Celebrate the Freedom to Read

Banned Books 2011

The Providence Athenaeum and the Rhode Island Affiliate of the ACLU will be co-hosting our annual Banned Books Event on Friday, September 23rd from 5-7 PM at the Providence Athenaeum. Join Rhode Island authors Indigo Bethea, Tina Cane, Michael S. Harper, Jane Lancaster, and Max Winter as they read from several banned books.

The purpose of Banned Books Week is to draw attention to the importance of the freedom to read and to publicize threats to that freedom. In celebrating freedom of expression, Banned Books Week also commemorates the important role of libraries as one of the nation’s great democratic institutions.

Indigo Bethea, a poet and cultural anthropologist, has published But Beautiful--Reflections on Love and Loss, and A Calling Out to Nubia: Poetry for the Young and Old. She has taught at various local colleges and universities and is the founder of the poetry/arts initiative “Poiesis.” Bethea will be reading from The Color Purple, by Alice Walker.

Tina Cane is a poet, teacher, and the founder/director of “Writers-in-the-Schools,” a program that places writers in RI public schools to enhance and support curriculum through teaching “imaginative writing.” She will be reading from Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh.

Michael S. Harper is an American poet from Brooklyn who has published ten books of poetry. Two of his collections, Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Images of Kin have been nominated for the National Book Award. He was Rhode Island’s poet laureate from 1988 to 1993. He is the longest serving professor of English at Brown University, where he continues to teach poetry workshops to undergraduates. Harper will be reading from Jubilee, by Margaret Walker.

Jane Lancaster is an award-winning independent public historian who writes and lectures widely about American women, local history, and the history of organizations. Her latest project is a history of Brown University, due to be published in time for Brown’s 250th anniversary in 2014; Her previous books include Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth - A Life Beyond Cheaper by the Dozen, Inquire Within: a Social History of the Providence Athenaeum since 1753, and By Motor to the Golden Gate (with Emily Post). She will be reading from Noddy at the Seaside, by Enid Blyton.

Max Winter is a recipient of a 2012 Fellowship in Fiction from the RI State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and has also received a 2011 RISCA Merit Award Fellowship in Fiction. He teaches writing at the University of Rhode Island and co-edits their literary journal, The Ocean State Review. Winter will be reading from The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.