Occupy Cheyenne Oct. 15 noon

Just what is "the people's mic?"

Van Jones of "Rebuild the Dream" addressing the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly Friday evening. This video clip also came with an explanation of “the people’s mic” process used at these assemblies:

In case you’re wondering why everyone in the audience repeated everything Van says, they are using something called “the people’s mic” to ensure the audience hears every speaker at the General Assembly. There is no electric PA system in place because of noise concerns, and with the hustle and bustle of Manhattan all around, the noise would ordinarily drown out a speaker.

The speaker says a sentence or phrase, and those closest to him or her repeat it. The next closest repeat the first ring, spreading the speaker’s words out in concentric circles through the audience.

Because there’s such an intense focus on making sure that the speaker is heard, there’s little clapping or cheering during a speech. Instead, folks in the crowd raise their hands and wiggle their fingers to give a visual cue of their approval, and cross their arms firmly over their chest to show disapproval.

It’s an ingenious system that allows everyone to hear no matter how far they are from the speaker. The act of participation also keeps everyone’s focus on what is being said throughout the speech.

Our unions getting behind Occupy movement

Meg Lanker-Simons at Occupy Casper. Her union supports Occupy Wall Street. I wonder about mine, SEIU. Meg is one of my co-panelists (with Jaren Artery) for the presentation "Snarky Slacktivists of Online Outlaws: Leftie Bloggers in Red-State Wyoming" at the John R. Milton Writers' Conference Oct. 27-29 in Vermillion, S.D. 

For Occupy movements, "the point is to speak out, be heard and shed frustration in public"

Occupy Denver: Man in a hat reads his words and we amplify them

Occupy Wall Street is but three weeks old and Occupy sites are sprouting across America. I was at Occupy Denver yesterday to observe and to understand. I was fairly successful with the former and only partially successful with the latter. As I was casting about the web this morning, I came across some columns by Kevin Pinner on death + taxes out of Minneapolis. Minneapolis is a great alternative media city, a progressive city with a strongly Democratic mayor who supports Occupy Minneapolis. As Pinner points out, this outspoken stance is something that Occupy Wall Street lacks, as Mayor Bloomberg is obviously a charter member of the 1% (twelfth richest person in America) and a staunch apologist for Wall Street.

Still, this movement originated on the streets of Wall Street and not on Hennepin Avenue in the Twin Cities or Colfax Avenue in the Mile High City or Center Street in the Oil City of Casper, Wyo. When people gather in those places, they are taking their cue from OWS but it actually originates from a deeper place. Here’s how Pinner describes the many street protests in Greece:

Their causes are diverse, as are the people, which works for them, and can work for Occupy movements, too. The point is to speak out, be heard, and shed frustration in public, where the powers that be can digest it, where police can misbehave: that is part of the non-violent strategy’s power.

I felt that power yesterday in Denver. The point is to speak out, be heard and shed frustration in public. I wasn’t prepared for this. When Chris and I arrived on the State Capitol grounds, people were voicing concerns that covered a thousand topics: Unemployment, income inequality, expensive wars, bloated student loans, Wall Street, and so on. Each phrase that was uttered was repeated by the multitudes. At first that seemed redundant, even silly, until I realized that the speaker was counting on us to serve as his/her megaphone. One young woman spoke about her mom who worked two jobs to feed her and her sister. We all repeated her story loudly and suddenly her words were floating in the humid air above the state’s capitol building. Her story might drop into the consciousness of legislators as they enter the building to do business this coming week. We now knew her story and we might be carrying her story back to our towns and even writing about it on our blogs as I’m doing right now.

I am a veteran of many protests in rallies dating back to Vietnam. I am jaundiced and jaded. When I go to a protest, and because I am a Democrat, I expect to be harangued by an endless array of union reps, anti-war activists, aging Civil Rights marchers, lean-and-mean environmentalists, AIDs activists and so on. These are causes I believe in. These are causes that most Democrats believe in. In fact, the last time I was at a rally on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol, it was the Sunday before the start of the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. Speakers that day included Ron Kovic, Cindy Sheehan and Eldridge Cleaver’s widow. After the third speaker, my brain was fried. I went over to see what the counter-protestors were doing, hoping for some comic relief. I also visited with the young people crafting the puppets for that morning’s march. Later, the permitted march of about 1,000 souls got underway with a Denver Police escort.

