NCAC's event with Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is tomorrow night! E-vite your friends, mark your iCalendars, write it on your hand, whatever, just come! What: Readings from everything from "Fifty Shades of Grey" to "Fanny Hill" to "Joe Blow" by readers including sexologist Dr. Logan Levkoff, comedy duo MURDERFIST and more. Where: The Village PourHouse, 64 3rd Ave in the East Village When: Tuesday, [...]
Throughout Banned Books Week we will feature banned and challenged authors who left us in 2012. This week celebrates these great writers and their works, which helped form the identities of many readers, young and old. A name now almost synonymous with American Science Fiction, Ray Bradbury brought that genre into the mainstream. Today, his books – which at the [...]
NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin and Kids' Right to Read Coordinator Acacia O'Connor joined KPFA radio out of Berkeley, CA on Friday, speaking about the prevalence of book challenges today and the debate over a book ratings system. Barbara Jones, Director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom also called in, along with Tony Diaz, founder of Libro Traficante, who shed some [...]
The staff at The Visceglia Gallery were very much looking forward to the opening of its GET IT ON THE RECORD exhibit, a collection of works by twenty-one African-American artists investigating the "collective history of Black America." As part of the exhibit, poet Amiri Baraka had been invited to speak. That invitation was rescinded, however, because the College President and others [...]
Bulging nipples are definitely not appropriate for mixed company, a.k.a. The Facebook. Even if they are microscopic in size. Even if they are drawings and especially if they are on Eve. Or so determined Facebook this week when it suspended The New Yorker's account after it posted a Mick Steven's cartoon featuring Adam and Eve on its Facebook page. The social networking [...]
I'm blogging from Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) conference Leading Creatively 2012, where I'm representing the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). Earlier today I presented on a panel entitled Digital Frontiers: Copyright, Censorship, the Commons, and Privacy. The panel description read: Can freedom of the press and the right to know survive the [...]
A parent of an incoming freshman in Enfield, CT took a complaint about the graphic novel Sidescrollers to the district Board of Education and succeeded in having the book axed from the list. In addition, the board decided to take responsibility for creating the reading list out of the hands of its teachers and funnel it through a board committee and [...]
SummerStage will not be performing their "diabolical" play at Lapham Peak State Park in Wisconsin as previously scheduled, as a right-wing radio host put the fear of God in The Department of Natural Resources. The Progressive reported the DNR pulled "The Bible: Complete Word of God, Abridged" after evangelical clergyman Vic Eliason dedicated an hour-long radio rant calling for them to [...]
A belated update, but one worth taking a second look at if you've seen it already. Missouri School of Journalism Associate Professor Charles Davis organized a group of students in working on an awesome project about book challenges in schools from across the state. Using Freedom of Information Act Requests, the participants gathered data on censorship issues in Missouri and [...]
This summer, the Hardin Valley Academy wanted to keep its STEM students interested in school subjects during their vacation. After determining that the best way to do this was probably not by assigning weekly physics equations, the school assigned Daniel H. Wilson's best-selling sci-fi novel Robopocalypse (Doubleday) as the program's summer read. A parent of an incoming freshman voiced his concerns [...]
NCAC was invited to join Thresholds, a show on KPFT Pacifica radio out of Houston Texas in a conversation about textbook censorship and Texas and beyond. Kids' Right to Read Project Coordinator Acacia O'Connor spoke about the dangers of the censoring impulse alongside Rene Bellwied, Theoretical Physicist and member of the National STEM Committee. Texas is notorious for its desire [...]
NCAC board member Chris Peterson gave an excellent presentation --as part of a MIT Civic Ignite program with the Knight Foundation-- on how "user generated censorship" can emerge in social media like Digg and Facebook . Chris' talk starts at about 9:43 but the whole video is full of great information for free speech defenders. Update: You can watch a [...]
Christian Grey. If you haven’t heard that name uttered dozens times over the last year, it’s safe to say that you may have been living under a rock. While certainly not a literary prose masterpiece, the Fifty Shades trilogy hasn’t done too bad for itself, reaching a sales record of over 31 million copies worldwide...
The news is blossoming today with book challenge-related stories, and we thought we'd take a moment to share. 1.) A teacher's aide in Dubuque, Iowa was fired (though she apparently about to quit anyway) after disrupting classes by insisting that Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist book that shouldn't be taught in schools. Afterward, a judge [...]
The San Francisco Bay area is not the likeliest location for a censorship debate. Or one would think, at least. The area had already come up in our censorship battles lately, but more as the Magical Free Expression Castle on the Coast. San Francisco is the home of Todd Parr, author of the recently-censored The Family Book and Patricia Polacco's embroiled In [...]
The Free Speech Pamphlet Series: Arts CensorshipFeminism and Free Speech: Arts Censorship is part of the Feminism and Free Speech series produced by Feminists for Free Expression (FFE), a national, not-for-profit anti-censorship organization.Recent yea...
Patricia Polacco, the prolific children's book author who wrote In Our Mothers' House answered NCAC's questions about the objections which have recently been raised in Davis County, UT. Complaints have centered around the non-traditional nature of the family depicted in the book and the fact that the family has two moms.
On June 25, the Library of Congress will open its summer exhibit "Books That Shaped America." The exhibit will be on display through the end of September in the Southwest Gallery, located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, DC. Many books on the list of notable tomes won't surprise you. And it certainly didn't surprise [...]
In July, 2009, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC's "Indecency" Policy, which prohibited "single uses of vulgar words," was unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment rights of broadcasters. In April, the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court over the ongoing confusion on the FCC's enforcement of moral standards in broadcasting, stating that the Appeals Court [...]
