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Vincent Ramirez, senior English major, doesn’t speak in public often. At the Banned Books Week event on Sept. 30, he read aloud in front of a crowd. Twice.
Students and faculty took turns reading excerpts from their favorite challenged or banned books throughout the afternoon. One by one, they explained why their particular book was banned, the paragraph that meant the most to them and the reason they chose particular works.
Banned Books Week brought together more than 40 students and faculty to the foyer outside of the library. This year’s event had a larger turnout than previous years, organizers said.
Although a few professors brought their classes to the event, Vincent Ramirez, a member of the Literature Club, came on his own.
Ramirez read an excerpt from E.B. White’s children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web, a children’s novel about the friendship between a farm pig and a barn spider. In 2006 a group of parents in Kansas deemed it “blasphemous and unnatural” due to animal characters’ ability to speak according to BannedBooks.World.edu.
“I grew up around animals, so it interested me,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez’s follow up performance drew from John Green’s novel, Looking for Alaska, a story about a boy who faces the challenges of adolescence, which included sexually explicit material. The excerpt Ramirez read included a sexual encounter between two teen characters in the novel.
“It’s a book I enjoy, it really captures being a teen,” Ramirez said. “I wanted to leave the deemed explicit content open to everyone’s interpretation.”
More than 10 students continued reading other challenged or banned books such as “A Child Called it,” which contained graphic violence and tells the story of an abused child.
Alvaro Ramirez, senior education major, read an excerpt from the The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As told to Alex Haley. The book explains the life and struggles of Malcolm X and was, at one time, challenged due to depictions of crime, violence and racial tension. It involves growing up in impoverished neighborhoods and the struggles Malcolm X dealt with, the reason why Ramirez gravitated toward the book.
At a previous job, he and another were the only minority workers who enjoyed reading books.
“It’s my favorite book and has helped shape my life,” Alvaro Ramirez said. He empathizes with Malcolm X’s story because he grew up with similar hardships.
“My co-worker suggested The Autobiography of Malcolm X and I’ve kept it ever since,” he said.
Faculty joined students to celebrate continued free expression.
Jackson Ayers, assistant professor of English, read excerpts from D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. Both books were censored for a long period of time due to perceived obscenity and explicitness.
Although a few professors brought their classes to the events, Ayers encouraged all of his students to attend the celebration.
“Banned Books Week focuses on literature, but in the end, it reminds us of the importance of free expression for a free society,” Ayers said.
Teachers, parents and other groups have challenged more than 11,300 books since 1982. Reasons vary from explicitness, racial issues and violence. Although individuals and groups still challenge books today, many celebrate the freedom to enjoy books without censorship more than ever.
“My hope is that attendees at the reading recognize that censored and challenged books may be provocative and even discomfiting, but they can also be beautiful, funny, insightful, touching, and powerful. In short, they are worth reading,” Ayres said.
In 1982, Banned Books Week launched due to frequent challenges of books aimed at sheltering readers from content deemed unacceptable.
Today, Banned Books Week is a national celebration, and libraries across the country, such as the one at A&M-San Antonio, take part in the celebration of the freedom to read.