The most important protest of the DNC convention happened on Wednesday. Rage Against the Machine played for a large crowd. The band then teamed up with  members of Iraq Veterans Against the War to lead an impromptu march to the convention center. It was a non-permitted march. The L.A. Chief of Police had warned the Denver Chief of Police to expect violence if Rage Against showed up. But the Denver Police took a different approach. They provided an escort for the non-permitted march by 3,000 fired-up young people. If I remember correctly, there were a few pot arrests but nothing serious. I was inside the convention hall, blogging from my seat. I should have been outside covering the march.

But in these “Occupy” days, it isn’t the march that is important. The people speak. Their words are amplified by the rest of us. In this way, we hope to bring about change that we all can believe in.


Read a sampler of Kevin Pinner’s “Occupy” columns here and here.

"Occupy Casper" at noon Saturday across from the Dick Cheney Federal Building

Pamela RW Kandt announces Occupy Casper on Saturday, Oct. 8, noon-1 p.m., in Pioneer Park, Center & B streets, across from the Dick Cheney Federal Building in Casper, WY.

From Pamela:

Let's stand together and say "No More!" to greed, corruption, inequality, poverty -- politicians no longer work on our behalf or care about our well-being. We are the 99% of Americans stuck with the bill for corporate bailouts, economic shenanigans and bad government. We're old & young, middle class & poor, straight & gay, graduates & dropouts, conservatives & liberals. We are America and we deserve better!

These peaceful gatherings are flowering rapidly across the nation because people are overwhelmingly unhappy with what's happening in this country. Join us on Saturday to share your frustration and express your support for the 99%. Bring signs, kids, family, friends and neighbors. We're all in this together! RSVP at Facebook.

A short story about one government-issue, middle-class, Middle-American family from Denver

My government-issue parents in Denver, circa 1950. Thanks to my sister Mary for the photo.

I was born in Denver at the tail end of 1950.

My father was a World War II veteran who used the G.I. Bill of Rights to graduate from Regis College (now Regis University) in three years. It was a private Catholic college, one he never could have afforded without the government program, promulgated by Pres. Roosevelt and sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, that provided college degrees for millions of American men. The U.S. Navy paid for my mother's nurse's training at Mercy Hospital in Denver. The war was over before she finished so she didn't have to join the fight. But she did use her government-supported training to help support her nine children from 1946 until she died forty years later. My father spent most of his working life building Defense Department-funded ICBM missile silos around the West and then with the space program in Florida. His salary, directly and indirectly, was paid by Uncle Sam.

My father's father made a pretty good living in Denver selling insurance with Mutual of New York. But before he joined private industry, he served with the Iowa National Guard on the U.S. Mexico border and then in France with the AEF. After repeated gas attacks, the Army shipped him to Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital outside Denver. During his recuperation, he struck up a friendship with an Army nurse, Florence Green from Baltimore, who had traded the life of a debutante to tend to shattered soldiers on the front. The U.S. Army trained her in the healing arts. Grandpa Shay was forever grateful. Both Grandma and Grandpa received the lion's share of their medical care from Veteran's Administration hospitals in Denver and Cheyenne. They both were buried in Denver's government-administered military cemetery, Fort Logan. You can go visit them. Notice what a fine job the V.A. does in maintaining this national landmark. Go ahead, notice.

My mother' mother was the first postmistress in a little town outside Cincinnati. She liked her government paycheck. But one summer she joined her sister and two friends for a road trip via flivver to the Rocky Mountains. The roads were rough. Fortunately, Brevet Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower had led the U.S. Army's Motor Transport Company from D.C. to California in 1919 and made the road navigable. A year later, she was following the same government-blazed trail and, a year after that, she and her sister were living in Denver and visiting the mountains regularly.

