National Coalition Against Censorship Honors Judy Blume
By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 10/23/2009
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) this week celebrated 35 years of defending free speech with a gala ceremony honoring celebrated author Judy Blume.
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Judy Blume (left) with actress Rachel Dratch. |
Blume, who has been on NCAC’s board of directors since 2000, has actively fought against the censorship of her books since the 1980s. “The NCAC is just a phone call away,” and Blume advised young authors to reach out to the organization when facing book challenges. “There is no such thing as a non-controversial book, and we should not be frightened by those who seek to ban. NCAC changed my life,” says Blume.”
The celebrities in attendance were giddy to be rubbing elbows with their teen idol. The evening’s host, comedian Judy Gold, says she has adored Blume’s work since childhood. “Judy Blume is the mother I always wanted,” says Gold. “The books I read were all Judy Blume.They dealt with all the topics my mother decided we would never talk about.”
Those often taboo topics have included menstruation, masturbation, and wet dreams, among others. Blume’s frank discussion of such issues has consistently landed many of her books, such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, at the top of the American Library Association's censorship lists, making her one of the most censored authors in the United States.
Comedian Rachel Dratch, actress Martha Plimpton, authors Amy Sohn and Elna Baker, and noted First Amendment trial lawyer Martin Garbus also read from Blume’s works Then Again, Maybe I Won’t and Forever.
Sohn joked that she “must be the only sex-columnist who never read Forever,” adding that she has a cousin who’s a school librarian in New Paltz, NY. Although comedian and actor Whoopi Goldberg couldn’t attend, she paid a video tribute. “Judy Blume’s books have had an effect on millions of people over several generations and across different countries…we do need Judy, and we need her books, and we need every writer who attempts to write the truth.”
NCAC was created in 1974 as a result of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, Miller v. California, which allowed local “community standards” to guide obscenity prosecution and resulted in more than 250 bills attempting to curb sexual content in art, education, and literature.
