In the meantime, we’d like to share this charming reading of Deenie featuring Rachel Dratch, Martha Plimpton, Junot Diaz, Amy Sohn, and Elna Baker. The video was taken at NCAC’s 35th Anniversary Benefit in 2009.

And now, for the first time ever, one of those works is being made into a feature film…and it wasn’t easy. Tiger Eyes will simultaneously hit big screens, iTunes and on-demand on June 7.

The film’s director, Judy’s son Lawrence Blume, described the difficulties of finding a distributor to back the film:

“What shocked me was that a big -segment of the business knew who Judy Blume was but they didn’t understand who she was…

While Hollywood was deep in the throes of its love affair with YA—thanks to Harry Potter and Twilight—Tiger Eyes didn’t fit its template. It was a movie about real teenagers dealing with real problems: no magic, no thrilling danger, no fangs. It didn’t have a big producer backing it, nor was there an A-list star attached.”

The Guardian UK published a great article about the impact of Judy Blume on generations of young people and the history of censorship of her works. They called us and asked about Judy and why she is so frequently banned:

“Bullying, menstruation and questioning whether God exists; for some segments of the American population that is too much,” said Joan Bertin, NCAC Executive Director. “They think that kids should just be given a nice story.”

Because Davey and the other characters drink and have sexual feelings, Tiger Eyes has been challenged in school libraries in Indiana and Wyoming and banned in Hanover, PA and across the state of Louisiana.

Watch the trailer, get your tickets and spread the word!

Tiger Eyes – Trailer from Tashmoo Productions on Vimeo.

In a letter to the community, Assistant Superintendent Bob Behnke wrote that “the committee felt strongly that a decision to remove the use of ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl – The Definitive Edition’ as a choice within this larger unit of study would effectively impose situational censorship by eliminating the opportunity for the deeper study afforded by this edition.”

Right on!

Over at The Huffington Post, Dr. Logan Levkoff rails against the lack of information about sex, masturbation and the body that could lead a student to be “uncomfortable” with Anne’s descriptions of her own anatomy.

HB1938 and its Senate counterpart, SB1128, were the more subtle cousins to the Arizona law banning ethnic studies in that state. If passed, the Texas bills would have made it impossible for college students to take women’s or ethnic history courses to fulfill graduation requirements, ensuring that fewer students would be able to take those courses  and they would eventually be boxed our of the curriculum.

His work was instrumental in continuing the conversation about these materials in the community, even after they had been removed by school officials.

From GLSEN:

“The Educator of the Year award recognizes an exceptional education professional who has enriched his or her community by ensuring that all students, particularly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, are safe from bullying and harassment. The award honors an educator who works not only to ensure safety, but impacts measurable change that is visible within that person’s school district and community.”

Great job, Matt! And a great big ‘thank you’ to all teachers who work closely with us on censorship issues around the country, sometimes at great personal or professional risk.

The Library Foundation recently celebrated the winners at an awards ceremony in West Palm Beach. The first-place winner in the 11th and 12th grade category was Brady Alter, while Savannah Rodgers placed second. In the 9th and 10th grade category, Tyler Perry placed first and Lauren Gayosos won second place.

In their essays, the winners drew connections between the themes of novels such as 1984 and Lord of the Flies, which caution against authoritarian control of information and concentrations of power, and real-life book burning. The students condemned acts of censorship throughout history — from the book-burnings of Nazi Germany to attempts at removing books from classrooms and libraries in America today.

Savannah Rodgers wrote about censorship as an attempt to control and erase the past in her essay, “A Bibliocaust”:

The Nazi party hoped to control the population through destruction of their past and the revelations that the past could give them. It was an attempt at shaping the public. George Orwell, said in 1984, “He who controls the past, controls the future, and he who controls the present, controls the past.” This idea is structured upon the concept that books are a compendium of the past and everything it has to offer. When books are destroyed, so is the knowledge and liberties gained from the past they portray and our potential for an accumulation of knowledge and liberties, in the future.

To learn more about the winners and to read their essays, visit the West Palm Beach Library Foundation’s website.

