Today we'll celebrate the right to read and Banned Books Week with Charles Brownstein the comic book Legal Defense Fund Jackie farmer from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Also joins the program for the youth free expression program a kid's right to read project at the National Coalition Against Censorship and finally we'll talk with Deborah Caldwell stone she is at the American Library Association office for intellectual freedom and the freedom to read foundation once again for the hour today we celebrate the right to read Banned Books Week Stay with us. For that about the because it was alibi guys of the democracy politics if you look at the Gaza Community Welcome to the Project Censored show I'm your host Mickey Huff Well we're coming to the end of September and listeners of the project censors show know that that means we're likely going to be celebrating Banned Books Week Banned Books Week Of course goes back to the early 1980 S. 1902 every September libraries schools bookstores museums and other locales around the world celebrate the right to read during Banned Books Week at its heart it's a celebration of the freedom to access ideas a fundamental right that belongs to everyone and over which no person or small group of people should hold sway Banned Books Week is a celebration of books comics plays art journalism and much more and I couldn't think of a better guests to have on than I do today Special thanks to the Banned Books Week coalition about to go for helping set this up and I am welcoming back to the program Charles Brownstein who is the executive editor of the comic book Legal Defense Fund He however also serves as the chair of the Banned Books Week coalition also on the board of directors of Media Coalition is past president of the freedom to read Foundation. Brownstein has served as the executive director of the comicbook Legal Defense Fund since 2002 and during his tenure his organization has achieved numerous legal victories been cited by the US Supreme Court and has become the leading source of education advocacy for combating comics censorship in libraries and schools and he's a prolific inside out lecture on the history of comics is widely published and I want to thank Charles Brownstein once again this year for taking some time out to come on the project's answer Joe Charles welcome back to the program it's good to hear from you Mickey thanks so much for having us on this year it's my pleasure to do so and of course Project Censored is proud once again to be a contributor along with the many sponsors of Banned Books Week and of course people can learn more at Banned Books Week dot org But Charles Brownstein started out you're wearing the chair hat so what's Banned Books Week looking like this year coming up at the end of September well because thing about being able to be the chair of the Banned Books Week coalition is to see just how many institutions in American life are really committed to the values of free expression and so we've got a tremendous range of organizations some from we're going to be talking to later in this hour including the American Booksellers so Cieszyn the American Library Association these assisting Unilever's the presses the Dramatis legal defense fund fire the Punisher for Individual Rights in Education the freedom to read Foundation index on censorship NESA coasting and censorship National Council teachers in English people for the American way each one of those organizations is doing their own Banned Books Week programming so we are able to reach broad broad swaths of American life and in fact with index international life talking about the importance of fighting censorship so this year's theme is censorship leaves us in the dark keep the light on and we're really alumina aiding how Banned Books Week is this great opportunity for communities. The ones that are listening to us talk right now can band together to talk about the importance of intellectual freedom and if you think intellectual freedom isn't important then you don't think that speaking truth to power is important and if speaking truth to power is an important and not a now what we're doing in the world right now well Charles I couldn't agree more and that this is a truth emergency this is a situation that really does require all of these wonderful sponsors and groups getting together to talk about this because this has been going on since the early eighty's the American Library Association celebrating Banned Books Week in and for some for some who don't realize it that this is the thing they say What do you mean Banned Books Week we live in United States what do you mean there's censorship of books going on so Charles Brownstein in lightness of course the folks who listen to this show may be aware of it but you know so much more about it and the kinds of books that have been challenged outside even of comics so go ahead and give us a little overview Yeah definitely you know every year in April the American Library Association publishes a list of the top band unchallenged books that have popped up in the past year and every year there's hundreds of incidents where individuals will attempt to restrict access or remove certain books from circulation and increasingly in recent years this is really vectoring on the the locus of identity censorship this whole idea that the city very identity of the speaker or the very identity of the audience for an intended body of work is enough to have it removed from the public square from the conversations that are happening in libraries and in schools and institutions all over the world and so in the last 2 year C.B.L. The FS been really intercalary involved as have our partners on the banned books the coalition in combat ing this kind of identity censorship we get a little bit more into the granular detail of the C.B.O.T. . Half cases a little bit but broadly speaking there's always going to be folks out there that think they know better than you about what you should have the right to access or think about or folks that believe that they know better then some other set of parents about how the kids in their community should be raised and the truth the matter is that every individual has the right to make up their own minds about their own minds that's what the 1st Amendment is all about and that's what Banned Books Week is about it saying respect the intelligence of yourself respect the intelligence of your neighbors respect the intentions of the Constitution and honor that the 1st Amendment gives us the right to make up our own minds about any of a variety of ideas and so Banned