Tom Block is the founding producer of New York City’s International Human Rights Art Movement (2017–present), producer of the first Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival (2010, Washington, DC), and creator of the Human Rights Painting Project (2002–15) and the Shalom/Salaam Project (2004–12). He is also the author of thirteen books, a playwright, and exhibiting visual artist. He was a research fellow at DePaul University (2010), LABA Fellow (New York, 2013–14), Hamiltonian Fellow (DC, 2008–09), and has spoken throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East.

Mbizo Chirasha: Please tell us about yourself and your work.

Tom Block: Over the past thirty-five years, I have utilized visual art, playwriting, book writing, and interdisciplinary artistic practice to create projects that explore the interaction between mysticism and the contemporary social and political worlds, with the hope of generating energies for the general good. Mysticism represents one individual’s search for appreciation of the unity hidden beneath multiplicity, and the desire to fuse emotionally and spiritually with this unity. When applied to human interaction, it represents an understanding of human interconnectedness with one another and the world around us. 

My path began when I lived in western Spain in the early 1990s. There, I read deeply in mysticism for the first time and developed my colorful and heavily impacted visual aesthetic. All my work is based in an aesthetic of beauty and sincerity. My visual works are based in expressionism, applying this visual approach to contemporary social, political, and spiritual challenges. My written work is in the realm of social philosophy, exploring new ways to see old ideas. For instance, my most recently published book, Mysticism in the Theater: What’s Needed Right Now (2022), explores how to utilize mystical energies within contemporary theater practice. In my theatrical pieces, I use a healthy dose of absurdism and humor to “trick” the audience into allowing novel and unconventional ideas to enter, where they seed themselves into the unconscious and affect views of everyday life. Ultimately, I hope that my creative work will cause viewers to question their role in making the world a better place to live.

I hope that my creative work will cause viewers to question their role in making the world a better place to live.

All this work led me to found the International Human Rights Art Movement, an art-activist organization based in New York City.

Chirasha: When was the International Human Rights Art Festival formed? When did it become an International Human Rights Art Movement, and why?

Block: The founding of this project goes back to 2010 when I produced the first, and only, Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival outside of Washington, DC. I did this to bring together as many activist artists as I could, those who normally worked in front of small audiences in their hometown. This event platformed more than five hundred artists in two hundred events at forty venues over a weekend. This led me, several years later, to produce a similar event in New York City, at the Dixon Place theater, in March 2017. Due to the success of that event, we formed a nonprofit organization by the same name and planned on running performance events in New York City throughout the year, culminating in the full-week International Human Rights Art Festival every year. The energy was so strong that we grew into a year-round movement spanning multiple media: from stage to publishing to political actions around the world. Eventually, as our publishing arm, African offices, and the number of countries’ artists we platformed grew (we are at 117 countries presented at this point), we changed our name to a “Movement” and accepted the responsibilities of being one of the largest, if not the single largest, organization of this sort in the world.

We use creative activism to open a space to talk about the most important social issues challenging people in the United States and around the world. And then we use this work based on a very strict set of values—beauty, sincerity, vulnerability, celebrating diversity, and engagement—to open doorways to decision-makers. So, we connect change-makers to decision-makers. We work with politicians, government agencies, government leaders, nonart activists, and other nonart organizations. We really want to open pathways of conversation instead of just talking about these issues to the usual suspects. 

We connect change-makers to decision-makers.

Chirasha: So far, how many books have you written, and where are they published?

Block: I have published thirteen books, including four novels, three books of plays, and a series of nonfiction books about such subjects as politics, religion, spirituality, and other matters pertaining to human society. You can see them all here.

Chirasha: How many dramas have you written, and where have they been exhibited?

Block: I have written about seventy-five plays, which have been produced in New York City, Washington, DC, Michigan, Glasgow, and other locales. The most recent piece was Oud Player on the Tel, which explored the founding of Israel, how it was unjust to the Palestinians (who were innocent bystanders, abandoned by the international community), and how it might have been different. This play was recently performed in Glasgow, and you can see a short reportage about it here.

I only began playwriting when I was fifty years old but have found it to be a passionate and powerful manner of reaching an audience with my activist ideas.

I only began playwriting when I was fifty years old but have found it to be a passionate and powerful manner of reaching the audience with my activist ideas.

Chirasha: How have you discovered African writers, poets, activists, and artists?

Block: I have been overwhelmed by the passion, commitment, and talent of artists and writers on the African continent. Their courage is unsurpassed, as virtually all the artists with whom we have worked in a sustained manner have been arrested, exiled, tortured, or even killed due to their unflinching devotion to human rights and social justice, and for using their art to promote these ideals. The energy coming out of this continent is an unharnessed power for the common good, and we are honored to have been able to work so closely and deeply with creators on the continent.

Chirasha: What makes you believe in freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and human rights?

Block: It’s either that or authoritarianism. Even though more than 70 percent of the world's population lives under repressive governments, and my home country is now moving in that direction, it is always up to the artists to stand for what is right and just. In the end, only artists have the courage and fortitude not to crumble. As politicians, social institutions, and the judiciary, all of whom are not reliable in standing for the highest human ideals do. As Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng, who spent eighteen years in jail for his activism before being released due to international pressure, said on our stage: “I always feel good when I am with the artists, because when I was at my lowest point, only the artists stood with me.” It always comes down to the artists—and I will do everything in my power, and my organization’s power, to support truth-tellers around the world.

It always comes down to the artists—and I will do everything in my power, and my organization’s power, to support truth-tellers around the world.

Chirasha: Why do you think using arts and artists for human rights and social justice is important?

Block: Only artists have the unflinching courage and sight to stand up—en masse—to oppression and injustice. As was recently noted [by artists in the Movement]: “What authoritarians hate—and fear—is autonomous, independent culture. Art that can’t be contained. Art that makes people feel too much, see too clearly, or think too freely. Art that builds bridges where they want walls. It embodies ambiguity, critique, empathy, otherness, autonomy. And that is precisely what regimes trying to dominate reality cannot tolerate.” We can see very clearly in the United States that no one will stand up as a collective for our founding values—except the artists.

Chirasha: You have been respecting, cultivating, defending, and growing poets. Why?

Block: Poets are the last line of defense against autocracy but also against the end of humanity, as previewed in the rise of the digital age. Artists have a direct line back to the earliest human creative and spiritual impulses, represented by the creation myths of humanity’s earliest era. Poets represent the force that makes us most human. I am honored to provide a growing international platform for the purveyors of this ancient art.