Through records requests, the Kids' Right to Read Project was able to get access to the official complaints filed by parents and citizens who objected to the content of The Family Book and In Our Mothers' House. The excerpted passages below make clear some of the discomforts these individuals felt and what viewpoints they use to justify their desire to remove [...]
How Does The First Amendment Impact Your Life? A recent survey concluded that young people feel the First Amendment is not vital to their lives. We at Feminists for Free Expression believe that conclusion is wrong. We want to challenge it - not wi...
(applause for alliteration, please) This month we've been working on restoring two children's picture books teaching tolerance for different types of families. Though they are quite different in content, tone, reading level and appropriateness, their challenges parallel one another immensely. Book one is The Family Book by Todd Parr, a peppy, colorful and simple picture book teaching that families might be [...]
In fact, many of them contain the sorts of things you might not want a young child to see. Like video games, the market for comic books and graphic novels has a broader demographic appeal than 50 or 60 years ago. If your child does read, say, the dark and graphic work Neonomicon by Alan Moore, however, the answer may be [...]
After Brevard County reversed its decision to remove Fifty Shades of Grey from its libraries, we noticed that several other library systems who had initially said they wouldn't buy the book relented in the face of public demand. Holds on these books are bananas: they have ranged from the hundreds to over two-thousand in various library systems. We issued a joint [...]
You remember The Dirty Cowboy, our favorite book ban in May? School board members may be standing their ground, but they haven't heard the last of residents perturbed by the ban. The Patriot-News and The Lebanon Daily News both featured an Op-Ed piece by Annville-Cleona parent Tim White this weekend. White writes: "Although ACSD board President Tom Tschudy stated that [...]
Turn Me On, Dammit!, an indie Norwegian film about a 15-year-old girl’s struggling with her burgeoning sexuality and dealing with high school tensions, has been widely acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, controversy led to the cancellation of a screening in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the film was scheduled to be shown as part of the Arts [...]
Watch children's book author Todd Parr explain the story behind his award-winning book The Family Book. The book was recently banned, along with all materials supported by GLSEN, in Erie, Illinois. Parents objected to the book because of a page which states that "some families have two moms and two dads," saying that it "pushes a homosexual agenda." NCAC and partner [...]
Discussing the "dark" qualities of YA books and their strong language is much in vogue of late. Yes, books can"scar" you--in that they effect you, they leave their mark, they cause an emotional reaction that sticks with you after you've read them. There seems to be an impulse to keep teens "unscarred" in the well-meaning, but perhaps naive hope that [...]
Three weeks ago, the National Coalition Against Censorship heard that the bestselling erotic novel had been unceremoniously pulled from library shelves in Brevard County, FL, supposedly at the prerogative of one individual. There had been no complaints by patrons--on the contrary, many were waiting to get their hands on a copy of the book that has been a crazy hit, largely with [...]
The meteoric sales of Fifty Shades of Grey and its subsequent banning from public libraries around the country--in particular in Brevard County, FL, has been all over the news this week. One of the most notable of the media pick-ups was a story in The New York Times on Monday about the debate over stocking the book in public libraries. The [...]
A painting, included in a juried exhibition show at the Mansfield Art Center in Ohio, was partially covered with black paper. The painting had been selected for inclusion in the show, but the management of the Art Center decided that the outside edges of the work, which were covered with clippings from pornographic magazines, should not be seen by anyone. Sans [...]
It's been a rough week for the world of arts and letters--Maurice Sendak, Carlos Fuentes, now Donna Summer. And the great and prolific author Jean Craighead George, who died yesterday at the age of 92. I doubt Craighead George's name is as immediately recognizable to the general public, but as one of the many people who grew up on her [...]
After a busy week working to fight back against book bans and challenges, we were thrilled to see some good news. A Tulsa school district recently heard a parent's challenge to the book Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford. The parent who challenged the book called the book "vulgar, vulgar, vulgar," objecting to its references to masturbation, pornography and an [...]
We were able to chat yesterday with Amy Timberlake, the author of The Dirty Cowboy, (illustrated by Adam Rex). The book that has been at the center of a censorship debate outside of Hershey, P.A.. Two parents of a child at an elementary school objected to the nudity of the cowboy, calling it pornographic. Most likely hoping not to rock [...]
Joint letter includes American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression, Association for American Publishers, and PEN American Center. The letter was quoted by a New York Times article about the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.
When Linda Tyndall heard that copies of the best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey had been removed from the Brevard County Public Libraries, she was concerned and decided to take action. Her petition on Change.org has over 1,600 signatures. Tomorrow, Tyndall and other petitioners will make their voice heard at a meeting of the County Library Board.
We spoke to fans of Fifty Shades of Grey about libraries that have banned their beloved trilogy, and erotica in general. This video was shot at an appearance by Grey author E.L. James at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in NYC. What do you think about libraries that have chosen to exclude all erotica, even while they carry works [...]
E.L. James’ erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey first made headlines as a phenomenal best-seller, topping the Amazon.com, New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists at 3 million copies sold. Now, not surprisingly, the book is getting attention for a different and disturbing reason: censorship. The book has been removed from public libraries in Brevard County, Florida, reportedly because [...]
We were saddened to hear today about the passing of beloved children’s book author Maurice Sendak at the age of 83. His books, the most well-known being Where the Wild Things Are, captivated the imaginations of readers both young and old with their sometimes dark, fantastical stories. Because of the nature of his tales, many critics and censors marked his [...]
Our joint letter opposing the massive censorship of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District has a new signer: the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The letter was launched in late Janurary and has now attracted well over 30 national and regional organizations dedicated to education and free speech.
