I woke up today. And when I woke up I thought of A friend. I thought of Kyle, I thought of Jack, I thought of Tamir And those who we have lost, Those who Cannot wake up. This stanza from an original poem by senior at Austin High School in Austin, Texas led to him being prohibited from reading it at his graduation. Pablo [...]
New York legislation that would punish advocates of a boycott of Israel violate First Amendment rights
On November 3rd, NCAC celebrated another year of free speech advocacy and saluted Lois Lowry, Larry Siems, Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole as 2015 Free Speech Defenders. The evening raised funds from generous sponsors, led by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, to support NCAC's mission, and featured performances from Fun Home, a tribute by Alison Bechdel, and inspiring words from each of our honorees. A special [...]
Published in January, The Guantanamo Diary is an intense account of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s excruciating experiences as a prisoner of the U.S. war on terror. Slahi was detained in his native Mauritania in 2001; a CIA rendition plane flew him to Jordan for brutal interrogation sessions, and from there he was taken to Afghanistan and then finally to the infamous [...]
In this exclusive video, award-winning writer and 2014 Free Speech Defender Neil Gaiman talks about his encounters with censorship and the need to fight those “who are trying to protect us from ourselves by shutting us up and stopping us from being exposed to ideas.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6y2MiwvTxY NCAC honored Neil Gaiman, Robie Harris, and the Trumbull High Thespian Society on Monday, [...]
Student thespians of Trumbull High School mobilized their Connecticut community against the censorship of their production of Rent and claimed a victory for freedom in the performing arts and for student speech when the show bowed in March 2014. After they performed a medley of "Rent" and "Take Me or Leave Me" at NCAC's 40th Anniversary Celebration, the Thespians accepted [...]
The TADA! Youth Theatre Ensemble brought down the house with two exclusive performances of The Banned Broadway Project during the closing weekend of Banned Books Week. In collaboration with NCAC, the TADA! teens explored controversial themes found in censored plays and musicals and selected scenes from their favorites to prepare for the big night, including Pippin, Rent, andThe Laramie Project. A panel [...]
In this exclusive video, award-winning writer and 2014 Free Speech Defender Neil Gaiman talks about his encounters with censorship and the need to fight those “who are trying to protect us from ourselves by shutting us up and stopping us from being exposed to ideas.” NCAC honored Neil Gaiman, Robie Harris, and the Trumbull High Thespian Society on Monday, November [...]
PULP noun: A soft, wet, shapeless mass of material PULPED verb: To crush into a soft, shapeless mass A week into the international controversy over the removal and planned destruction—PULPING—of three children’s picture books by the National Library of Singapore, I read the headline Singapore halts pulping of ‘pro-gay’ books. The article reported that two of the books, AND TANGO MAKES THREE and THE WHITE SWAN [...]
Singer and musician Lapiro de Mbanga from Cameroon – the “unceremonial sheriff of the backyards” – has died, 56 years old. He had been living under asylum in the United States since 2012.
The superintendent at Bordentown Regional School District [in New Jersey] made a public statement that “religious music should not be part of the elementary program[s]” and decided to ban religious Christmas music during winter concert performances at elementary schools within the district [...]
