The Banned Book Blog... Day 5

ABFFE President Chris Finan has begun a special Banned Books Week Tour for his new book, From the Palmer Raids to the PATRIOT Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America, and he'll be sharing highlights from the tour over the next few days on Omnibus.

sweet pea Flaherty is a bookseller with a mission.

Let's get the inevitable question out of the way. Someone called Flaherty "sweet pea" in high school and it stuck.

Yet the name seems oddly inappropriate for the events coordinator of King's Books in Tacoma, Washington. He is a dogged promoter of the four-year-old used and new bookstore that is co-owned by Pat McDermott and John Schoppert, two veterans of Powell's Books in Portland.

Banned Books Week is one of sweet pea's favorite promotions. One of King's front windows is covered with black paper that has holes cut in it to permit people to peer in at challenged books.

The window display is only the beginning. sweet pea is always on the lookout for Banned Books Week programming. That's how I ended up talking about my book in Tacoma last night.

King's Books sponsors events throughout Banned Books Week. There were two events today. In the afternoon, there was "Storytime with Banned Books," a reading "for young and old" from challenged classics, including King and King, In the Night Kitchen and The Story of Little Black Sambo. Tonight is "Banned Film Night," featuring The Front, a film about the 1950s blacklist starring Woody Allen, and Maedchen in Uniform, a 1932 film burned by the Nazi.

Later in the week, there is a "Banned Book Slut Social" at a local bar that will feature a new cocktail named after a banned author; a one-woman show featuring a pieces about banned books, and a "Banned Book Art Auction" that will benefit the new book fund of the Tacoma schools.

King's Books is also co-sponsoring events at the University of Washington's Tacoma campus, including a panel discussion with a local author, Brent Hartinger, whose book Geography Club was removed from libraries in a Washington school district; a exhibition of George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck. The university is even presenting a series of displays about the history of censorship.

sweet pea insists that putting this all together is "easy." He partners with other groups wherever possible. In addition to the university, he works with the Tacoma Film Club and ACLU's Pierce County chapter. So far, he has not succeeded in drawing in the county library, but he plans to keep after them.

The lesson is clear: Dont' mess with sweep pea!

Posted at 01:02PM Sep 30, 2007 by Dan Cullen in General  |  Comments[0]