Books Week is an opportunity for not just the sponsor groups that now I'm proud to be a part of putting on our own events but maybe the coolest thing about it is the Banned Books Week has the conditions of a movement that has the conditions of individual communities getting together and putting their own events on whether that's local readouts whether that is author talks whether that is story time whether that is exhibits of the books that have been banned or challenge or any number of creative ideas and in fact not encourage your listeners to go check out Banned Books Week dot org where the coalition resources are up and you can find vents near you and if you've got an event that's not on there you can listen for free to get more people involved because that's how we're going to get out of this darkness that we're in is for more and more people to keep the light on and keep the light of intellectual freedom on by coming together an illuminating each other with mutual dignity and respect about their rights to make up their own minds about their own minds absolutely we're speaking with Charles Brownstein executive director of the comic book Legal Defense Fund and you can learn more at C B L D F O R G can also learn more at Banned Books Week dot. Org Charles Bronson I'm of course also doing our small part here with Project Censored having this annual show on Banned Books Week I'll be actually doing a constitution day talk at my college focusing on Banned Books Week this year and also I have spoken to my kids' schools elementary and middle schools and so I want to remind people that while the sponsors contributors and UN and so many folks that do so many great things across the country in the L.A. To get this going on I really really appreciate how it's more and more a grassroots effort there's invitations for everybody to be spreading the word about so many of these important principles that you were just telling us about Banned Books Week this year starts September 22nd runs to the 29th so Charles Brownstein Could you tell us about a couple of these more specific and recent cases about identity censorship or about political identification I know you had a couple of cases in Texas and New Jersey in particular we're keeping watch on a really disturbing case in the end or Texas involving a city council that has overruled a local library in the invitation of the author of a young adult graphic novel of the it's called number James the infernal compass the graphic novelist is the author Laila Sturges and 2 hours before Laila was to give her talk about her was a graphic novel to the kids in Leander she got a call saying that this event has been abruptly canceled don't come and when we drilled into it it was found out this was a discriminatory disinvite Taishan and it appears to be from the basis of the fact that Lyle was transgender and you know no other speakers that were invited to the library suffered this indignity and you know it's just wrong so she found herself censored just for who she is not the content of her work not the content of the political activities and that's wrong so C.B.S. Lead a coalition effort. They were still working on urging the city of Leander to reinstate her event which they failed to do in fact while we did find a an advocate in councilman Christine said her quest to has been a vocal supporter of Laila and more inclusive library policies the city council instead voted not just to not address the ban of Lyla but also to restrict access to the community members to use library meeting room so it's a really terrible situation that we continue to keep watch on and we hope that saner heads can prevail and that these policy decisions can be reversed but it's a really extreme example of something that's happening all over the country which is people finding themselves being discriminated against because of who they are and I'm sure later in this episode you talk to other folks about other areas where this is happening one of the key flashpoints is drag queen story hour where there are folks that object to the presence of fantastically dressed human beings reading stories about fables and fairy tales to young kids and saying you know that these fantastically dressed human beings are somehow putting a negative agenda into these kids' heads which is just complete nonsense but this is a growing trend it's a trend that C.B.L. The F.E.'s active in opposing and it's a trend that our partners including the National Coalition Against Censorship The L.A. And others are speaking out against and in favor of the fact that every human being has the right to be heard it's a terrible set of circumstances and then the New Jersey case that you brought up this involves the ongoing saga of the book Fun Home by Alison Bechtel which is one of the quintessential graphic memoirs of the 21st century and this is frequently plagued with challenges again just on the basis of the book addressing gay themes those would be. Plus themes and there was a lawsuit that we weren't involved in in watching his New Jersey that grew out of a case we were involved in where a small group of parents challenge the presence of an optional reading assignment for seniors in high school to read this book we spoke out against the attempts to ban the book in that case and it was successful and then about a year later group of parents brought a lawsuit against the school district saying that this was going to be a violation of the obscenity law to assign this literary graphic novel that is one all of the accolades a graphic novel of this kind could win been adapted to a successful Broadway play and the school district was forced to defend itself and fortunately the case was dismissed with prejudice by the judge so it can't be brought back but we're seeing more and more and more of these kinds of cases emerging where it's not even about what's being said it's about who is being spoken to ready or who is speaking and that's just an un-American idea it's not even getting into the content there are so many stereotypes and assumptions and projections going on in these kinds of cases not to mention that it clearly flies in the face of everything that the 1st Amendment stands for and again to see these kind of things happening where there are censorship taking place in schools particularly in libraries bookstores community halls and it's just anathema to what we stand for as a free society and again that's why I think it's so important you have so many wonderful sponsors contributors and people doing this the office of intellectual freedom at the American Library Association also a key