LAKEVIEW — Banned Books Week officially wrapped up on Saturday, but there's one more local event that allows advocates for free expression to celebrate books that have faced some form of censorship.
Kill Your Darlings Live Lit and thirdcoastreview.com (3CR) are presenting Censored! We Read Banned Books: An ACLU Benefit from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St. A minimum $10 donation at the door or made online is suggested for entry.
The event will raise money for the ACLU of Illinois, a non-profit organization with the mission of protecting constitutional rights through litigation, lobbying and education initiatives.
In two acts, local writers and educators will read from famously banned books, including "Lolita," "The Member of the Wedding," "Tropic of Cancer," "Lord of the Flies," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Censored music will also play during the event, and local booksellers and publishers 826CHI, Haymarket and Belt Magazine and Publishing will host tables in the lobby. There is a full service bar at the theater.
Scheduled readers include Northwestern University’s Bill Savage, Juan Martinez and Ignatius Valentine Aloysius; SAIC’s Ruth Margraff; UIC’s Mary Anne Mohanraj; former DePaul professor Ada Cheng; journalists Paul Dailing and Andrew Huff; ACLU of Illinois’ Director of Communications Ed Yohnka; as well as 3CR’s editor Nancy Bishop, literature editor Emma Terhaar and calendar editor Julian Ramirez, and the evening’s curator and emcee Karin McKie.
The first Monday in October was chosen to coincide with the new session of the Supreme Court, "the judicial line of defense for the American Constitution’s First Amendment," according to a press release.
