing all three versions.

But if you'd like to see the film as it was meant to be seen - in a proper gallery setting - we suggest you get yourself and your friends over to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and screen it there.

Kudos to ICA/Boston and many other museums and galleries around the U.S. for exhibiting "A Fire in My Belly" so prominently - and to The Estate of David Wojnarowicz, P.P.O.W Gallery, New York and The Fales Library and Special Collections/ New York University for making all three versions of the film available for distribution online.

If you'd like to show the videos on your website, blog or social media presence, just be sure to credit the aforementioned institutions as we've done below.

You can also send letters of protest to G. Wayne Clough at info@si.edu.

And if you want to take your protest to another level, P.P.O.W gallery has made one of Wojnarowicz's prints - "One Day This Kid..." - available for download and public distribution. So go ahead and tack one up wherever you think it might do some good.

Enjoy the videos ... and read up on what Wojnarowicz did in the cause of free speech before his untimely death from AIDS in 1992. Then honor his memory with some free speech activism of your own.

David Wojnarowicz "A Fire in My Belly" - Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery Edit fromppow_gallery on Vimeo.

David Wojnarowicz
A Fire In My Belly, 1986-87/ 2010
Edited by Jonathan D. Katz and Bart Everly
With additional audio added from ACT UP demonstration June 1989 with David Wojnarowicz event
TRT: 00:03:59

David Wojnarowicz "A Fire in My Belly" Original from ppow_gallery on Vimeo.

David Wojnarowicz

A Fire In My Belly (Film In Progress), 1986-87
Super 8mm film, black and white & color
Silent
TRT: 00:13:06

A Fire In My Belly Excerpt, 1986-87
Super 8mm film, black and white & color
Silent
TRT: 00:07:00

All videos courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York and The Fales Library and Special Collections/ New York University.