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PEN America Profile picture
PEN America
@PENamerica
We stand at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the U.S. and worldwide. Support at: https://t.co/oSIRtEfkS1
3 subscribers
Oct 29 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🧵Journalists: with the election just a week away, the best thing you can do to keep yourself safe from online attacks is to prepare ahead of time. If you only have two minutes to spare, watch this Tiktok about password hygiene and make a plan to secure your 10 most sensitive accounts. (2/5)
Mar 12 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
🧵A writer's published work should not be yanked from circulation because it sparks public outcry or sharp disagreement. At its best, literature is a bridge, connecting us across differences; writers help guide the rest of us across that bridge. latimes.com/world-nation/s… Individuals are free to respond, rebut or criticize as they choose. But to erase the work of a writer who sought to grapple with the complexities of the war in Gaza in her own life is to set a dangerous precedent at odds with the freedom to read and the values of free expression.
Sep 29, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
As of Sept 29, X will collect new user data including "employment and educational history, as well as biometric data. The company also plans to use that data in new ways, most importantly to train AI. Have this in mind before you hand over your data to X." mashable.com/article/x-twit… For X Premium users, the company will give an option to provide a government ID & a selfie image for verification purposes. The company may extract biometric data from both the government ID & the selfie image for matching purposes, the company told CNN.

cnn.com/2023/09/01/tec…
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Sep 21, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The freedom to read is under assault—particularly in public schools—curtailing students’ freedom to explore words, ideas, & books. In the 2022–23 school year, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of book bans in US public school classrooms & libraries.

➡️ pen.org/report/book-ba…
Image PEN America's new report highlights the disproportionate number of bans occurring in Florida — where over 40% of all book bans took place in the 2022-23 school year.

#BannedBooks #BannedInTheUSA Image
Aug 13, 2023 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
🧵PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out. pen.org/pen-america-sp… PEN America released Booklash: Literary Freedom, Online Outrage, and the Language of Harm—a report that warned against the cancellation of books due to online outrage and called for a broad recommitment to the freedom to write & the freedom to read. (2/x) https://t.co/3Jg7Bwe3MVpen.org/report/booklas…
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Aug 12, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
🧵Journalists rely on confidential sources to report on matters of vital public concern. Law enforcement's sweeping raid on The Marion County Record and confiscation of its equipment almost certainly violates federal law & puts the paper's ability to publish the news in jeopardy. Such egregious attempts to interfere with news reporting cannot go unchecked in a democracy. Law enforcement can, and should, be held accountable for any violations of The Record's legal rights. (2/2)
Jun 25, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
🧵PEN America, its president, @ayadakhtar, and past PEN America presidents today endorsed the #FreedomToRead statement, adopted 70 years ago by @ALALibrary and @AmericanPublish and reissued now as the country faces a crisis of book bans and censorship. https://t.co/nQ9ViWpGTipen.org/press-release/…
In addition to Akhtar, the statement was endorsed by all living past PEN America presidents Kwame Anthony Appiah, Louis Begley, Ron Chernow, Joel Conarroe, Jennifer Egan, Frances FitzGerald, Peter Godwin, Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, Michael Scammell, and Andrew Solomon. (2/x)
Jun 18, 2023 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
🧵How did PEN America defend and celebrate #FreeExpression this week?

On Wednesday, we urged school officials in Nixa, #Missouri, to retain Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus and two other books that were flagged by as "sexually explicit." pen.org/press-release/… We also sat down with Art Spiegelman, who reflected on the history of fascism and the idea that #Maus was being attacked for sexual content: "I was offended just like they were, but I was offended by describing a naked corpse as a nude woman." pen.org/art-spiegelman… (2/x)
Jun 14, 2023 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
Attacking books as “pornography” has become a common tactic for book banners from Ron DeSantis to #Moms4Liberty.

Now a new version of the famous Holocaust diary is being called ‘Anne Frank pornography’ and getting banned from schools, writes @AndrewLapin. jta.org/2023/06/12/cul… Published in 2017 with the endorsement of the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation, the illustrated Anne Frank's Diary was "a bid to preserve interest in the Holocaust by future generations," reported
@JewishJournal.

jewishjournal.com/culture/224140… (2/x) #History #BannedBooks Image
Jun 14, 2023 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
As more schools target ‘Maus,’ Art Spiegelman’s fears are deepening, reports @ThePlumLineGS

Read free: wapo.st/3qE61IJ #BannedBooks #Censorship 🧵 As they target 'pornography' or 'woke indoctrination,' "Right-wing culture warriors pushing restrictions on classroom instruction sometimes defend these measures by insisting... they avoid targeting historically or intellectually significant material," writes @ThePlumLineGS (2/x)
Jun 12, 2023 • 20 tweets • 9 min read
"WHAT'S AT STAKE when we talk about book bans is student learning and well-being," writes PEN America's @jonfreadom in @USATODAY. "Semantic gymnastics about what is or isn’t a ban is an effort to deny and distract from the problem." #BannedBooks #Reading usatoday.com/story/opinion/… "To avoid charges of #censorship, school administrators, government officials and groups like Moms for Liberty have taken to calling the results of their efforts 'quarantine' or 'curation' – anything but 'ban.'

