“It feels like the world has forgotten about us,” said artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who recently served four years of his sentence in a maximum-security Cuban prison.

Coco Fusco
Coco Fusco is an artist and writer and professor of art at The Cooper Union.
An Artist’s Fourth of July Muppets Parody
The Muppets have always encouraged us to express our feelings, right? Well, this song expresses our feelings about the terrible things happening right now.
100 Days of MAGA Broligarchy
The Siren is back for a second issue. Read up and rise up!
The Sanest Response to Insane Times
MAGA is coming for our rights. The Siren is here to fight back.
The Cuban Artists Who Turned Havana’s May Day Parade Into a Protest
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Raychel Carrión used state-orchestrated political theater as a backdrop for their critiques of institutional power and mindless consent.
That Time Carl Andre Wrote Me a Letter
He copyrighted the letter and ended it with “for your eyes only,” as if to say, don’t even think of showing this to anybody.
Cuban Artist’s Message of Defiance From Prison
“There rises within me a rebellious spirit, that does not allow me to resign myself,” says Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
Affirmative Action and the Art World’s White Elites
The Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action in college admissions is indicative of a larger problem that also plagues the art world.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Speaks Out From Prison Ahead of Trial
“I am an artist and a human being struggling to get out of this unjust prison, but every day my love of free and honest art grows firmer,” the persecuted artist said in a statement from a maximum-security prison in Cuba.
Coco Fusco Enlists Cuban Artists to Recite Heberto Padilla’s Forced Confessions
Fifty years ago, poet Heberto Padilla was forced to publicly denounce himself and his friends as counterrevolutionaries.
Cuban Musicians and Artists Collaborate on Viral, Political Music Video
The “Patria y Vida” video is spreading like wildfire in Cuba and Miami, a sign of widespread discontent on the island as well as unity among Cubans.
We Need New Institutions, Not New Art
Coco Fusco writes on why “equity won’t be achieved by a new biennial, another emerging artist of color survey, or a record auction sale by a Black artist.”