This week, the Penn chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union will stand up for the right to free speech by reciting passages from Lolita and Winnie the Pooh alike.
Starting yesterday, ACLU is honoring the American Library Association's Banned Books Week by reading banned books aloud in Wynn Commons. Between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day until Friday, group members will recites passages from books ranging from Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
What these books, disparate as they may seem, have in common is a history of suppression, said College freshman Stephen Fritz, a member of ACLU.
"We are trying to raise awareness about the fact that books are challenged or banned, even still," Engineering junior and ACLU Vice President Ben Plotnick said.
Although according to Fritz none of the featured books are currently banned or challenged at Penn, each one has been censored at some point in history, whether for social, religious or other reasons.
"At Penn, we are so used to the freedom to not be censored, and we take advantage of that," Plotnick said. "It is a privilege to experience uncensored life that others don't have, even in America."
Other books that will be read this week include many that have become so enmeshed in American popular culture that it is difficult to imagine them as contraband.
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, for instance, has been challenged for the anti-religious undertones that particular Christian groups believe pervade its text, Plotnick explained.
He added that to some people, "it was really a shocker" that the series has been denounced in certain communities.
"People had no idea that books are being challenged," he said.
Furthermore, many books by Toni Morrison, who is regarded today as one of America's most brilliant writers, have been banned because of their subject matter, Fritz said.
The ACLU, which has chapters in college campuses around the country, aims to "foster protection of all civil liberties in the Constitution," Fritz explained.
The group's activities this week are critical in fulfilling that mission by raising awareness of the issue of censorship.
"We have to bring awareness to First Amendment issues," Fritz said. "It is important for all students that we can read what we want and think what we want."
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