Ike was from Kansas but he liked Denver. He got married in Denver to Mamie Doud and later fished the U.S. Forest Service mountain streams during his breaks from the Oval Office. During one Mile High trip, he suffered a heart attack and recuperated at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. I was four -- almost five -- at the time. Our family lived just off of Colfax Avenue in Aurora and my father took me down to the corner, pointed at the well-lit building across the street, and said: "Our president is right over there." The president was a Republican. My father was a Democrat -- then. But he said "our" president. Gen. Eisenhower had been his supreme commander in the ETO. And now he was his -- our -- president. We then walked back to our $8,000 house, purchased without a down payment and paid for with a low-interest loan. At the end of his life, my father was astonished that he paid twice as much for a new car as he paid for his first house. He was a Florida Republican by then, a by-product of Nixon's southern strategy. He seemed astonished by many things, particularly the Liberal politics of his eldest son. Even though he passed away almost a decade ago, Dad may be astonished still.

Spawn of our government-sponsored parents (see above), taken in her backyard in Daytona Beach, Fla.,
where we used to watch government-sponsored rockets blast off into space (from the Mary Shay Powell archives).

My mother's father came from Ireland in 1917. He worked with his brother on the Chicago El until he got sick and had his infected lung removed at the city's charity hospital. The doctor advised him to take his one remaining lung and go to the healthy climes of the West. Grandpa made it as far as Denver, liked it, and decided to stay. He worked at the post office for many years, and then the railroad. He also was a handyman and a helpful neighbor. He only had a sixth-grade education, but I learned more from my Grandpa Hett than I did from almost anyone else. He was a strong believer in the healing power of ice cream. This also is my belief.

These are my forebears. An imperfect lot, to be sure, and I carry on that tradition. It is possible that we all would be perfectly fine without the programs and opportunities offered by our citizen-funded government. It is possible, yet unlikely.

On Oct. 8, we Occupy Denver, site of the Democratic Party's 2008 convention -- was that only three years ago?

The arts, especiaslly the graphic arts, are laying a huge part in the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This event's right down the  road in my hometown of Denver. www.occupywallstreet.com

Follow "Rebuild the Dream" on Free Speech TV

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Katie Goodman conducts improv comedy/life coach workshop within shouting distance of WY

Katie Goodman, improv comedian, author, and rabble-rousing singer/songwriter ("I Didn't F*ck It Up"), will be conducting a workshop at Chico Hot Springs, MT, Oct. 8-9. This is as close as she will ever get to Wyoming, unless she tap-dances over the border into Yellowstone while she's at Chico.

Here are the details:

Katie will present her workshop teaching how to use the tools of improv comedy in every day life. This workshop will be presented at the gorgeous Chico Hot Springs, one hour from Bozeman, near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

Click here for reviews and testimonials. For additional information about the workshop, click here.

The cost is $255 which includes a beautiful Chico lunch both days and Katie's book to take home. Rooms run from $45 - $200, so to book your room, call Chico directly and pick what you like: 406-333-4933. Most participants stay over Saturday night, but you are certainly welcome to make a longer retreat of it and stay Friday and Sunday or longer. The workshop hours are 9am - 4:30 both Saturday and Sunday.

Lunches are provided for workshop participants both Saturday and Sunday. Exceptional cuisine from one of the region’s finest restaurant is available in the Chico Lodge restaurant for breakfast and dinner, as well as other budget options nearby. Other activities available include massage, hiking, horse-back-riding and more. And of course, the wonderful hot springs of Chico are included with your stay at the Lodge.

To register or for more information, email us or call 406-522-7623. 

Chris Hedges: Join the Wall Street revolt or stand on the wrong side of history

Woman protester arrested on
Sept. 24 at Wall Street

This is pretty amazing stuff from someone who has so much to lose:

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

This is Chris Hedges writing on Truthout.

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years

Read it at The Best Among Us/Truthout

5K walk raises awareness for PTSD after suicide by Fort Collins soldier who was treated at Cheyenne VA

Here's a sobering statistic from a story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

The Veterans's Administration Regional Medical Center in Cheyenne "in fiscal year 2011 (through July) had 1,954 veteran patients with PTSD, comprising 10.7 percent of the veterans seen, according to VA spokesman Andrew Ruben."

That breaks down to almost 200 patients a month being treated for PTSD. And that's only at one VA Center in our little corner of the world.

U.S. Army Spc. Nicholas Larson of Fort Collins was treated for PTSD at the Cheyenne VA. It wasn't enough. Larson, a 22-year-old Iraq War veteran, killed himself May 12, 2010, leaving behind a wife and son, among other loved ones.

Elizabeth Larson-Haag (sister) and Larson's mother, Monica Meisner, have since started A Soldier's Silent Cry, a petition for the U.S. military to require that troops who have served overseas undergo regular mental-health evaluations.

They are organizing a 5K run/walk that walk starts at 10 a.m. Sunday beginning and ending at Veterans Plaza at Spring Canyon Park in Fort Collins. Contributions benefit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which helps people who have lost loved ones in the military.

More staggering stats:

PTSD affects 11 percent to 20 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' website.

Ruben at the Cheyenne VA said veterans struggling with PTSD can find assistance at their local medical center, which can be found at http://www.va.gov or by calling the 24/7 Veteran Combat Call Center at (877) 927-8387.

For more information about registering for the walk or the petition, visit http://www.asoldierssilentcry.com or call (970) 581-7905.

After drinking all that tea, GOP not so grand anymore

Wyoming GOP will be bringing some monstrous Tea Party bills to the 2012 Legislature.Stay tuned... 

Civility & poetry & Wyoming

Civility Matters!

So does poetry.

Naomi Shihab Nye is "surprised by how kind people are when reciting and listening to poetry." She specifically is referring to secondary students, such as the ones she taught today at Casper's Star Lane Academy. "During nearly 40 years of working with kids, sometimes in very rough situations, I've never seen kids bully each other over their words."

Naomi Nye was in Casper Thursday night during the last stop on her "Civility Matters: Potlucks and Poetry" tour sponsored by the Wyoming Humanities Council. "Civility Matters" is a program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its goal is to "creatively engages the public in considering the meaning of civility, both in the context of our national democratic commitment to freedom of expression and in the context of an increasingly global world."


The award-winning Palestinian-American poet started her tour in Jackson and then moved on to Riverton for a potluck at the Native American Center at CWC. At each stop, people are invited to bring picnic dinners and enjoy an evening with Nye, who describes herself as a "wandering poet." Nye, the daughter of a Palestinian father and American mother, has appeared on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion and several times with Bill Moyers on his PBS poetry specials. 

Writing of all types is just one of the creative disciplines used to nurture public dialogue. "Writing is a grass-roots effort -- it belongs to everyone," Nye said.

Throw some food into the mix -- that adds to the community atmosphere.

Nye liked how her Wyoming hosts made her feel so much at home by putting food and poetry together. That's what you'd see in the Middle East," she said. Inhibitions are eased and pretty soon people are talking to each other.

"Civility is a matter of interest in another person and another person's perspective," she said.

Thursday night's event with Nye marked the beginning of the Casper College Literary Conference, which continues through Saturday. FMI: http://www.caspercollege.edu/events/lit

Make all Americans pay their fair share

Today I stand with Pres. Obama

Pres. Obama draws the line against the Republican war on the middle class.

Laramie's Nancy Sindelar: Eat an apple for peace, ya'll

Nancy Sindelar, Veterans for Peace, Laramie

It may be a slight exaggeration to say that there would be no peace movement in Laramie without Nancy Sindelar.

A slight exaggeration.

Nancy, a military veteran, helped initiate Laramie's weekly downtown antiwar protests (still going strong) and is the point person for its Veterans for Peace chapter.

She has lots more in the works. The Peace House, for one.

The Peace House is a block from my place near downtown being set up for potlucks, house parties (films) and meetings. Space for a share garden. Great apple tree getting close to harvest.

