The crowd was small, but the reading was BIG.
Dan Rogers, Associate Professor of Theatre/Speech, and his Oral Interpretation class kicked off the BSC Library’s second annual Read Out! with a group performance of “Why I Read.”
Our guest readers continued the program by reading selections from works that have been challenged or banned:
- Rabbit Run (novel) by John Updike – Read by Tayo Basquiat, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
- And Tango Makes Three (children’s book) by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell – Read by Erin Price, Assistant Professor of English
- Leaves of Grass (poetry) by Walt Whitman – Read by Dr. Janelle Masters, Dean of Academic Affairs
- The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade (or Marat Sade) (play) – Read by Dan Rogers, Associate Professor of Theatre/Speech
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (non-fiction) by John Behrendt – Marlene Anderson, Director of Library Services, gave a recap of a recent (2009) challenge to this book at the Beulah (North Dakota) High School Library
The intent of Banned Books Week is three-fold:
- To draw attention to the importance of the freedom to read
- To publicize threats to that freedom, and
- To provide information to combat ignorance and lack of awareness
Banned Books Week continues to uphold “one of the world’s greatest visions of the the right to free expression — the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” This amendment was characterized by Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. as “freedom for the thought that we hate.”
Celebrate your right to read!
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” — Joseph Brodsky
Read it! Read it! 