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Friend —
In 2015 Art Spiegelman and I traveled to China and Hong Kong on a PEN America delegation to investigate the climate for free expression and raise alarm bells over the shrinking space for press freedom in Hong Kong. We met with writers, artists and cartoonists who spoke about having to contort their work to satisfy government censors, or risk landing in jail or worse for the crime of writing and drawing.
But yesterday, right here in the United States, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Art's famous graphic novel, Maus, was removed from classrooms in McMinn County, Tennessee, because the school board was afraid that its profanity and raw depiction of the truth of the Holocaust might upset students.
This comes amidst a surge in book and curriculum bans in schools and statehouses all over the country, predominantly targeting works by LGBTQ+ authors and authors of color. Just this week, the school board in Wentzville, Missouri voted to remove Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye from school library shelves, along with George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
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