Join Us Tonight: the Toll of Cancellation on the Human Spirit
At 7pm EST, FAIR Executive Director Monica Harris and FAIR in the Arts member Mary McDonald-Lewis will sit down for an in depth discussion about the human cost of cancellation in the arts.
The Toll of Cancellation on the Human Spirit
Please join us for an in depth discussion between FAIR Executive Director and FAIR in the Arts member Mary McDonald-Lewis! We will explore the human cost of cancellation, the spiritual and emotional dimensions that often go unseen, and the importance of building a culture where disagreement does not mean disposability. Our guest will share her story, her losses, her resilience, and her hope for a better future—one marked not by fear, but by exchange, openness, and shared humanity.
Register below or live stream on YouTube here!
Mary McDonald-Lewis is an itinerant communicator. She has made her living as a teacher, public speaker, print and electronic journalist, and writer – from copywriter to freelance author to essayist and more. McDonald-Lewis is also a 40+-year union voice actor, known as Lady Jaye from GI Joe, as the voice of GM’s OnStar, as I.V.A.N. on Buzz Lightyear and countless more. She is an on-camera and stage actor, and theater director as well. In addition, for 20 years she’s worked as a dialect coach for film, television and theater, with clients like Patrick Stewart, Shohreh Aghdashloo, David Tennent, Robert Pattinson, Archie Panjabi, William Hurt, Thomasin McKenzie and dozens more.
McDonald-Lewis has endured three extreme cancellations in her art, which impacted her professional reputation, health and personal safety, threatened her financial security, cost her most of her friends, and drove her 3000 miles across country to escape the attacks. Then she was cancelled again in her new home. Now, as an exiled artist, instead of working in her fields she is speaking out for all creators, using her itinerant communication skills to (she hopes) inspire and encourage others to join her in this most important quest: to restore freedom to the arts.
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