I'll settle for an apple even though (like Duane) I usually eat a peach for peace.

And this is coming up:

Wednesday, September 21, on the International Peace Day, come see the film "The Day After Peace" at the Albany County Public Library in Laramie. At 7 p.m., Veterans for Peace Wyoming chapter 65, and the Wyoming Peace, Justice, and Earth Center, will be presenting the story of how one man managed to get the cooperation of all the factions in Afghanistan to stop fighting long enough to vaccinate 1.4 million children against polio.

Nancy has a fine calendar of events hat she distributes by e-mail. I regularly steal postings from it and you should too. To get on the list, drop me a line and I'll send it to her. To keep up with Nancy via Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/nancy.sindelar

Peace. And thank you for your service, Nancy.

Want to schmooze with real-live writers? Go no further than Casper & Cheyenne & Laramie

I'm a writer who, in my middle-class youth, never met a living breathing writer until I went off to college at University of South Carolina, met James Dickey at a campus gathering, and said, "Who are you?"

That was after his National Book Award and his stint as poet-in-residence at the U.S. Library of Congress but a few years before "Deliverance."

Pam Houston

Now I'm a writer who works in the arts. I learn something every time a writer speaks. I'm always amazed when people don't take advantage of meeting and hearing from real live writers. Great talents such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Pam Houston, David Madden, Margaret Coel, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Craig Johnson, Mark Spragg, etc.

Next weekend in Casper, you can schmooze with some of these cool writers for free and take some workshops with them for a nominal fee. Here are some details:

You're invited to a free reading by Wyoming Arts Council creative writing fellowship winners on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2-4 p.m., in the lobby of the Goodstein Foundation Library at Casper College. This is part of the three-day Casper College Literary Conference.

The event gets underway at 2 p.m. Saturday with a presentation by WAC fellowship judge Pam Houston, "A Reading and Conversation about Places and Moving Among Therm." Pam knows a lot about moving among places. Two days before she flies into Casper, she'll be returning from a trip to Hungary. After the conference, she goes off to Colorado and then California. Pam is author of two short-story collections, including "Cowboys are My Weakness." Her new novel, "Contents May Have Shifted," will be out in 2012. 

At 3 p.m., Pam will join me at the podium to introduce fellowship winners Sam Western, Sheridan; Kathy Bjornestad, Sundance; and Stefani Farris, Lander. They will be reading from their award-winning fiction submissions.

At 4 p.m. in the lobby, Kristen Elias Rowley of the University of Nebraska Press will talk about "Book Business: Publishing with a University Press."

At 5 p.m., there will be a free public reception in the library. Everyone is invited to stick around for food and beverages provided by Casper College President Dr. Walt Nolte.

At 9 p.m., the literary conference hosts its closing session -- a raucous open reading and poetry slam at Metro Coffee Company, 241 S. David in downtown Casper. Poet George Vlastos will serve as emcee. Bring your prose and poetry. Musicians are also invited to get up on stage.

There may be slots remaining in some of the workshops. For more info on workshops, contact Jill Hughes at 307-268-2383 orjhughes@caspercollege.edu. For general questions, contact Terry Rasmussen at trasmuss@caspercollege.edu or call 307-268-2480.

For full schedule, go to http://www.caspercollege.edu/events/lit

To RSVP, go to event Facebook page.

If you're in Cheyenne and can't get up to Casper, you will have three fine writers coming to town Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at Laramie County Community College. Margaret Coel, Lee Ann Roripaugh and Ben Mikaelsen will lead a free writing workshop on Friday at LCCC. They will lead a series of paid presentations on Saturday (lunch included). Book singing to follow.

LCCC's Literary Connection got its start a decade ago when faculty member Leif Swanson arranged an appearance by Robert Bly who, in Red-State Wyoming, had a few choice things to say in public about Dark Lord Dick Cheney, wars of convenience and reactionary dimwits in the Republican Party, among other things. Never shy, Robert Bly. He also led a writing workshop for a small group of 300 souls.

Ain't public funding of the arts a glorious thing?

Ed Roberson

Here are a few other upcoming Wyoming events that feature real live writers:

On September 19, at 5 p.m., the UW MFA program in creative writing in Laramie will host a reception welcoming poet Ed Roberson to campus, followed by a reading by Roberson at 5:30 p.m.  The reception and reading will be held at the UW Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book-signing. Tonight, Roberson is giving a reading in Jackson sponsored by the Teton County Public Library. In February, Roberson’s residency will be followed by that of nonfiction writer John D’Agata. D’Agata’s non-fiction book, “About a Mountain,” was one of the best books I’ve read in the past ten years. FMI: Visit the MFA website at www.uwyo.edu/creativewriting or contact Gwynn Lemler at cw@uwyo.edu or 766-6453.

The Laramie County Public Library Foundation’s annual Booklovers’ Bash will be host to mystery writer Craig Johnson. The Bash, to be held on Friday, October 28 at Little America and includes dinner and silent and live auctions. For a preview of Johnson’s books, please visit his web site at craigallenjohnson.com. Craig also will be featured at the Central Wyoming College Library Open House in Riverton on Nov. 2, 4 p.m.

I have enough experience as an arts administrator and arts presenter and writer to know that you can't make people attend arts events.

Craig Johnson

But there is one thing you can do. You can keep creating and arranging and planning. Doing is in the doing, ya'll. The audience does eventually arrive. When that prize-winning poet from Georgia walks in the door to talk about his craft, you might ask, "Who are you?"

He just might answer: "Sit yourself down. Open your mind. You might learn something tonight."

Read a few of Dickey’s best poems at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/james-l-dickey

Lest we forget about Big O's victories (and ours)

Wyoming Advisory Panel for Students with Disabilities plans "public meeting by phone" Friday

My two children were both served by Individualized Education Plans (I.E.P.) during their time in Laramie County School System No. 1. My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5 and my daughter struggled with mental health issues and learning disabilities.

I bring this up because the Wyoming Advisory Panel for Students with Disabilities, the group that advises the Wyoming Department of Education on services for youth with disabilities, is conducting a "public meeting by phone" Friday. One of the hard lessons learned by parents of special needs' students is that eternal vigilance is the price of a public school education. There are a whole set of federal regulations that assist students with disabilities. School administrators aren't always up to date on those rules and regs. Sometimes they know the rules but choose to ignore them. This would be a great time to point out that there are superb administrators and counselors in our school system -- I'm looking at you, Cheyenne Central High School. But many of our schools can do better.

My kids have left the K-12 system and are on their own (and doing very well, thank you). If you have a child whose needs are not getting met, get on the phone Friday and see what's happening:

The Wyoming Advisory Panel for Students with Disabilities will hold a public meeting by phone Friday to discuss proposed rules for student seclusion and restraint, among other issues.

The panel, which advises the Wyoming Department of Education about ways to promote services for children and youth with disabilities, will also talk about an upcoming federal report that examines the unmet needs of such students, said Barb Yates, the panel's administrative assistant.

As required under a new state law, the panel is asking for public comment on proposed rules for when and how students can be secluded or restrained while in school.

Yates said the panel may decide to offer its recommendations on the policy as well.

The meeting will be held from 8 a.m. until noon at the Wyoming Advisory Panel for Students with Disabilities' Riverton office. Members of the public may offer their opinions to the panel from 11:30 a.m. until noon by calling 877-278-8686; the passcode is 095102.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f12ec331-1f66-5eea-9777-9b3df0c04996.html#ixzz1XvjqWUg7

Celebrate "Read Any Damn Thing You Want To Read" Week Sept. 24-Oct. 1

Don't let the Know Nothings take away your reading choices.

Read any book you want all year 'round. But be especially forceful on your reading choices Sept. 24-Oct. 1.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association;American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by theCenter for the Book in the Library of Congress. In 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; and PEN American Center also signed on as sponsors.

For more information on getting involved with Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please see Calendar of Events, Ideas and Resources, and the new Banned Books Week site. You can also contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.