Reading Banned Books Together
Join us for an exciting event called Reading Banned Books Together! Whether you prefer attending in person or joining via the livestream, this event promises an engaging experience for all defenders of freedom of expression!
We will be joined by award-winning performance artists who will read excerpts from challenged or banned books and other forms of expression that have been censored. Guest readers include the Executive Director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a cultural icon in NYC, and the 2023 New York City Youth Poet Laureate to celebrate freedom of expression and the power of written and spoken word!
Let’s rebel against censorship and celebrate freedom of expression together!
Guest readers include:
Caridad De La Luz (LA BRUJA) won an Emmy in 2022 soon after becoming the Executive Director of the NUYORICAN POETS CAFE where she began her career in 1996. Winner of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and David Prize finalist, Caridad balances a career of activism, education, entertainment, and motherhood. She has been one of America’s leading spoken word poets for over 20 years and has received The Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Bronx Historical Society. She was honored as a Bronx Living Legend by The Bronx Music Heritage Center and was named “Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know”.
Salvadoran award-winning author, Michelle Recinos will join us live from El Salvador. Recinos’s collection of short stories was due to be featured at a book fair in neighboring Guatemala celebrating Salvadorian literature. However, her appearance was canceled after pressure from El Salvador’s embassy. Recinos’s book titled, Sustancia del higado [“Liver broth”] features a short story that portrays a fictitious geography in which a “national state of exception” has just been imposed.
C.W. Bee (stage name The Bee, @thebee.theartist) is a young artist born and raised in Harlem. A poet, performer, and tattoo designer, they create pieces exploring identity and celebrating the intersection of the queer, mix-race, and disabled communities, among communities, among others. They are a four -for-four time champion and now host of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe slam competitions, fifth-ranked at the 2023 Womxn Poet of the World Poetry Slam, a member of the 2023 Urban Word NYC Slam Team, a featured spoken word artist and poetry teacher throughout New York City and with Urban Word and Button Poetry, and a student at Columbia University.
Stephanie Pancheco is the 2023 New York City Youth Poet Laureate and the inaugural New York State Youth Poet Laureate. She was also a member of the New York City Youth Slam Team, with Urban Word NYC. Hailing from the Bronx, she has been a leading strategist and organizer with several activist organizations, including the Healing Centered Schools Task Force, working to mobilize youth across the city against educational injustice. She is the recipient of the 2021 Princeton Prize in Race Relations. Her advocacy and poetry have been highlighted by the New York Times, the Today Show, NPR, the Daily News, CBS, and other publications. She has spoken and performed in several spaces such as the Schomburg Center, the Apollo Theater, The Barclays Center, TeDXCUNY, and more.
This event is free and open to the public
RSVP is required both in person and to attend via the live stream
Time: 1:00-4:00 pm EDT
Free!