player here Charles there's a couple of other things I think that are on your mind you mentioned a comic censorship going on in Idaho and you had a workshop and something coming up that you might be able to invite people to yes definitely folks check out C B L D F O R G C B O T F dot org We have a lot of free resources including webinars that folks can. Paid in to help creates more awareness and better tools for managing difficult situations coming up at the end of this month we've got a web in our on how to fight identity censorship we're going to have Laila Sturges the author of lover James the infernal compass who was the target of this terrible censorship in Texas and John Spears the chief librarian of the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs where there was the big protest about drag queen story hour and they're going to be talking about their experiences with an eye to informing the participants in this weapon are about how they can fight this kind of censorship when it happens in their communities and ultimately how we can create the conditions of education awareness so that we can help prevent this kind of censorship from happening in the 1st place so that's going to be during Banned Books Week Friday September 27th you can register now for FREE at C.B. L.D.F. Dot org And there you also get a sense of some of the other cases that C.B.L. T.F. Is working on on a regular basis the case in Idaho you mentioned involves a extremely weird high school band of The Walking Dead comic book series which was in the high school library and there was a challenge brought to that book because of the violent content within it and ultimately a committee went through the proper processes and procedures the committee voted to retain the book but the superintendent decided to override that committee and not just remove the book from this rural library but also is attempting to create a bifurcated library card system to bring him but students from using interlibrary loan to get their hands on copies of this graphic novel series which is of course the basis of a wildly popular set of television shows and video games etc But the thing that's really disturbing about all. This is that if they actually bothered to read the book there you go look it's all about government and good government and how government is the highest form of common consent rule of law is the highest from a common consent so this is a serious that is using the popular vernacular to talk about the core values of what it is to be an American and to be engaged in the rule of law so you just one of many many examples of the kinds of censorship that we're dealing with on a regular basis Charles Brownstein that is again another riveting story censorship is very real and we've dedicated a pretty significant part of our professional and personal lives to fighting it at every level but again I don't think people necessarily suspect it so often and so it's always very heartening to see people in these local communities pushing back against this with the help of a lot of the people involved in Banned Books Week to make these really big deals the right to read the right to think the right to express oneself I mean they're really at the core of what it means to be an American constitutionally I think you make a really great point that all of this work requires every single one of us Banned Books Week comic book legal defense fund projects censored American Library Association all of these organizations are at their heart collections of people that share common values and a bond of common respect for each other's right to make up their own minds and so when we talk about censorship in libraries and we talk about censorship in schools you know it's really not the individuals that are trying to serve their community by bringing books into them that are creating these problems these are really well meaning folks that are just trying to do right by everybody in their community and there's a lot of unsung heroes in this environment that Banned Books Week is a great opportunity to sing the praises of so cheers to all of the great teachers librarians parents and activists out there that are standing up for this work because. Organizations like the one that I work for when they exist without them and ultimately the society that we all strive to live in and improve when it exists without people of good heart doing this important work so Banned Books Week is a big chance for assaults celebrate each other in doing not the other group that I know that you're including in all of that of course often on the frontlines are the students themselves sometimes we don't always recognize that it's the students that are the ones that are raising their voices 1st and they're the ones that are getting other people involved and calling attention to the fact that they're not being allowed to see something especially if you're going through the middle school years and high school years I mean that's that's the trigger soon as they're told they're not allowed to do something they're all about it so kudos to all the students that have stood up to to do those things that Charles Brownstein you are at C B L D F O R G or the executive director of the comic book Legal Defense Fund you've been doing that since 2002 Additionally you also are the chair of Banned Books Week coalition you're on the board of directors meeting coalition and past president the freedom to read Foundation So again you're a man wearing many hats Charles Brownstein and our hat goes off to you here at Project Censored thanks so much for having me today Mickey thank Charles and thanks for all your great work again you can go to Banned Books Week dot org or a C B L D F O R G Charles Bronstein We'll catch you next time thanks so much you're listening to the Project Censored show I'm your host Mickey huff after this brief musical break we're going to come back and talk with our next guest from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education otherwise known as fire Stay with us . He's the Belfast cowboy in a jeweler on the threshold the beloved singer of brown eyed girl caravan and Moondance and Van Morrison is going to be a featured artist during Cajun useful fun drive during morning D.J. Doug Gardiner and Paul Epstein the Twist and Shout records for a deep dive in the musical legacy of Van Morrison including rare live gems. Never before broadcast performances spanning over 50 years in the spotlight tuning into the morning sun alternative on Monday October 14th from 9 30 am until 12 noon for our van morrison special right here on K G N U Boulde