Advertising
Big names in the American entertainment and arts industries are sounding the alarm about a sharp increase in book bans and calling for voices to stop these actions.
In an initiative of the star of Star Trek: The Next Generation and presenter of Reading RainbowLeVar Burton, almost 200 artists have signed a open letter against the book ban in the United States.
“This restrictive behavior is not only contrary to freedom of expression, but also has a chilling effect on the much broader creative field,” the text says. “The Government cannot and should not create any interference, nor dictate what people can produce, write, generate, read, listen to or consume.”
Among the signatories of the letter are Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Ruffalo, Sharon Stone, Billy Porter, Aisha Tyler, Judy Blume, the writer Amanda Gorman, the singer and actress Zooey Deschanel, the members of Garbage, the actresses Margaret Cho, Gabrielle Union and the actors Jason Ritter and Nick Adams.
Culture war and censorship of school books
“Far-right politicians like Ron DeSantis are advocating for draconian laws to ban books and the teaching of multicultural American history in order to uphold a homophobic, transphobic, and white supremacist vision of our nation,” they say.
According to PEN America, an organization that advocates for freedom of expression, in the 2022-2023 school year there have been 1,477 cases of book bans affecting 874 unique titles.
The most banned in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year have been titles such as Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, by Mike Curato; Tricksde Ellen Hopkins; The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault.
Most of the bans are carried out by far-right organizations. One of the most influential and active groups is Moms for Liberty, which, according to PEN America, has been responsible for nearly 60% of all book bans in the United States over the past year.
They march in Miami-Dade against black history teaching established by DeSantis
The letter concludes that the signatories “will refuse to remain silent while a creative field is subject to oppressive bans” and urges artists to “unite, because a threat to one art form is a threat to us all.”
“It is shameful that we are banning books in this country, in this culture, in this time. And it’s dangerous for a handful of people to decide that any book about black and queer people is divisive,” said Burton, also an executive producer of the documentary. The Right to Read (2023).
“We call on everyone to join us in raising our voices to defend artistic freedom, embrace multicultural history, and end the book ban once and for all,” he said.
The states with the most bans are Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina. All have instituted punishments for educators who do not comply with the prohibitions.
I like this:
I like Loading…
2023-09-21 01:23:01
#American #artists #censorship #book #bans #OnCubaNews
