This week (October 1-7) is Banned Books Week. This weeklong celebration emphasizes the freedom to read and draws attention to the harms of censorship. To celebrate, we’re highlighting some of our titles that have appeared on banned book lists across the country. You can learn more about Banned Books Week at bannedbooksweek.org. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in… Continue Reading Banned Books Week: Reading List
UNC celebrated its second annual First Amendment Day yesterday, and as predicted, it was an absolute smasheroo. The day began with the weather exercising its freedom of expression with sheets of rain, but only a few of the events were shifted inside before the drizzling tapered off. The events kicked off with a planting of a symbolic Liberty Tree next… Continue Reading Highlights from First Amendment Day 2010
Continuing our special focus on First Amendment Day today, we welcome the following guest post from someone situated at the intersection of law and literature. Poet Katie Bowler places her own experience with book burning in the context of the history of books as weapons used in attempts to devalue the beliefs of others.–ellen The recent threat by a fringe-element… Continue Reading Katie Bowler on the Need to Respect Books That Other Cultures Value
As the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus celebrates First Amendment Day today, we welcome a guest post from legal scholar and professor William Marshall, who teaches at the UNC Law School. He reminds us that with our freedom from government intrusion comes the responsibility for public engagement.–ellen Humorist, social critic, and cartoonist Walt Kelly once famously wrote,… Continue Reading William Marshall on the Rights and Responsibilities of the First Amendment
Gus, book lover South of Chapel Hill, where James Taylor once wandered the countryside strumming a six-string, there was a small farm. And it’s on this farm that Larry and I had been busting our humps for almost a week–burying bones, fetching sticks, digging holes under fences, and generally running the place under the supervision of Cookie, the farm owner’s… Continue Reading See Gus Read: The Retelling of a Classic Banned Book by Gus, History Buff and Dog
The following are rulings on and objections to books in the last year. Read on to see which books these are. 1. “The teacher must appropriately prepare students for parts of the book that may be considered provocative; limit the book to juniors and seniors; should a parent object to the book, board policy is currently in place that allows… Continue Reading Banning Books is Alive and Well in America
As we kick off Banned Books Week, we welcome a guest post today from someone committed to the freedom to read. Erica Eisdorfer is more than just a booklover, she’s a novelist and a bookseller, too, and she’s had first-hand experience on the censorship front.–ellen Banned Books Week 2010 is the 29th annual celebration of our freedom to read. The… Continue Reading Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read
We’re revving our engines in anticipation of Banned Books Week 2010, which starts tomorrow and runs through October 2. Banned Books Week is a weeklong celebration of the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. The project is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the… Continue Reading Celebrating Banned Books Week 2010
National Banned Books Week ended on Saturday, but we’re not done! A few readers took me up on the invitation to send in photos of “getting caught reading a banned book.” I also stumbled upon a few other photos of folks around the country gettin’ down with Banned Books Week. The anonymous, the canine (more from Gus!), and the in-your-face,… Continue Reading Banned Books Week Gallery
See Gus Read. Gus is reading a book. Read, Gus! Read! What book is Gus reading? Oh, oh! Gus is reading a banned book! Bad, Gus! Bad! Gus should not read banned books! Banned books are bad. Bad, banned books. Bad! Banned books might make you think in ways book banners think you should not think! That sort of thinking… Continue Reading See Gus Read!
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