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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 2 March 2022
Activism grows nationwide in response to school book bans

By HEATHER HOLLING- ing such books as "Gender
SWORTH and HILLEL ITALIE Queer," Nobel laureate Toni
Associated Press Morrison's "The Bluest Eye"
NEW YORK (AP) — Until a and Keise Laymon's mem-
year ago, Stephana Fer- oir "Heavy." The civil liberties
rell's political activism was union has also filed open
limited to the occasional records requests in Ten-
letter to elected officials. nessee and Montana over
Then came her local school book bans, and a warning
board meeting in Orange letter in Mississippi against
County, Florida and an ob- what it described as the
jection raised to Maia Ko- "unconstitutionality of pub-
babe's graphic novel "Gen- lic library book bans."
der Queer: A Memoir." And Vera Eidelman, staff attor-
the county's decision last ney with the ACLU Speech,
fall to remove it from high Privacy and Technology
school shelves. Project, cited the U.S. Su-
"By winter break, we real- preme Court's 1982 ruling
ized this was happening all declaring that "local school
over the state and needed boards may not remove
to start a project to rally books from school library
parents to protect access shelves simply because
to information and ideas they dislike the ideas con-
in school," says Ferrell, a Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, tained in those books." The
poses with books, including "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison, that have been the subject of com-
mother of two. Along with plaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. The wave of book bannings around the tricky area, Eidelman ac-
fellow Orange County par- country has reached a level not seen for decades. knowledged, is that schools
ent Jen Cousins, she found- Associated Press officials are allowed to ban
ed the Florida Freedom to books for reasons other
Read Project, which works statewide initiatives. ca, which has been track- ing with local activists, edu- than not approving of the
with existing parent groups "There are some books with ing legislation around the cators and families around viewpoints the books ex-
statewide on a range of pornography and pedo- country, dozens of bills the country, helping them press. Officials might de-
educational issues, includ- philia that should abso- have been proposed that "to prepare for meetings, to termine, for instance, that
ing efforts to "keep or get lutely be removed from K restrict classroom reading draft letters and to mobilize the book is too profane or
back books that have through 12 school libraries," and discussion. Virtually all opposition," according to vulgar.
gone under challenge or says Yael Levin, a spokes- of the laws focus on sexual- PEN America's executive "The problem is just that
have been banned." woman for No Left Turn ity, gender identity or race. director, Suzanne Nossel. often our definitions, for
Over the past year, book in Education, a national In Missouri, a bill would ban The CEO of Penguin Ran- example, of vulgarity or
challenges and bans have group opposed to what teachers from using the dom House, Markus Dohle, age appropriateness, are
reached levels not seen it calls a "Leftist agenda" "1619 Project," the New has said he will personally for lack of a better word,
in decades, according to for public schools that has York Times magazine issue donate $500,000 for a book mushy, and they can also
officials at the American called on Attorney Gen- which centers around slav- defense fund to be run in hide or be used as pretext
Library Association, the eral Merrick Garland to in- ery in American history and partnership with PEN. Ha- for viewpoint-based deci-
National Coalition Against vestigate the availability was released last fall as a chette Book Group has an- sions by the government,"
Censorship (NCAC) and of "Gender Queer" among book. nounced "emergency do- she said.
other advocates for free other books. "Now we're The responses have come nations" to PEN, the NCAC Two anti-banning initiatives
expression. Censorship ef- not talking about a public from organizations large and the Authors Guild. were launched in Pennsyl-
forts have ranged from library or bookstores. We're and small, and sometimes Legal action has been vania. In Kutztown, eighth
local communities such talking about K through 12 from individuals such as Fer- one strategy. In Missouri, grader Joslyn Diffenbaugh
as Orange County and a school libraries, books that rell. the ACLU filed suit in fed- formed a banned book
Tennessee school board's are just pornographic and The American Civil Liberties eral court in mid-February club last fall that began
pulling Art Spiegelman's with pedophilic content." Union, PEN America and to prevent the Wentzville with a reading of George
graphic novel "Maus," to According to PEN Ameri- the NCAC have been work- school district from remov- Orwell's "Animal Farm." q

Classic Ntozake Shange play to be

reissued in book form

NEW YORK (AP) — A clas- "for colored girls who have ographer, 'for colored girls
sic play by the late Nto- considered suicide/when ...' feels like a gift," Brown
zake Shange is being the rainbow is enuf," which said in a statement. "I'm
reissued in book form in first ran on Broadway in thrilled that I've been en-
April to coincide with its 1976. The book will include trusted to combine all the
Broadway revival by the an additional poem never parts of myself — dance,
director-choreographer used in the text before and music and theater arts —
Camille A. Brown. Scribner photographs from previous to shape and share this
announced Tuesday that stagings of the play. timeless story again with
Brown and award-winning "Of all the shows to be the world."
Author Ntozake Shange attends a special screening of "For novelist Jesmyn Ward will given as an opportunity to Brown's choreography for
Colored Girls" in New York on Oct. 25, 2010. provide introductions for debut as a first-time Broad- "Choir Boy'' brought her a
Associated Press Shange's choreopoem way director and chore- Tony nomination in 2019.q