The obscene, Mr. de Grazia argued, was subjective: what would be deemed obscene by one could be considered as “pure as mountain snow to another.”

Thank you, Edward de Grazie, for your work on behalf of “morally defiant artists.” You will be missed.

While the legislation makes no mention of ethnic studies, Mexican-American studies, Women’s Studies, African-American Studies or the like, its not hard to see that it follows on the heels of Arizona’s law banning ethnic studies in that state.

It also follows on the heels of a January 2013 report on U.S History courses at Texas A&M and UT by the National Association of Scholars, “Recasting History: Are Race, Class and Gender Dominating American History?” Spoiler: their answer is yes.

Sen. Dan Patrick has defended his bill, saying that “the simple purpose of SB 1128 is to be sure that our core curriculum in history represents a comprehensive understanding of our history in areas of the economy, politics, war and other significant events that have helped shape our past and who we are today.”

While not an outright ban, the bill signifies an unnecessary level involvement of legislators in matters of curriculum and serves to restrict education and exploration by boxing out ethnic studies. There is a real fear that if such courses no longer count toward degree requirements in the state of Texas, enrollment will drop, courses will be cut, teachers moved around to teach mandated survey classes and the subjects will decline.

What’s more, it is based on an presupposition that there is a central “American history” — – a shared American mythology — and that there are secondary, lesser histories.  The histories of migrant workers, women, former slaves however are not different from “American history” — they are one in the same.

As UT Austin stated after the NAS report was published: “The report attempts to isolate race, class and gender as something distinct and separate from other areas of study, when in fact they are intrinsic to these other areas.”

The question of what students should be required to learn at the university level is a tough, legitimate question. The value and drawbacks of a broad survey course could and should be debated by educators, academics and students. Such a course certainly could be constructed in a comprehensive way, focusing not only on “economy, politics, war” as Sen. Patrick would prescribe. But that is not within the scope or aim of state legislators or this bill.

Stand up with Los Librotraficantes and other activists on Friday, April 26 in Texas and beyond and spread the word! Learn more here. 

The student was approached by a teacher in the middle of the school day who apparently asked him to turn the shirt inside out or take it off. The t-shirt does not appear to violate the Logan County School’s dress code.  When Marcum didn’t comply, he was arrested for “disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer.”

“What they’re doing is trying to take away my rights, to freedom of speech and the second amendment,” Marcum told news reporters.

Coincidentally, today, free speech legend Mary Beth Tinker — of Tinker v. Des Moines fame — launched a crowd-sourcing campaign for her Tinker Tour.

In 1965, at age 13, Mary Beth  was suspended for wearing a black armband in protest of the Vietnam war. She and other students were told they couldn’t return to school until they took off their armbands. They filed a lawsuit and removed their bands, but continued to protest by wearing black clothing for the remainder of the school year. The Tinker decision was huge, as it established that students do not ”shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Through the Tinker Tour, Mary Beth will travel the U.S. talking to students and raising awareness about free speech and youth rights. With your help, perhaps the tour will make a stop in West Virginia–she and Jared Marcum will surely have something to talk about.

Each year, the school displays the IB (International Baccalaureate) student works in a show in the school’s upper commons. At first, this year’s show was no different: the students hung their art and met with fellow students, artists, art professionals and gallery owners to discuss their work and research.

Then, last week, a parent passing through the school at an after-school event didn’t like what they saw and complained to the school, district and state legislators. Some of the works featured nudes, others referred to issues of violence, homosexuality and transgender identity.

The school principal ordered the art work be covered with red paper the very next day and gave students an ultimatum: move the art to the library, a far less public place space where viewers would “make a conscious choice” to view the art — or remove the work until the opening. Students unhappily opted to remove the work but hung signs in protest.

“The protest was to bring awareness that we aren’t going to go down without a fight and we deserve to have our voices heard,” junior Lindsey Barbee told the Alaska dispatch.

The offending art was put on display temporarily for the public open house last Friday.

As always, its great to see students standing up for their rights when adults expect them to fall in line. Kudos, Palmer students for standing up for your work and refusing to be silenced!