Issue 117, Fall 2012
Join NCAC for our Free Speech Matters: Annual Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders on Monday, November 12, 2012 at Tribeca 360° in Manhattan. Visit ncac.org/benefit for rsvp and sponsorship information, or email [email protected].
A Wisconsin state park cancelled the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s play, The Bible: Complete Word of God, Abridged, after criticism that the play is “blasphemous.” It had been performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and by church groups. It contains jokes like: “Children of Israel, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I talked Him down to 10. The bad news is adultery is still one of them.”
Check out our new censorship wiki! NCAC is now beta testing our Censorpedia project at wiki.ncac.org. Browse over a thousand articles about cases from around the world and sign up to edit or contribute your own!
Kansas City officials are considering complaints that a sculpture by Chinese artist Yu Chang in the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens encourages “sexting.” The statue depicts a headless woman’s body with bare breasts taking a photo of herself. The artist has said the piece speaks to women’s identities and the objectification of their bodies in the virtual world.
A Maryland State Legislator ignited an Internet firestorm in September when he penned a letter to the Baltimore Ravens’ owner demanding an end to player Brendon Ayanbadejo’s public support for same-sex marriage.
Celebrate Banned Books Week from September 30 to October 6! NCAC will bring a Banned Books Library to the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 23 so literature lovers can be recorded reading aloud from favorite challenged works, with the video to be uploaded as part of the Banned Books Week Internet Readout! See bannedbooksweek.org for more ways to celebrate the Freedom to Read, and brooklynbookfestival.org for details about September 23rd.
Watch what you wear when you fly! Airline passengers have been bumped or harassed over their attire. One woman was harangued for showing too much cleavage, a female legislator was required to remove her pro-choice t-shirt containing the word “fuck”, and a student was bumped over a t-shirt saying “Terrists gonna kill us all.”