Plus, teacher fired over "Rainbowland" song for first-graders 🌈

View this email in your browser ([link removed])
[link removed]
Jul 26, 2023


** Fired over rainbows, she's fighting back
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Melissa Tempel was fired this month for setting off a social media firestorm about her school administration’s rejection of Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s “Rainbowland” for the first-grade spring concert. Now she’s filing a lawsuit against the district for violating her First Amendment rights. “We couldn’t have stickers on our water bottles or our computers that said anything that could be controversial,” she told PEN America in an exclusive interview. “The way that’s interpreted is very loose.”

Read the interview >> ([link removed])
PEN DEFENDS
Parents Defend Books in Florida, Join Our Lawsuit
[link removed]

Carin Smith, who has two teenage daughters in high school, along with four other parents joined our lawsuit challenging the removals and restrictions of books from school libraries in Escambia County. “We should not shy away from the real, raw struggles this country has faced,” said Smith.

Read more >> ([link removed] )
Learn more about the lawsuit >> ([link removed])
Don’t Let Conservatives Rewrite History

PEN America's Kate Ruane called out the attempt by Republican attorneys general to remove Pride Month merchandise from Target as unconstitutional. “Perhaps the attorneys general don’t want corporations to have First Amendment rights when they are expressing disfavored messages, but the Supreme Court has held otherwise,” she writes in The Hill.

Read the article >> ([link removed])
PEN UNITES


[link removed]
[VIRTUAL] WOMEN IN TRANSLATION READING SERIES 2023
Thursday, August 3, 2023 | 1:00-3:00 PM ET
Thursday, August 17, 2023 | 8:00-10:00 PM ET
Thursday, August 31, 2023 | 1:00-3:00 PM ET
Online Events

This August we once again celebrate Women in Translation (#WiT) Month! Started in 2014 to raise awareness of translated literature by women, queer, and nonbinary authors, and promote gender and cultural diversity in literary publishing, this year, the free, virtual reading will be an international celebration!
Learn More ([link removed])
[VIRTUAL] BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TO STOP ONLINE HARASSMENT: HOW TO BE AN ALLY WHEN YOU WITNESS ABUSE ONLINE
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
Online Event

In this free, one-hour, interactive training, we’ll give you the tools you need to intervene safely and effectively in online abuse using Right To Be’s 5Ds of bystander intervention.
Register ([link removed])
PEN READS
Manuscripts Don’t Burn: A Timeline of Literary Censorship

[link removed]

As we face the worst spate of book bans since the Red Scare of the 1950s, PEN America has compiled a timeline of the most notorious cases of censorship, and how we’ve fought to keep books available for readers. From the selective banning of Shakespeare’s Richard II to the brutal attack less than a year ago of Salman Rushdie, this timeline takes you through the global fight against censorship over 400+ years.

Read the timeline >> ([link removed])
Take action against book bans >> ([link removed])
The PEN Ten: On Family Narratives through Multiple Voices
[link removed]

In his debut novel, Tropicalía, Harold Rogers unravels family secrets with the backdrop of Copacabana beach, telling the story from multiple points of view to uncover generations-old fault lines and new ways of relating. In this PEN Ten, Rogers discusses moving between different voices, cultures, and art forms, and how this shaped his vital and vivid literary debut.

Read the interview >> ([link removed])
Read more PEN Ten interviews >> ([link removed])
Spotlight on PEN Members

[link removed]

PEN America Member Larissa Kyzer recently translated The Fires by Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir. Volcanologist Anna Arnardóttir has spent her entire life studying the volcanic powers under the earth’s crust, but even she cannot fathom the catastrophe at hand as the volcanoes stir. Caught between the safety of a nation and her feelings for her children, her lover, and her past, Anna embarks on a dangerous journey to save the lives of the people she loves―and her soul.

Check out The Fires >> ([link removed])
View 2023 publications by PEN America members >> ([link removed])

PEN SPEAKS
* PEN America’s Emergency Congress of Writers held in defense of Ukrainian writers was highlighted in a story about writers taking a political stand. (Time ([link removed]) )

* Book columnist Ron Charles dives into Suzanne Nossel’s claim that free speech “is at grave risk of losing its moorings within our society.” (Don’t miss the photo of Charles, a PEN America member, wearing our swag.) (The Washington Post ([link removed]) )

* Using PEN America's book banning data and GPS tracking, an initiative providing free access to online copies of removed or restricted books in your area is now live. (School Library Journal ([link removed]) )

* The University of Tulsa’s Switchyard Festival proceeds in the face of censorship as PEN America finds Oklahoma fifth in the nation for book bans. (Chronicle of Higher Education ([link removed]) )

WHAT WE'RE READING
* Florida approves Black history standards saying students should learn that enslaved people “developed skills” that “could be applied for their personal benefit.” (CBS ([link removed]) )

* North Carolina's new abortion law is a weapon against free speech—restricting what people can say online about abortion as well as criminalizing them at 12 weeks. (Wired ([link removed]) )

* Booksellers sue over Texas law requiring rating of books for appropriateness. (Texas Tribune ([link removed]) )

* Human Rights Watch’s Sophie Richardson was disinvited from a congressional hearing about China’s threats to free speech for calling out President Trump’s anti-Chinese racism. (The Hill ([link removed]) )

* A Smithsonian literary festival canceled programs at the last minute over “potentially sensitive issues.” The topics in question? A book bans panels, and two events featuring queer, trans, and nonbinary writers. (The Washington Post ([link removed]) )

* Two San Diego residents checked out pride books in protest. It backfired. (The New York Times ([link removed]) )


** “I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with any of the things that I’ve said, or any of the things that I do in my classroom. So I’m going to fight it as much as I can.”
------------------------------------------------------------


** - Melissa Tempel, Wisconsin teacher fired over rainbows
------------------------------------------------------------
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA

[link removed]

Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read project speaks out against new rules for teaching Black history adopted by the Florida Board of Education. Students will be taught that Black people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit” while enslaved.
Watch the video >> ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
PEN America- New York:
588 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
PEN America- Washington, DC:
1100 13th Street, NW, Washington, DC xxxxxx
PEN America- Los Angeles:
1370 N. Saint Andrews Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences ([link removed]) or unsubscribe from this list ([link removed]) .

============================================================