Youth Voices Uncensored – March 27th
Join us at the New York Film Academy for our second Youth Voices Uncensored event on March 27th from 1-4pm for an afternoon of youth films, fun prizes, and great performances! Meet the winners of the...
View ArticleJoin us on Saturday to view the winning YFEN films!
On March 27 from 1-4 at the New York Film Academy, NCAC partners with Kahlil Almustafa, Emily Kunstler, Reel Works, and Global Action Project for an afternoon of making connections and exploring the...
View ArticleTemecula’s cultural life remains in the hands of city official’s subjective...
Temecula city management, which was responsible for removing a nude artwork from an exhibition in January, has decided not to create a written policy for the selection of artworks in city-owned...
View ArticleLGBTQ-themed Book Removed from NJ High School Library
The Rancocas Valley School Board in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, chose to remove one of the three challenged books at its meeting on May 4. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and two...
View ArticleTampon photo incites controversy at the Fashion Institute
“FIT endorses the right of artists to freely express their views through their work” reads a sign at the beginning of a student photography show on display in one of the institute’s lobbies. The sign...
View ArticleIndiana school board to review Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”
As we reported in our latest edition of Censorship News, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was recently removed from an Indiana high school’s AP English class on April 28 after a...
View ArticleA Conversation with Edward Albee, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally and...
The Free Speech Leadership Council gathered on June 23, 2010 for “Playwrights on Censorship: A Conversation with Edward Albee, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, and Adam Rapp.” It was perhaps the...
View ArticleA Virtual Demonstration Against Censorship
A Second Life user films a demonstration opposing the virtual world’s ban of Rose Borchovski’s The Kiss, which was intended to be shown at SL’s 7th birthday celebration. For more about the incident,...
View ArticleAnnouncing the 2010 Youth Film Contest!
“I’m all for free speech, BUT…” We all believe in free speech, but does that mean anything goes? What about the speech that offends us, makes us cringe, and provokes our anger (and desire to censor)?...
View ArticleMermaid Sculpture Covered with Bikini Top in UK
In the latest case of a nude sculpture causing a stir… Managers at Chessingtons Sea Life centre have covered up a topless mermaid sculpture. Justine Locker, Chessingtons Zoo Experience Manager, said:...
View ArticleBook retained in Oklahoma because “we have to”
The word “fuck” has caused quite a stir in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Its appearance – 45 times, according to parent and avid swear-word-counter, Kelli Smith – in young adult novel Shooting Star by...
View ArticlePEN American Center issues statement in support of Park51 Community Center
PEN American Center, a member of NCAC’s coalition, released a statement in support of the proposed Park51 Community Center project, calling First Amendment freedoms “the birthright of all and our best...
View ArticleThe Artist Received an Apology
The Executive Director of the Springfield Business Improvement District (SBID) in Massachusetts has issued a formal apology for painting over the underside of a resident artists’ artwork. Robert Markey...
View ArticleNCAC Protests Cancellation of Ellen Hopkins Appearance at Teen Lit Fest in Texas
An invitation to young adult novelist Ellen Hopkins to speak about her experiences as a writer was rescinded by the Superintendent of the Humble (Texas) Independent School District after some parents...
View ArticleSherman Alexie Novel Officially Banned from Missouri School
A disappointing ruling came out last night regarding Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in Stockton, Missouri. The Stockton School Board voted 7-0 holding firm in its...
View ArticleIs “Controversy” a Dirty Word for Arts Institutions?
Last Wednesday NCAC and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School were joined by Bill Ivey, Beka Economopoulos, Magdalena Sawon, Nato Thompson, Martha Wilson, and moderator Laura...
View ArticleDecency, Respect and Community Standards: What Offends Us Now?
TONIGHT, NCAC and The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School have invited several prominent visual artists to participate in a discussion about visual expression that provokes...
View ArticleBook censorship round-up for this week
Suzanne Collins’s young adult novel The Hunger Games is challenged in New Hampshire by a parent whose 11-year old said the book gave her nightmares. The parent has yet to file a formal complaint or...
View Article20 Banned Album Covers
On occasion of the controversy over the sexually suggestive cover of Kanye West’s upcoming album “My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy,” Billboard has created a fun slideshow of 20 banned album covers....
View ArticleCensorship News: The Video Game Issue
NCAC devotes the latest issue of Censorship News to video games and the latest in a series of efforts to “protect” minors by restricting their freedom of speech. We discuss the video game case heard in...
