Banned Books Read Out - Friday, 9/28

Join us for a ReadOut where great books are brought to life! 

Banned Books Week (Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, 2012) highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship. Building on the success of their joint 2011 program, the University Club of Albany Foundation and the New York Civil Liberties Union, Capital Region Chapter will present ReadOut! on Friday, September 28 at 6:00 p.m. at the National Register-listed University Club of Albany, 141 Washington Avenue at Dove Street.

Local actors, writers, poets, and community leaders will read brief excerpts from books that have been banned or challenged in America. Works selected to date include: Beowulf, 1984, and The Importance of Being Earnest. This event is free and open to the public, light fare will be served, and drinks will be available.

Banned Books Week is marking its 30th anniversary in 2012. It brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

Additional ReadOut! programs are slated for the Schenectady Public Library on Sunday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. and Market Block Books on River Street in Troy on Saturday, September 29 from 10:00 a.m. to noon.

According to Joanna Palladino, a member of the NYCLU and an organizer of the event, “As Noam Chomsky said, ‘If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.’ Banned Books Week stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of diverse points of view for all who wish to read and access them.”

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; the Freedom to Read Foundation; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; National Association of College Stores; and the PEN American Center. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Project Censored.

The University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc. is presenting this event with the New York Civil Liberties Union, and one need not be a member of either organization attend. For more information, call the University Club at 518-463-1151.