HomeALA Newberry Library Read-Out with celebrity authors highlight

Contact: Larra Clark
Manager, Media Relations
(312) 280-5043
lclark@ala.org

For Immediate Release
September 21, 2004

ALA, Newberry Library Read-Out with celebrity authors highlights Chicago's
free speech tradition during Banned Books Week

(CHICAGO) A celebrity read-out with award-winning authors to highlight Banned Books Week will be held later this month at the prestigious Newberry Library in Chicago. The event serves as a reminder that many in this country continue to seek the removal of books from libraries and schools, according to the American Library Association (ALA).

On Saturday, October 2, at 12:30 p.m., the ALA and the Newberry Library team up to present "Read-Out: The American Library Association's 23rd Annual Banned Books Week" across from the Newberry at Washington Square Park, 901 N. Clark Street. Chicago's traditional free speech forum sets the stage for author Sara Paretsky, comic artist Nicole Hollander, activist Jay Miller and ghost hunter Richard Crowe - among others - who will read excerpts from their favorite banned or challenged books. Admission is free. For more information on the event, call (312) 255-3700.

Preceding the "Read-Out," the Newberry Library will host ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano for "Libraries and Free Speech," a talk that addresses the importance of intellectual freedom, the dangers of censorship, and the role of American libraries in a free society. The program is free and open to the public at 11 a.m.

"The idea of book banning may seem outdated, conjuring up images of bonfires and totalitarian regimes," Brey-Casiano said, "but Judy Blume's book 'Forever' was pulled from an Elgin, Illinois', school library for four years before the librarian was successful in bringing this coming-of-age young adult book back to circulation."  Blume was just named an honorary National Book Award winner for her contribution to American letters.  "Forever" was the eighth-most challenged book of the 1990s.

Just this year parents in Evanston, Ill., requested children's book "Pinkerton, Beware" be removed from library shelves because of a scary scene in the book. The library board ultimately voted to keep the book available.

And Chicago Public Library's pick for citywide reading, the award-winning "In the Time of Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez, was banned from a high school in Port Washington, N.Y. because of a drawing of a homemade bomb.

The "Read-Out" is presented in conjunction with Outspoken: Chicago's Free Speech Tradition, an exhibit of the Newberry Library in collaboration with the Chicago Historical Society that reveals the city's fascinating evolution of political, cultural and artistic dissent. Admission is free at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., from October 1 through January 15, 2005.

The ALA's "Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read" is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. For more information or to learn about materials available to help celebrate Banned Books Week, contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom at 800-545-2433, ext. 4223, or oif@ala.org, or visit www.ala.org/bbooks.

The Newberry Library is an independent humanities library that is free and open to the public. The Library offers a wide array of exhibits, lectures, classes, and concerts related to its collections.     

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Public programs to accompany Outspoken have been planned in collaboration with the Chicago Historical Society, the American Library Association, The Public Square, and the Independent Press Association. These programs are made possible in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly.