By TRENTON JUDD
Student Reporter
Banned Book Week kicks off tonight at 6 p.m. with a banned and challenged book reading in the Alabaster room on the third floor of Vinson Hall.
According to Northwestern Assistant Professor of English Jennifer K. Page, “Banned Book Week is traditionally the last week in September, and it is a chance to celebrate intellectual freedom while protesting censorship.”
This is Page’s first year at Northwestern, but she has been active in previous Banned Book Week events, and she feels that it is very important for students to attend because “part of college is to branch out and expand your knowledge and learn beyond what you learned in high school.”
Digital Resources and Metadata Librarian Jason Dean Henderson believes that “Banned Book Week is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of intellectual freedom.”
Henderson has been working at Northwestern for about three months now, but he has worked at a variety of libraries for over six years and understands library culture, which he said “allows for a chance to discuss the value of providing access to various viewpoints and ideas.”
He said that Banned Book Week not only celebrates the freedom of knowledge, but it also “demonstrates how censorship is counterproductive to the accumulation of knowledge. If you censor something then you take away an entire view point away from the whole story.”
Henderson encourages students to come to the reading because “it is a lot of fun for the students and it is a great opportunity to meet new people who have the same interests as you.”
Tiffany Scarola, an instructor of English, said her main goal with the Banned Book Week readings is “to get people knowing what is out there and what kind of literature they may have missed out on.”
Scarola said the Banned Book List “is an odd collection of books and if you read the list you’ll be surprised what books have made it on there. Many of the books that are on the Banned Book List are true to the era they were written in, but if you censor that then all you are doing is erasing a part of history.”
Scarola would like for students to attend because “it really will help your education grow and it will give you a completely new look at some literary works.”
There are quite a few banned books on the list, but out of them there are a few choice favorites. Page’s favorite is the novel turned film “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell; Henderson’s favorite is the graphic novel “Watchmen” by Alan Moore; and Scarola’s favorite banned book is the classic “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe.