FARMINGTON – A panel discussion, “Censorship in the Digital Age,” will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30 at the University of Maine at Farmington’s Lincoln Auditorium.
In 1953 author Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 shared with the world his chilling view of a futuristic society where firemen burned books and the attainment of knowledge was discouraged. A panel of local writers, librarians, booksellers and educators will discuss both traditional issues of censorship as well as new concerns faced by writers and readers alike in the age of Google, Amazon and Twitter.
Panelists include poet, publisher and political activist Henry Braun; MSAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark, political columnist Al Diamon, Farmington town librarian Melanie Taylor Coombs, UMF library director Frank Roberts, Wilton town librarian David Olson and local bookseller Kenny Brechner. Farmington attorney Woody Hanstein will serve as moderator.
Panelists will draw from their personal experiences which include a boycott of a bookstore to overturn a Salman Rushdie ban, a library’s decision not to carry certain books, and a school board’s handling of a controversial reading assignment. The panel will explore the type of censorship that is still permissible in this country, time-honored literature that now can be changed by phantom Internet editors, censorship on the Web, and much more.
The event is free and open to the public and is part of the National Endowment for the Arts “Big Read” program to highlight Banned Book Week. The program is sponsored by the Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance in a partnership with The Daily Bulldog in an ongoing series of community forums.
For more information call DailyBulldog.com at 778-6905 or email editor@dailybulldog.com.
