Holly Hughes

One of the NEA four, Holly Hughes is a lesbian performance artist who was denied a grant for her work. Her play, "Preaching to the Perverted" tells the story of the experience.

Quotes from Hughes' interview with the First Amendment Center:

"The government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent three homos and one feminist from getting $24,000 in hard-earned tax money."

"It was really about targeted homophobia, and — although, as I say that, I feel like, “I hope Jesse Helms would not like my work. Then I’d really have to commit suicide.” It is controversial, and it is provocative, and I think that should have a place in a country that pretends to be a democracy.

"A lot of the people who were arguing for funding for the NEA really wanted to talk about it in the most bland, First Amendment terms and, you know, not specifically talk about the work that was under attack. And the work that was under attack, from Serrano to Marlon Riggs to my work and lots of other people, is provocative work. It is — it, it’s intentionally designed to raise questions, and, a lot of times, it was questions about sexuality and sexual identity. Maybe it was about the American flag. Maybe it was about use of Christian symbols. And the left didn’t make a good case for why, why work that raises uncomfortable questions should be funded."

"The NEA was set up to fund work that wasn’t going to be necessarily funded by the marketplace and this recognition that there is a lot of culture that isn’t going to reach a mass audience and that that’s an important part of, you know, our heritage. And, also, it makes — you know, a lot of popular cultural events are not accessible to, you know, working-class poor people, even middle-class. I mean, think about, like — I would have loved to see the Barbra Streisand concert, but it was a little beyond my means. And public funding meant that a lot of people who weren’t privileged had access. It kept ticket prices down and sometimes free. So, it made art accessible to a lot of people who are cut out of the marketplace."

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"This part of the script isn’t finished. My role in the Culture War is still very much a work in progress, a story that I’m telling as I’m living it. But the point is, it needs to be performed in front an audience. If I’m ever going to be able to write this wrong, I’ll need your help" (Hughes, Introduction to Clit Notes) "'If any of us were producing pornography,' Hughes points out, 'we wouldn't bother to apply to the NEA—we'd be raking in the big bucks.' (Hughes, Quoted in People Magazine)

"We were all dealing with sexuality and gender and the body at a time when the country was just in a state of panic, particularly about HIV and AIDS...AIDS sent this huge panic through American culture, which the right exploited and pressured the government to respond. Instead of helping people with HIV, they attacked art and attacked work" (Hughes qtd. in LA Weekly)