View ArticlePrior review, psychedelics, and high school newspapers
Promoting drug use in a high school newspaper is undeniably inappropriate, but is there ever room for critical discussion about drugs? How about reporting on substantial medical research, which claims...
View Article“Sex-funded porn”: University of Montana Kaimin’s sex column
A sex column in the University of Montana Kaimin, its student-run newspaper, is the brunt of attacks by a couple professors on campus, one of whom has demanded its cessation. Bess Davis’ “Bess Sex...
View ArticleMore challenged books: couple petitions West Bend, WI, public library
In another case of challenged books from public libraries, a Wisconsin couple has petitioned for the reclassifying of several Young Adult books to Adult. Ginny Maziarka and her husband feel that books...
View ArticleContentious Quilts, not for cuddling?
The quilts that grace the pages of Quilter’s Home’s March/April edition are probably not what your grandmother would have made. Their contemporary subject-matter and the direct approach of the quilting...
View ArticleNCAC staff and readers testify for Banned Books Week
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Thanks to everyone who participated on twitter, facebook, and this blog with...
View ArticleCelebrating 35 years of defending free speech
It's our 35th Anniversary! The typical gift for 35 years of marriage is jade or coral - well, we won't hand out earrings or take you deep sea diving, but we DO have an exciting evening planned to...
View ArticleCelebrate 35 years with NCAC at City Winery, tonight!
Today, Monday, October 19th the National Coalition Against Censorship is celebrating its 35th Anniversary! Since 1974, NCAC has fought hundreds of attempts to regulate speech including criticizing the...
View ArticleYFEN film contest deadline today!
Today is the deadline for our contest Free Speech in Schools: Does it Exist? Students 19 and younger are encouraged to film their response in 4min or less for the chance to win up to $1000 and a...
View ArticleAnnouncing the 2009 YFEN film contest semi-finalists!
This year we received triple the amount of submissions than usual, and were very impressed! We usually choose 10 semi-finalists, but this time we simply had to make room for 13. We congratulate the...
View ArticleSchool fights back: Parents’ lose suit opposing Rent & Laramie Project.
Great week for high school theatre! RENT and the Laramie project are two of the most challenged plays in high schools around the country, but both shows will go on thanks to the Green Valley High...
View ArticleNCAC Celebrates 35 years!
On October 19 we celebrated our 35th Anniversary with a Night of Comedy with Judy Blume & Friends at City Winery. And by friends, we mean the following fearless writers, artists, actors,...
View ArticleA little reminiscing…
Happy New Year, everyone! It seems 2009 was a tough year for sexting, Amazon, and West Bend, WI – but great for Blogging Censorship and infographics! To reminisce a little on NCAC's first full year of...
View ArticleAnnoucing the 2009 YFEN Film Contest Winners!
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the famous Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines when the court ruled in favor of students who had been suspended for protesting the Vietnam War. The Tinker...
View ArticleBad times for t-shirts, Yale
T-shirts printed by the Freshman Class Council for football games against Harvard have traditionally featured taunts and put downs of the rival institution, and vice-versa, but this year the featured...
View ArticleAvatar, Smoking and Free Speech
Avatar has incited controversy over Sigourney Weaver's character's smoking in the film, even though the character is decidedly not, as director James Cameron describes, "an aspirational role model" for...
View ArticleNot even dictionaries are safe for children?
School officials at Menifee Union School District temporarily removed copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition for containing graphic terms like “oral sex" after a parent...
View ArticleWashington School Censors Fairy Tales
Robert Frost Elementary in Washington State canceled the touring theatre-troupe Studio East's production of the Emperor's New Clothes and demanded several edits to Snow White and the Black Forest due...
View ArticleComment filters for online class disrupts education in Kentucky
A Jefferson County Public School student was banned from mentioning the name of his website in a Search Engine Optimization class offered through the school's online continuing education program. His...
View ArticleParents in Florida Object to Judy Blume’s “Forever”
NCAC, with a little help from our friends, sent a letter urging Sugarloaf School in Summerland Key, FL, to retain Judy Blume's Forever in the school library after the parents of one student objected to...
View ArticleBikini apps for iPhone are “overtly sexual”
We can now add swimwear catalogs to the list of controversial iPhone apps, which already includes a Kama Sutra ebook, NIN, and the dictionary. In an effort to keep out anything "overtly sexual" from...
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