Jennifer Lieberman: Censorship, Creative Independence and Making Your Own Break

What do you do when the industry does not know you exist?

Jennifer Lieberman’s answer was not to wait.

She created her own show, gave it a provocative title, learned how to produce from the ground up, adapted the project into a novel, fought through algorithmic censorship, and eventually built a business helping other creatives make their own opportunities.

In this Saving America interview, I talk with Jennifer about theater, publishing, censorship, female sexuality, creative entrepreneurship, and one principle that applies far beyond the arts:

If you keep waiting to be chosen, somebody else controls your career.

Who is Jennifer Lieberman?

Jennifer Lieberman is an author, performer, director, producer, and creative consultant.

In our conversation, she explains that she has appeared in more than 30 international stage productions, produced more than 40 independent film and theater projects, and helped more than 200 creatives through workshops and consulting.

Her early career began with a simple problem familiar to many actors: she wanted to work, but she did not yet have the credits, contacts, or footage that would make decision-makers pay attention.

Instead of waiting indefinitely for an audition to change her life, she created a project for herself.

Why did she call the show “Year of the Sl*t”?

The title came before the show.

Jennifer tells me that after moving to Los Angeles, she was advised to create a one-woman vehicle that would make people notice her. The ideas she first proposed were dismissed as too artsy. She needed something commercial, provocative, and memorable.

She came up with Year of the Sl*t.

Her adviser immediately told her that was the title.

Jennifer then had to write the show that matched it.

The title was provocative by design, but Jennifer says there was a serious idea behind it. She wanted to examine the way the word “sl*t” is used against women and the way female sexuality is discussed differently from male sexuality.

She distinguishes sexual desire from promiscuity and argues that female sexual health and desire are ordinary parts of human biology, even though they are often treated as taboo.

Did the provocative title help her theater career?

Yes.

Jennifer believes the title helped generate attention for the live show.

When she performed in Los Angeles and later took the show to New York, the title functioned as a hook. It helped her compete for attention in a crowded entertainment market.

The show eventually won an Audience Choice Award at New York’s Frigid Festival and became the basis for her first novel.

This part of Jennifer’s story interested me because I have always believed that creative work needs a hook. Whether the project is theater, radio, a book, a film, or even a business presentation, people first have to notice it before they can decide whether they like it.

What happened when the same title moved online?

The title that helped Jennifer attract a live audience became a problem once automated moderation entered the picture.

Jennifer says that when she published the novel using the original title, automated systems restricted its visibility.

She could sell the book on Amazon, but she says it would not appear normally in search and she could not advertise it effectively. She ran into similar problems on social media and had difficulty finding partners who knew how to work around the restrictions.

The problem, in her view, was context.

A human being could understand that the title was part of a larger artistic and cultural argument.

A bot saw a word on a list.

Why did she rename the book “Year of the What?”

Jennifer resisted changing the title because she believed the original title had been essential to the success of the live show.

Eventually, a mentor encouraged her to reconsider.

She says she brainstormed dozens of alternatives before realizing that she only needed to change one word.

Year of the Sl*t became Year of the What?

Jennifer says the rebranded version then reached #1 on Amazon and went on to win multiple literary awards.

That experience became a lesson in creative flexibility.

Sometimes the thing you are resisting most strongly is the thing you need to change in order to move forward.

What does Jennifer’s experience say about algorithmic censorship?

Jennifer’s story raises a broader issue that extends far beyond one book title.

Automated moderation systems are efficient because they can process enormous amounts of content quickly.

But speed is not the same as judgment.

A word may be explicit in one context, educational in another, political in another, artistic in another, and abusive in another.

When a system cannot distinguish among those contexts, legitimate work can be suppressed even when the underlying message is not what the moderation rule was designed to prevent.

That becomes especially important for independent creators who do not have a large publisher, studio, record label, or corporate advertising department available to appeal decisions or negotiate exceptions.

Why does Jennifer tell creatives to stop waiting to be chosen?

The second half of our conversation moves from censorship to agency.

Jennifer explains that actors and writers can spend years waiting for someone else to select them.

If your entire career depends on being selected by somebody else, you have very little control.

Jennifer’s answer was to learn the rest of the business.

She stage-managed. She learned lights and sound. She produced shows for other performers. She built teams. She learned how to take material from an idea to an actual production.

Eventually, that philosophy became Make Your Own Break Limited.

What is “Independent Theater Production for the 21st Century”?

Jennifer’s newer book is designed as a practical guide for actors, writers, directors, and performance artists who want to create productions with limited resources.

She emphasizes that independent theater is highly collaborative. You do not simply need a writer, actors, and a director. You may need costumes, sets, lighting, sound, music, production management, rights clearance, fundraising, marketing, and a team capable of turning an idea into something an audience can actually see.

Jennifer breaks the process into seven practical steps.

The first question is the most important:

What are you trying to accomplish?

If you do not know the goal, you cannot choose the right path.

Why does she say plays are rewritten, not simply written?

Jennifer makes another point that applies to many forms of creative work.

New material usually needs development. A script may look fine on the page and still fail once actors read it aloud.

That is why she recommends processes such as table reads, rewrites, collaboration, and repeated development before a creator invests heavily in a full production.

Her message is that professional creative work is not simply inspiration. It is iteration.

What does “Art versus Ego” mean?

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation concerns the conflict behind the scenes.

Jennifer says that in film and theater, there is often more drama behind the curtain than there is onstage.

She calls one recurring theme in her writing Art versus Ego.

Creative disagreement can improve a project because people challenge one another and fight for better ideas. But ego can also destroy the collaboration required to make the project work.

The challenge is finding the difference between productive conflict and destructive conflict.

Why did this conversation become personal for me?

Jennifer’s stories brought back some of my own experiences around theater and broadcasting.

Long before Business Law 101 and Saving America, I worked in college radio and covered the arts in Philadelphia. That gave me opportunities to meet major performers and observe theater from behind the scenes.

I have also written theatrical material myself, so Jennifer’s discussion of hooks, production, collaboration, and the difficulty of getting creative work from an idea to an audience was especially familiar.

What is the Saving America takeaway?

Jennifer Lieberman’s career contains two lessons that fit together better than they first appear.

The first is about control.

If an actor waits to be chosen, a casting director controls the opportunity. If an author depends entirely on an algorithm for discovery, the platform controls the audience. If a creator cannot produce anything independently, somebody else controls whether the work ever exists.

The second lesson is about adaptation.

Jennifer did not abandon the idea behind her provocative title when the Internet made that title difficult to market.

She changed the packaging and kept the work.

That is not surrender. It is strategy.

For artists, entrepreneurs, writers, and anyone else trying to build something without waiting for permission, that may be the most useful lesson of all:

Create the opportunity you can control, adapt when the environment changes, and keep moving.

Watch my full Saving America interview with Jennifer Lieberman

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