Amy Sonnie is the ‘banned librarian.’ In 2002 the Texas Youth Commission banned Amy’s young adult anthology, Revolutionary Voices (Alyson, 2000), a collection of creative writing and art by queer youth. Proud to produce ‘dangerous’ material, Amy continued to aggravate all the right people as Associate Director of the Center for Media Justice from 2001-2007. Her second book (forthcoming from Melville House, 2010) traces the untold history of poor white activists allied with the Black Panther Party and Young Lords in the 1960s. Amy is a librarian living in Oakland, CA.
The banned librarian blog is for librarians who support social justice and activists who love their libraries.
Amy,
I can believe that about the Texas Youth Commission (I currently reside here). However, I was able to find a copy on Amazon (yay!). I was wondering since you live in Oakland, are you familiar with Narrative Magazine? They are a prize-winning online magazine (to which I personally subscribe)based out of San Francisco and they are working to promote new and emerging voices. They are in the middle of hosting three contests: Spring 2009 Story Contest, Narrative Prize and First Annual Poetry Contest. I thought you and your readers may find this of some interest. You can go to http://www.http://narrativemagazine.com for more information (deadlines, rules, etc). There are also cash prizes involved, which may be more of an incentive to check it out or submit work.
Thanks,
Natalie
Oops! Website: http://www.http://narrativemagazine.com
Hello, my name is Nathan Richie and I am the director of exhibits and programs at the McCormick Freedom Museum in Chicago. The Freedom Museum is a civics education division of the McCormick Foundation with a mission to demonstrate the relevance of the First Amendment and its role in the ongoing struggle to define freedom.
This past month, the Freedom Museum created a brand new exhibit Libraries and the First Amendment. The exhibit explores the many ways that libraries are both bastions and battlegrounds of First Amendment freedoms. Libraries and the First Amendment has two main components. First is the virtual exhibit at http://www.FreedomInLibraries.org that features case studies, interactives, and comment boards. The second is a versatile poster show that transforms any public library into an exhibition space. The exhibit is offered as a free service to any library.
I found your name and blog while doing a web search and thought that, as person who is intimately involved in museums and who shares opinions on libraries with colleagues, that you might enjoy learning about and exploring this new exhibit. I would also invite you to write a review about the show and, if you enjoy it, recommend the exhibit to your readers.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at nrichie@freedommuseum.us.
Kind regards,
Nathan Richie