Sandra Cisneros, Manuel Muñoz, and Helena María Viramontes will appear at 8 p.m., Friday, October 5th, at the University of Arizona’s Modern Languages Building Auditorium (Room 350) to mark the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association.
A discussion with and brief readings by all three authors will take place. The event is free and open to the public.
“Liberating Literature” is this year’s theme for Banned Books Week, a national event. Thanks to generous support from the College of Humanities, the Department of English, and numerous cosponsors on campus and in the community, the University of Arizona will join in the conversation as Cisneros, Muñoz, and Viramontes share their thoughts and creative work in a celebration of the freedom to read and the empowering potential of the written word. The authors will address these vital questions: How does access to new ideas strengthen the bonds of community? How vital can literature be as a tool to free ourselves of cultural misunderstandings?
This event is a College of Humanities and Department of English initiative with generous support from other units on campus including The Poetry Center, Department of Mexican American Studies, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Institute for LGBT Studies, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Sonora Review, UA Letterpress Lab, and the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families. Community Cosponsors include the Pima County Public Library, Literacy Connects, Kore Press, Bookmans, Tucson Youth Poetry Slam (TYPS), Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC), City of Tucson Human Relations Commission, and The Book Art Collective.
Sponsors for Banned Books Week include: American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, Freedom to Read Foundation, National Association of College Stores, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, and PEN American Center. Banned Books Week is endorsed by: Center for the Book at the Library of Congress and Project Censored.
