Banned Books Week: Comic Books and Literary Censorship
"Comic books are being challenged with greater frequency than they ever have been," says Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defen...
By: ReasonTV
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Banned Books Week: Comic Books and Literary Censorship - Video
Banned Books Weekis drawing to a close, but you still have two more days tocelebratecensorship (or rather, the end thereof).
So for this weeks mix, librarian Tony Ross, of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington,curated a list of songs (disclaimer: some are explicit) that have been dubbed inappropriate by the powers that be. Some tracks are obvious. Youcould very easily make a list of 60 songs, said Ross, there was a lot that was banned. Profanityor suggestive lyrics are a surefire path to parental advisory sticker. But what about protest songs during Vietnam? Or singers who supported the labor movement? Rapper Eminem vs.former president George W. Bush? All had problems.
As librarians, were all about providing access, explained Ross, not just to books but all kinds of art and experiences.Any time you talk about limited access that raises our hackles.
1. Love For Sale Cole Porteras sung by Billie Holiday
This Cole Porter song written/sung from the perspective of a prostitute is from the 1930 Broadwaymusical The New Yorkers. The original staging had a white actress singing it in front of apopular restaurant of the day, however in response to negative public reaction, the producersrestaged it with a black actress singing it in front of The Cotton Club. Despite its popularity, thesong was banned from radio at the time, as was this later Billie Holiday version.
2. Take Your Hand Off It Billy Hughes
In 1948, the vice mayor and police chief of Memphis agreed that three songs popular on localjukeboxes were obscene. Police rounded up and destroyed about 400 records including thiscountry swing song with its double entendre lyrics. The other songs were Operation Blues byAmos Milburn and Move Your Hand Baby by Count Waterford.
3. The Hammer Song The Weavers In 1950, The Weavers had a No. 1hit with their version of Goodnight Irene and appearedpoised for long-term success. However, the folk quartets ties to the progressive labor movementled to two of them (one was Pete Seeger) being called before the Sen. Joe McCarthysHouse Committee on Un-American Activities. They refused to testify and were summarilyblacklisted and placed under FBI surveillance. Their record label terminated The Weavers contractand refused to sell their records. They were forbidden from playing on the radio or TV,and concert promoters were strongly encouraged not to book them, and with no means tomake a living the group disbanded in 1952. Following the Red Scare, they reformed in variousincarnations, culminating in a famous 1980 concert at Carnegie Hall.
4. Louie, Louie The Kingsmen
Although the song had been recorded by several artists since 1955, you probably are mostfamiliar with this 1963 version. Recorded in a rush under trying conditions with a singer wearingnew braces and unable to fully enunciate, the slurred lyrics engendered an countrywide urbanlegend that there were filthy lyrics concealed in the song. Indianas Governor personallybanned it from the states airwaves, and FBI bureaus in a number of states were required toinvestigate allegations of interstate commerce of obscene materials related to the sale of thesingle.
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Reliable Source: Mix the News: What censorship sounds like
ASHEBORO A less than packed auditorium did not stop New York Times best-selling author and Randolph County resident Jerry Bledsoe from speaking from the heart Thursday night at Randolph Community College (RCC).
Bledsoes topic of choice was censorship.
His talk was part of the seventh season of RCCs Cultural Arts Series and Randolph Reads: Invisible Man community reading initiative. Although Bledsoes RCC lecture was not planned to coincide with it, this is Banned Books Week across the nation.
Ive been involved in censorship for over 50 years, Bledsoe said. Ive written stories that never saw print. That in the newspaper business is called editing.
Bledsoe, author of 21 books, is known for several true crime titles based on murders in North Carolina. His journalism career, which spanned more than 20 years, included newspaper work in the North Carolina cities of Kannapolis, Charlotte and Greensboro, and work at Esquire magazine.
Some people in our country are trying to become visible, Bledsoe said. Im the opposite Im visible and trying to become invisible.
Bledsoe went on to explain a phone call he received from the U.S. Attorneys Office.
I called him and didnt get him, Bledsoe told the audience. Within a few minutes he called me back and we met at the FBIs office. They told me that they had listened to a recording from an informant and told me that they thought someone was going to put a hit on me. At the time I was writing about an officer involved in a national drug cartel. For the next three weeks, my wife, dog and I lived in a safe house.
When you get a hit put on you, that is the ultimate form of censorship.
Bledsoe shared several stories about his writings being censored. His first book, The Worlds Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book, was published in 1975. The book observes the sport of stock car racing and its links to the South. It talks about the driver, the fan and the promoter, and how all of their actions lead to race day. However, the book was banned by Catholic schools in Wisconsin opposed to the language used by the NASCAR drivers.
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Bledsoes take on censorship
Austyn Myers, Ian Littleworth and Cristina Gerla (left to right) in La Jolla Playhouse's "Kingdom City."
In "Kingdom City," the world-premiere drama by Sheri Wilner that's now running at La Jolla Playhouse, a small Missouri town is in an uproar over a high-school theater production.
The seemingly unlikely touchstone of that controversy: Arthur Miller's masterly "The Crucible," a play that's been taught to high school students for decades.
In real life, as it happens, it's hardly rare for school productions of even seemingly inoffensive plays to be protested or shut down or quashed before they ever get going. In fact, "Kingdom City" is based on an actual incident in which a staging of (yes) "The Crucible" was banned, although on somewhat different grounds than in Wilner's play.
Howard Sherman can tell you all about the many forms such censorship can take. And lately, that's exactly what he's been doing.
The arts administrator turned fierce advocate for scholastic theater has been documenting threats to student productions across the country via his blog (hesherman.com), his Twitter feed (@hesherman) and his talks to schools, theater companies and other interested parties.
That mission brings the former executive director of the American Theatre Wing (the organization that founded and sponsors Broadway's Tony Awards) to San Diego on Sunday for a moderated chat at La Jolla Playhouse on the topic of censorship.
The event, part of the Playhouse's "Discovery Sunday" series, takes place after the 2 p.m. performance of "Kingdom City." (The talk is free but you'll need to buy a ticket if you'd like to see the show first: (858) 550-1010 or lajollaplayhouse.org.)
"I never consciously decided this was a cause I was taking up," says Sherman, a longtime arts administrator and producer whose resume also includes a stint as executive director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in his home state of Connecticut.
But the seed was planted in 2011 when he became involved in the debate over a threatened school production of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." The issue at hand: Wilson's multiple uses of the "n" word in dialogue.
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Shining a light on stage censorship
It Must Be Alex - #BiteBack Censorship
Alex gives HIS opinion on censorship. Save The Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTNgP69C3Xk Why don #39;t you let us know YOUR opinion, hit us up and ge...
By: Bite News