All Events »

Get Loud — Celebration of Banned Books

October 1 @ 3:00 pm

Members of the Williams College community gather for A Seat at the Table, a presentation at Claiming Williams in 2017. Press photo courtesy of Williams
Williams College

The Williamstown League of Women Voters, the David and Joyce Milne Public Library and the Friends of the Milne Library are presenting Get Loud: A Celebration of Banned Books — with readers including Berkshire writers Susan Choi, Manuel Gonzales and Peggy Kern, awardwinning actor Jessica Hecht, Nationally acclaimed poet and professor Rowan Ricardo Phillips, educators Jamal Ahamad, Tamanika Terry Smith and Rebecca Tucker-Smith and High School Senior Mira Boyer.

They will read aloud selections from books currently or previously banned in US libraries and school, and Berkshire novelists Karen Shepard and Jim Shepard, both on the English faculty of Williams College, will introduce them.

The event hopes to raise awareness of the history and practice of government censorship, and to give the community an opportunity to experience firsthand the power and joy of good writing.

“One of our goals is to dramatize the importance of the books that have come under attack historically and also recently in some schools and public libraries,” said League representative Jane Nicholls. “We hope bringing together an impressive group of artists will help remind us all that the freedom to write and to read is crucial to all other freedoms.”

The performers have selected their readings in conversation with Milne Library Director Pat MacLeod, including books recently banned from some school libraries and reading lists. The selections include passages from “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “Bridge to Terabitha” by Katherine Paterson, “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker and “Dear Martin” by Nic Stone.

The event takes place in Bronfman Auditorium at Williams College, and it is free and open to all.

More info »

By the Way Berkshires is a digital magazine exploring creative life and community — art and performance, food and the outdoors — and I’m writing it for you, with local voices, because I’ve gotten to know this rich part of the world as a writer and journalist, and I want to share it with you.

If you’d like to see the website grow, you can join me for a few dollars a month, enough for a cup of coffee and a cider doughnut. Members get access to extra stories and multimedia, itineraries a bookmark tool. Let me know what you're looking for, and we’ll explore together.

Event Details

Details

Date:
October 1
Time:
3:00 pm
Event Categories:
, , ,

Event Location

Williams College
880 Main St.
Williamstown, MA
(413) 597-3131

Browse Events

Calendar of Events

M Mon

T Tue

W Wed

T Thu

F Fri

S Sat

S Sun

2 events,

2 events,

5 events,

9 events,

18 events,

23 events,

18 events,

2 events,

2 events,

4 events,

6 events,

9 events,

27 events,

-

Holiday Shindy

16 events,

4 events,

4 events,

8 events,

7 events,

11 events,

25 events,

17 events,

4 events,

3 events,

9 events,

6 events,

10 events,

6 events,

3 events,

1 event,

6 events,

7 events,

8 events,

8 events,

8 events,

8 events,