Banned Books Week, 2009
September 28th, 2009 by Sarah Laleman Ward
Banned Books Week starts on September 26 and runs through October 3. What is Banned Books Week, you ask?
Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. (http://bannedbooksweek.org/info)
Last year, the Hunter College Libraries Blog was devoted to discussions of banned and challenged books and issues of censorship. This year, there are some new things in the mix:
In collaboration with a new student club called Sister Resistor, whose mission is to advance the causes of women’s rights, gay rights, radical politics and subversive art, there is a new display of banned and challenged books in the cases outside the library entrance. It will be in place for the next three weeks.
Additionally, Sister Resistor will be hosting a Banned Books Week tabling event next Wednesday, the 30th, from 1-3pm on the 3rd floor of the North Building. In addition to providing information about banned and challenged books, Sister Resistor will be interviewing passers-by about books they have read and their feelings about book censorship. The interviews will be recorded and compiled into a video. I’d like to thank Renee Muza, the club leader, for all her hard work on these projects.
Have you ever read any banned or challenged books? I’ll bet you have! I encourage everyone to take a look at the display cases, and stop by Sister Resistor’s table next week to check it out. You may even get interviewed!
3 Responses to “Banned Books Week, 2009”
September 29th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I’m an Adolescent Education major here at Hunter, graduate level. I’m also a student teacher at the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem. In our 10th Grade English class, we’re reading Catcher in the Rye, and The Bluest Eye will come up soon. My favorite novel of all time is The Chocolate War; I even have a website dedicated to that book.
http://mnl_1221.tripod.com/chocolatewar.html
I read the Harry Potter novels earlier this year. In the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, an alternative newspaper writes an article about Harry, and acting Headmaster Dolores Umbridge forbids the students to read it. Harry’s friend Hermione rejoices; the surest way to get all the students to read the article is to ban it! Sure enough, by the next day, nearly all the Hogwarts students have read the forbidden article.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Melanie – thanks for your comments! I’m glad to hear that your class is reading such excellent literature. Good point about Harry Potter as well!
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 am
thanks for this info, a very usefull
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