The Noguchi Museum in New York has been facing protests and internal strife since sending home a gallery attendant Aug. 14 for wearing a keffiyeh in solidarity with Palestinians on a regular basis. The museum’s leadership, which formally banned the traditional Middle Eastern headdress Aug. 21, then fired three gallery attendants on Sept. 4 who had continued to wear them.

Amy Hau, the museum’s director, sent Trasonia Abbott home Aug. 14. Abbott was among the three fired for wearing a keffiyeh to work on a regular basis. The shift in policy sparked the weeks long row at the museum located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens.

“I felt called upon to do something tangible, and I knew that Palestinians live in my neighborhood. Astoria has a very high Arab population, and a lot of those people are Palestinian, and so, you know, I had to do something,” Abbott told the Nichi Bei News.

Abbott worked for the museum dedicated to Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese American sculptor who voluntarily went to Poston, Ariz. during the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.

A coworker gave Abbott a “Free Palestine” patch in April and they sewed it on a hat, which they wore to work.

Abbott’s supervisor cautioned them that the patch went against the museum’s dress code policy, which prohibits words, pictures and graphics and Abbott promptly removed it. However, still wanting to show solidarity, they started wearing a traditional keffiyeh they purchased from Palestine to continue showing solidarity. Since starting to wear the scarf-like headdress to work in June, several coworkers also joined Abbott, who is Black and trans. But Abbot was the only staff member called into a meeting Aug. 14 and sent home. Natalie Cappellini, another gallery attendant fired Sept. 4, said Abbott was singled out during the Aug. 14 meeting when the administration could have also called her into a meeting. Cappellini is cisgender and white.

Hau also called an all-hands meeting Aug. 14 at the museum and announced that staff were not allowed to wear keffiyeh to work, citing the garment’s political symbolism had made a visitor “uncomfortable.” With emotions running high, Abbott said the museum closed over the weekend, during which time the staff circulated a petition protesting the new rule signed by 54 of the 72 museum’s staff members.

Abbott argued the museum is no stranger to political stances in the past. They said the museum started highlighting Asian artists on its promotional banners in light of the rise of Anti-Asian hate in partnership with Stop Asian Hate. They said the initiative also received hate mail by those complaining that it only focused on Asian artists.

“But they stood by it, because they were like, this is who we’re showing solidarity with this time. The museum has been very political up until whenever they wanted to install this (new dress code) policy,” Abbott said.

The museum’s director officially amended the dress code policy early in the morning of Aug. 21.

The new policy read: “To maintain a neutral and professional environment, employees are prohibited from wearing clothing or accessories that display political messages, slogans, or symbols. This includes, but is not limited to, apparel or items that promote political parties, candidates, or ideological movements. Similarly, political speech or the display of ideological symbols within the workplace is not permitted during working hours or in any areas of the Museum. An employee’s appearance should not create a disruption in the workplace. The intent is to ensure that the Museum remains a space where all visitors and staff can feel welcome.”

Abbott said many staff then called in to say they would not come to work that morning to protest the new policy. When Abbott and two other front-facing staff arrived wearing keffiyehs the next morning on Aug. 22, they were once again sent home. The rest of the front-facing staff not wearing keffiyehs that day also walked out in solidarity.

Protestors held a keffiyeh-clad sit-in Aug. 25 while State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán criticized the policy and called it “misguided” in a Aug. 28 letter to the museum’s board of trustees co-chairs.

“The keffiyeh is a culturally significant form of dress for Palestinians, and has become a significant symbol of solidarity for those who support Palestinian rights. A policy like this has no place in our diverse, open, and caring community or in an institution that claims inclusivity as a core value. We urge you to reconsider this decision.”

A museum representative, stating to the Nichi Bei News that Hau was not available to comment, said the museum recognizes “that we are living in complex and challenging times, where personal expression and public discourse often intersect in unexpected ways.

“Recently, concerns were raised about staff members wearing keffiyehs while at work at the Museum. While we understand that the intention behind wearing this garment was to express personal views, we recognize that such expressions can unintentionally alienate segments of our diverse visitorship. We discussed with staff that it is our duty as a public cultural institution to ensure that the Museum is welcoming to all.

“We are proud that our team reflects a wide array of perspectives and lived experiences, and we fully support our staff’s commitment to activism and freedom of expression outside of the workplace. However, within the Museum, our responsibility is to foster a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all staff and visitors. To maintain this environment, we have made the decision to remove political statements from our workplace.”

Internally, however, a “culture of fear” had been developing, according to Cappellini. She said the museum has experienced a number of firings and personnel issues in the last year as the previous executive director Brett Littman stepped down in June of last year.

“So while this (policy) affects us, it was really upsetting for the entire staff. The majority of the full-time staffers have also signed on to our collectively written letter to the board and to the leadership, and they’re also fearing retaliation,” she told the Nichi Bei News. “Larger walkouts with more full-timers hadn’t happened because there is a lot of siloing and fracturing that happens within the museum, as far as communication goes. There’s not a lot of communication between full-timers and part-timers and with this history of indiscriminate firings in the past, there has been a lot of fear on full-timers’ parts on having more larger, more coordinated walkouts because of their own fears of retaliation.”

Those fears appeared to be confirmed Aug. 29 when the museum fired Aria Rostami, director of visitor services.

“That basically silenced full-time staff, and all of a sudden it was just part-time, front-facing staff,” Abbott said.

Rostami did not respond to the Nichi Bei News’ request for a comment.

According to Abbott and Cappellini, their former supervisor, who is of Middle Eastern descent, is declining to speak to press. Abbott said their former supervisor was trying to mediate between staff and Hau on the policy even as he enforced it in his capacity as a director prior to his firing.

“Noguchi’s mission was to make sure that — it was one of equality. And he was definitely anti-war. I don’t think he would have been excited about 2,000 ton bombs being dropped on people, let alone children. And so it’s weird that the museum is moving away from Noguchi’s legacy in this way, but Aria was trying to walk the tightrope of doing his job while also still doing his job of upholding Noguchi’s mission. They fired him anyway,” Abbott said.

The next week, Abbott, Cappellini and one other employee who asked not to be named, showed up to work Sept. 4 wearing keffiyeh. Abbott and Cappellini said they were removed from the work schedule that week after they had taken time off following the protests. The third coworker, who had been excused from work since before Abbott was sent home Aug. 14, returned to work for the first time in weeks that day. All three had been consistently wearing their keffiyeh since June.

The Nichi Bei News received a recording of the meeting between the three former employees and museum administration. In it, Eric Perry, a consultant “providing advisory services,” said the three were suspended from their jobs for coming into work wearing keffiyeh. While Perry said the three would receive further word on their future at the museum within the next two days, Abbott requested to know the administration’s decision immediately, stating they had no intention to stop wearing their keffiyeh.

“All right, then you’re terminated,” Perry, said.

The other two gallery attendants affirmed their solidarity with Abbott and Perry also fired them.

“He didn’t even call me by my name. He called me Danielle. He doesn’t even know who I am,” Cappellini said. “So it’s really obvious that they’re enacting this policy in like a crazy and brazen way.

The Nichi Bei News contacted Perry, but did not receive a response.

Mamdani’s office issued the following response upon learning that the museum had fired three staff members.

“Assemblymember Mamdani condemns the museum’s decision to fire staff members for wearing a keffiyeh. The keffiyeh is a culturally significant form of dress for Palestinians and a major symbol of solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian human rights. This misguided policy goes directly against the values our neighborhood holds dear.”

The three former employees told the Nichi Bei News that they are speaking to lawyers to figure out their next steps.