This debate is not new." (2/x)
Jun 10, 2023 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
This week, PEN America’s @jeremycyoung joined @madintangibles on the @TrendingInEd podcast for a conversation about the unprecedented assaults on the New College of Florida and what we all can do about it. Listen to the full podcast here: trendingineducation.com/2023/06/defend…
Jun 9, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
PEN America: White House Announcement of Anti-Book Ban Coordinator Treats Crisis with Deserved Seriousness pen.org/press-release/… (2/x) In response to President Biden’s announcement that he will appoint an anti-book ban coordinator, PEN America’s Washington Managing Director Nadine Farid Johnson issued the following statement: “The growing movement to ban books—especially books focused on the experiences...
May 29, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
"The parent... (said) she 'is not for eliminating or censoring any books' while saying that Gorman’s book and several others*... shouldn’t be available to students at all. We’d bring up George Orwell... but then people might want to ban his work as well." bangordailynews.com/2023/05/26/opi… *The other books challenged along with The Hill We Climb by @TheAmandaGorman were:

“Countries in the News: Cuba” by Kieran Walsh
“Cuban Kids” by George Ancona
“Love to Langston” by @PoetTonyMedina
“The ABCs of Black History” by @OhReallyRio
May 26, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
"How do 11 people think they have the right to tell all students what they are allowed to read?" asks @JoyAnnReid.

#BannedBooks ICYMI: An analysis by The Washington Post found that "a majority of book challenges can be attributed to a very small number of people—11 to be exact."

These repeat challengers are often assisted by conservative book banning groups like Moms for Liberty. bookriot.com/washington-pos…
May 25, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Fighting the Book Bans: What Can We Do?

Read free: nytimes.com/2023/05/25/opi… "The deepest fear that book banners, homophobes and misogynists share is the terrifying possibility that reading and thinking might lead to questioning, or even challenging, long-held biases!" Nancy Kohl, in a letter to the New York Times.
May 25, 2023 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
DeSantis: “The whole book ban thing is a hoax.”

Reality: "DeSantis is vastly playing down the extent to which individual school districts & libraries... have removed books... Florida ranks 2nd, as the state with the most bans, according to PEN America." nytimes.com/2023/05/24/us/… Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says reports of book banning in Florida are a "hoax" and that only "pornographic and inappropriate" materials have been removed from Florida classrooms.

His claims are false. #BannedBooks #NotAHoax pen.org/florida-book-b…
May 24, 2023 • 11 tweets • 7 min read
🧵A K-8 school in Miami-Dade County recently removed @TheAmandaGorman's The Hill We Climb from elementary school library shelves. They say it’s not been banned, but… Image ... When you restrict or diminish access to a book, that’s a ban.

Moving the book to middle school shelves means elementary students can’t or won’t get it.

Their access has diminished. (2/x)
May 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech." @TheAmandaGorman “The government should not foster censorship by proxy, allowing one person to decide what ideas are out of bounds for all,” said PEN America's Nadine Farid Johnson in a statement regarding PEN America's recent lawsuit against book bans in Florida. newrepublic.com/post/172938/fl…
May 17, 2023 • 19 tweets • 13 min read
🧵PEN America Files Lawsuit against Florida School District over Unconstitutional Book Bans

Lawsuit joined by @penguinrandom, parents, and authors asserts that Escambia County School Board unlawfully removes or restricts access to books about race, racism, and LGBTQ identities. Image Our lawsuit alleges Escambia County has set out to exclude certain ideas from their school libraries by removing or restricting books, some of which have been on the shelves for years—even decades. Read more here: pen.org/pen-america-v-… Image
Mar 31, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
DeSantis called reports of book bans in #Florida “a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children.”

Teachers in fear of felony charges carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine would beg to differ. #FreeTheBooks #Education motherjones.com/politics/2023/… “Jean Faulk, a 65-year-old world history teacher… had carefully curated her classroom library over the years, and the task of combing through several hundred volumes seemed insurmountable. So later that day she stripped her shelves… only dictionaries and encyclopedias remained”