Banned Books ReadOUT at BBC promotes freedom of speech

The Sept. 29 event served as a reminder that censorship is ever present around the world and featured readings by FIU leaders.

FIU’s commitment to freedom of speech was strengthened on Sept. 29 when Biscayne Bay Campus hosted its 10^th Banned Books ReadOUT event during Banned Books Week.

Established in 1982 by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week is an annual event observed during the last week of September celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.

Among the members of the FIU family who participated in this year’s read-out was FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg, who was on hand at BBC to read from Norman Mailer’s World War II epic The Naked and the Dead.

FIU Dean of Libraries Laura Probst read a passage of Harper Lee’s only published book, the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Probst said events such as this read-out celebrate “the authors whose works have been challenged” and serve as “a stand against [those] who would limit our access to information.”

Marian Demos, an associate professor of classical languages and humanities, read from Galileo Galilei’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems while university librarian George Pearson read from a selection of banned poetry. Christin “Cici” Battle, president of SGA-BBC, took on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

BBC Associate Librarian Lauren Christos has organized the Banned Books ReadOUT event at BBC for the past decade.

“Today went beautifully,” she said. “It was terrific to have our president at BBC reading for Banned Books Week. Next year, I would love to have multiple read-outs at both campuses and invite all of FIU to come together and read from their favorite banned book and hear others do the same.

“Participation in an event celebrating intellectual freedom such as this is an exhilarating way to truly experience the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution in action.”