Monthly Archives: May 2013

Report to UN High Commission: Artistic Freedom Must Be Protected or Democracy Suffers

By |2020-01-03T14:17:28-05:00May 31st, 2013|Incidents|

GENEVA,  May 31, 2013–Today the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, delivered a landmark report on artistic freedom  and expression to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Shaheed is the first Independent Expert on cultural rights appointed by the U.N. The U.S-based National Coalition Against Censorship lauded the report as an important milestone for international mobilizing in support of  free artistic expression as a human right.

 

Judy Blume Fix? Watch Rachel Dratch, Martha Plimpton Read “Deenie”

By |2016-01-14T12:14:38-05:00May 21st, 2013|Blog|

We know you're gearing up for the June 7 release of Tiger Eyes, the first-ever Judy Blume film adaptation. In the meantime, we'd like to share this charming reading of Deenie featuring Rachel Dratch, Martha Plimpton, Junot Diaz, Amy Sohn, and Elna Baker. The video was taken at NCAC's 35th Anniversary Benefit in 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Y0gmClmY_0

S Jay Levy, May 31, 1922-October 4, 2012

By |2019-03-07T23:11:32-05:00May 15th, 2013|Censorship News Articles|

    We were deeply saddened by the death of S Jay Levy, a longtime friend and benefactor. A noted economist, he was widely recognized for his economic forecasts. Indeed, one respected commentator observed that he “probably has the best record of any economist in the U.S.” According to Bloomberg News, in 2005 Jay predicted that “the deflating housing bubble” [...]

Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools

By |2019-03-07T23:11:31-05:00May 15th, 2013|Censorship News Articles|

  by Noah Berlatsky The job of American schools, as enforced by the bureaucracy, isn’t really education. It’s censorship. A colleague of mine working on a world history course was told to omit the fact that gay people were targeted during the Holocaust. I was told that I could not, for sensitivity reasons, include a test passage about storms at [...]

The Long and the Short of It

By |2022-12-09T14:16:07-05:00May 15th, 2013|Censorship News Articles|

  NCAC recently launched the first-ever “Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy” at the College Arts Association Conference in New York City. The document is designed for museums and other cultural institutions concerned about accusations of inappropriate or offensive content, and offers guidelines on how to deal with potential controversies. You can find the guidelines—a joint project with other national [...]

Views From The Executive Director: Video Games Back in the Crosshairs

By |2019-03-07T23:11:31-05:00May 15th, 2013|Censorship News Articles|

    Journalist and scholar H.L. Mencken famously said, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” The simple—and wrong—response to mass violence, regularly offered up by pundits and talking heads, is to blame it on representations of violence in the media, especially video games. The reaction to the December 2012 nightmarish shootings in [...]

In The Courts: Gene Patents, Ward Churchill, Arizona, Harmful to Minors

By |2019-03-07T23:11:30-05:00May 15th, 2013|Censorship News Articles|

  Gene Patents A gene patent case now in the Supreme Court is attracting a lot of attention, not only because of its importance to scientific research and health care but also because of its potential free speech implications.   Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics challenges the validity of patents held by Myriad on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene, [...]

Judy Blume’s Film Debut: “Tiger Eyes” Hits the Big Screen June 7

By |2020-01-06T00:07:03-05:00May 14th, 2013|Blog|

Maybe it was Forever. Perhaps it was Are you there God, it's Me, Margaret? It could have been Deenie or even Tiger Eyes. Chances are that if you went through puberty since the 1970s, you learned something from one of Judy Blume's real, relatable and enduring books. And now, for the first time ever, one of those works is being made into a feature film...and [...]

Anne Frank (and all her parts) Will Stay in Northville Schools

By |2020-01-03T14:33:44-05:00May 14th, 2013|Blog|

A reconsideration committee in Northville, Michigan, voted to retain Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl after it was challenged by a mother of a middle schooler who called the book "pornographic." In a letter to the community, Assistant Superintendent Bob Behnke wrote that “the committee felt strongly that a decision to remove the use of ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a [...]

Ta-Ta to Texas Ethnic Studies Bills, May We Never Meet Again

By |2019-03-07T21:45:55-05:00May 13th, 2013|Blog|

Librotraficantes and their allies are dancing over the legislative grave of Texas HB1938, which sought to limit which courses university students could take to fulfill state history requirements. After impressive advocacy efforts on the part of Tony Diaz and Los Librotraficantes, the bill is indefinitely stalled in the Calendars committee. HB1938 and its Senate counterpart, SB1128, were the more subtle [...]

School Counselor Who Defended ‘Family Book’ Honored by GLSEN

By |2020-01-02T15:07:14-05:00May 8th, 2013|Blog|

In honor of National Teachers Appreciation Day, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has honored Matt Beck, a school counselor in Erie, Illinois, with its 2013 Educator of the Year Award. Matt showed impressive courage and resolve in the face of censorship of LGBTQ materials, including Todd Parr's The Family Book, in his school in Erie in the [...]

Censorship: An Open Discussion About Disguising The Provocative

By |2020-01-03T14:24:26-05:00May 6th, 2013|Events|

7pm Monday, May 6 at the Strand on Union Square. Why is one piece of art more disturbing than another? Why is some sexual content too graphic? Where do we draw the line? And why do we draw it? Come to our panel of artists who’ve thought about this issue, and have pushed the envelope time and time again hoping to keep their work clear of imposed limitations.

Sex And Censorship: Dangers to Minors and Others?

By |2016-01-19T10:39:52-05:00May 1st, 2013|Censorship News Articles, Selected Resources|

A Background Paper1 Introduction We are working up a fever making new laws against touching, and we're more scandalized by a photograph or painting showing a nipple or a penis than by the image of a starving child on a dry, dusty road. Thomas Moore, Mother Jones, September/October 1997 It's Sodom and Gomorrah all over again Dr. Robert L. Simonds, [...]

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