Cancellation of 2023 Asian American Literature Festival

Smithsonian Institution, Office of General Counsel
Jessica Sanet, Assistant General Counsel
SIRecordsReq@si.edu

Dear Ms. Sanet:

This is an open-records request under the Smithsonian Institution's open-records policy, Smithsonian Directive 807.

(1) I hereby request all records related to the cancellation of the 2023 Asian American Literature Festival, a production of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC). The Washington Post reports that the Smithsonian decided to cancel the festival only weeks before it was to begin, citing “unforeseen circumstances.” (See attached article of 14 July 2023.) This request includes—by way of example only—all records related to the decisional process that resulted in the decision to cancel the festival; records sufficient to show, with specificity, all reason(s) for cancelling the festival; communications with event participants and organizers in the wake of the decision to cancel the festival; and internal agency communications related to the cancellation of the festival.

(2) All records related to any review or proposed review of the 2023 Asian American Literature Festival under Smithsonian Directive 603, which is meant to help identify any potentially sensitive or controversial content and prepare for potential responses from the public.

(3) All records mentioning the inclusion of queer, trans/transgender, drag queen, LGBT, or nonbinary people or literature at the festival.

Responsive records include (without limitation) internal and external communications, including emails, electronic messages (e.g. Slack, Teams), text messages, electronic documents, and paper documents.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Marritz

Dear Ms. Sanet:

I'd like to clarify the scope of my request: The third category of records I requested, "All records mentioning the inclusion of queer, trans/transgender, drag queen, LGBT, or nonbinary people or literature at the festival," refers to the cancelled 2023 festival only.

Dear Mr. Asfour:

I wanted to follow up on the status of my records request, #818805767. Your letter said I should contact you if I had not received a final response within 90 business days, and it has now been over 90 business days. Please let me know when I can expect your final response.

Very respectfully,

Nicholas Marritz

Dear Mired:

Thank you for the update. I'm on vacation next week but would be available for a call after that if the records haven't been released by then.

Most sincerely,

Nicholas Marritz

Dear Mired: I am back from vacation but have not received the records. When are you available for a call?

Most sincerely,

Nicholas Marritz

How about tomorrow at 2:30? I'm fine calling you—you're at 202-633-5115, correct?

Mired,

Thanks for getting on the phone today. Here's what I understand to be the status of my request—please let me know if I got anything wrong or left anything out:

The Smithsonian has collected the responsive records from its various components ("stakeholders"), and its General Counsel's Office (i.e. you/your colleagues) has given them an initial review to determine if anything is exempt from disclosure and in need of redaction. You've now sent the records back to the stakeholders with your proposed redactions for their final review; they may identify additional things that they think should be redacted. Once the final review is done, the records will be ready for release. This should happen within a few weeks.

Does that about cover it?

One question I didn't ask: are you planning on charging any fees for these records?

Thanks again, and I look forward to receiving the records soon.

With best regards,

Nicholas Marritz

Hello Mired, I hope you are having a good start to 2024. Where do things stand with my records request?

With kind regards,

Nick Marritz

Hello Mired, what’s the status of my records request?

With kind regards,

Nick Marritz

Thank you for the update, Mired.

Hello Mired, what is the status of this open-records request?