Panic attacks. Debilitating depression. Social isolation. Insomnia, weight gain, hair loss. These are some of the symptoms that 14 public school teachers describe experiencing in Trouble in Censorville, a collection of oral histories that demonstrates the human cost of the campaign against education undertaken by extremists. In a new blog post, Julia Goldberg speaks with Trouble in Censorville’s co-editor Rebekah Modrak about the origins of the book and the testimonies that lie within.
PEN America convened its Higher Education in Democracy Summit 2024 in DC this week, bringing together higher education and civil society organizations to focus on practical, community-level interventions to combat educational gag orders. Freedom to Learn Program Director Jeremy C. Young said he was encouraged by growing resistance to the censorial laws, and said that by working together, “we can stitch together a coalition that will not only prevail in the current emergency, but also demonstrate such strength and such unity of purpose from the higher education sector that it can deter future attacks on the freedom to learn.”
Risk Assessment and Physical Safety: What Every Journalist Should Know
Recent physical attacks on student reporters covering campus protests highlighted an uncomfortable truth: Journalist safety is declining in the United States. As part of the U.S. Election Safety Summer series with PEN America, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Women’s Media Foundation, Jeje Mohamed and the IWMF’s Nadine Hoffman and Jen Byers explained how journalists can stay safe by preparing for protests, police actions, and other potential dangers.
At the 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, PEN America sponsored “Based on a True Story” with PEN International, the Permanent Mission of Poland to the UN in Geneva, and the Permanent Mission of Estonia to the UN in Geneva. At the event, PEN Eurasia Director Polina Sadovskaya spoke alongside authors and human rights defenders about the necessity of defending writers at risk across the globe.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
This week’s Member Spotlight features Girls Like Her by PEN America Member Melanie Sumrow. A wealthy businessman is dead, and fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe is in a Dallas jail awaiting trial for his murder. Ruby has no one she can count on—no one, except her state-appointed caseworker, a woman named Cadence Ware. Told through a collection of letters, meeting notes, news articles, court transcripts, and more, Girls Like Her is a riveting and unflinching and boldly original tale of the truths so often lost in the American justice system, and one girl's fight to be heard.
SESSION 6: PROTECTING MENTAL HEALTH IN THE FACE OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE ATTACKS
July 30, 2024 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST
In an election year where journalists are facing intense pressure, how do we find ways to sustain ourselves from collective burnout? IWMF Next Generation Safety Trainer Rosem Morton will discuss how trauma affects journalists in this webinar on navigating mental health and self-care. The IWMF will also present resources available for journalists, including A Mental Health Guide for Journalists Facing Online Violence released in 2022. This resource was created with the needs of journalists in mind by mental health professionals specialized in working in trauma and the media.
PEN America welcomed a new Emerging Voices Workshop cohort in Los Angeles for craft workshops to develop a manuscript-in-progress. This year’s cohort included Martin Aguilera, Imani Cezanne, Joyce Chu, .CHISARAOKWU., Ngozi Ekeledo, Elaina Erola, Marissa Evans, Kent Faulcon, Marilyn Hope, Rhys Langston Podell, Ziad Reslan, Atia Sattar, Phylise Smith, Kanha Tith, and Nick Thorsen.
Poignant and deeply moving, Dalal Mawad’s book All She Lost is a collective memoir that captures the first-hand experiences of women who survived the devastating Beirut port explosion on August 4th, 2020. In conversation with PEN America Freedom to Write Center Manager Asma Laouira, Mawad shares insights into her writing process and provides an intimate glimpse into the deep and painful conversations with the women featured in the book.
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel spoke with David Shorr of the Battles We Pick podcast about schools, libraries, and efforts to ban books as a key battlefront in the struggle to preserve freedom. (Battles We Pick)
NPR cites PEN America’s research on book bans in an article about a San Francisco bookstore that’s sending queer history and romance books to groups in states where bans prevail. (NPR)
”DeSantis is taking his war on culture to a new level,” said Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America’s Florida office said of DeSantis' budget buts. “This decision will not only devastate the arts but add to his legacy of censorship and disregard for art, literature, and knowledge.” (AP News)
Rex Ogleand Bre Indigo cited PEN America's book ban research in a comic art article, “Our Book was Banned for Being Gay.” (Substack)
PEN America joined an amicus brief challenging the law that would ban TikTok in January 2025. “This act is exactly the kind of suppression of thought and ideas across borders that our organization was created to combat,” said Eileen Hershenov, deputy chief executive officer and counsel. (PEN.org)
The Code Switch podcast debuted a monthly series that delves deep into book bans and those fighting back against them. Its first episode featured Mike Curato, the author of the commonly-banned book Flamer. (NPR)
A federal judge ordered the rapper BG must obtain the government’s approval prior to the release of new music. (The Guardian)
A flood of federal lawsuits recently filed by right-leaning public interest groups intends to dismantle DEI programs. (The Washington Post)
A Nashville judge ruled against the release of works written by the assailant who killed six people at a Christian school last year. (The New York Times)
“Individual writers, artists, and other cultural figures can help hold governments, individuals, and institutions to account in a way that few others can.”
-PEN America Eurasia Director Polina Sadovskaya
TRENDING @ PENAMERICA
Melissa Grandi Statz, a fourth grade teacher in Wisconsin, taught her students about racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. She was threatened and harassed online, facing accusations that she was “a terrorist” and “mentally abusing children.” Her testimony is among those included in the new book Trouble in Censorville.
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