Posted 5:51 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, 2015
Join us and claim your right to read! Murphy Library will be hosting its 3rd Annual FREEDOM TO READ event, a banned books read-out. A read out is a public reading of a banned or challenged books to protest the practice of censoring books.
The FREEDOM TO READ event will be held Tuesday September 29, 2015 from noon - 2 p.m. on the Murphy Library main staircase. Participants are invited to stop by, listen to the public readings, browse a selection of displays, or even recite a passage from a banned or challenged book (more information below). Participants and audience members who wish to do so, can enter into a drawing for banned book mugs.
Murphy Library's “Freedom to Read” event takes place during Banned Books Week, September 27 - October 3, 2015. Banned Books Week is a national celebration that promotes the freedom of choice and the freedom of expression, even if that choice or opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. Banned Books Week brings attention to the dangers of censoring books, ideas, and persons.
This is the second time Murphy Library has staged a read-out on campus. Check out images from Freedom to Read - 2013 or images from the 2014 event on our Flickr page or scroll down to the bottom of this page for more images.
Murphy library will also be offering a brown bag lunch discussion on the topic of Banned Books on Thursday October 1, from noon till 1 p.m. The discussion will be led and moderated by UWL faculty and will cover topics ranging from:
Why and how books are banned? Is the practice of banning books ethical? What does it mean if a book is banned? Is it ever appropriate to ban a book based on its content? Is it the responsibility of the reader to determine if a book is right for themselves?
For more information, contact Marc Manke at Murphy Library, mmanke@uwlax.edu 5-8637. READERS WANTED!!!As part of our Banned Books Week events, we are looking for readers for our Freedom To Read read-out! What: Read from a challenged or banned book for up to 5 minutes. There is no microphone, no sitting audience – you read from a passage of your choice, from a book of your choice in a normal voice to passers-by. Who: Anyone can read: students, staff or faculty members. When: Tuesday, September 29, from noon to 2 p.m. Where: In Murphy Library on the first-floor landing of the central staircase How: Sign up using the Freedom to Read Volunteer Form with your preferred time and the title of the work from which you'll read (if possible, readers should bring their own books). We’ll do our best to accommodate your preferred time - first come, first served. Need ideas of what to read? Some examples are: the Harry Potter series, Slaughterhouse-Five, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Bible, Water for Elephants, Catch-22, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, Brave New World, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Koran, the Twilight Series, And Tango Makes Three, Song of Solomon, The Catcher in the Rye, ttyl, The Color Purple, My Sister’s Keeper, The Chocolate War, The Kite Runner, His Dark Materials trilogy, Of Mice and Men, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Bridge to Terabithia, Go Ask Alice, Captain Underpants, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Lord of the Flies, The Call of the Wild, Rabbit Run, A Clockwork Orange, In Cold Blood. Or visit the American Library Association’s Frequently Challenged Books webpage. [gallery columns="7" ids="1591,1592,1593,1594,1595,1596,1597,1598,1599,1600,1601,1602,1603,1604,1605,1606,1607,1608,1609,1610,1611,1612,1613,1614,1616"]