Pushing Back Against Book Censorship

The banning of literature by civic and religious groups and government officials can have unintended consequences like arousing the public's interest in the banned books and potentially driving up their sales, thereby undermining the ban.

But despite that risk, there are still individuals and groups willing to remove books from classrooms and library shelves in an effort to control what others can read.

To push back against book censorship, the Columbia University Libraries, in conjunction with the New York Public Library, is conducting the 12th annual Morningside Lights The Open Book procession in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan. The participants will carry 50 plus handmade lanterns honoring various "Great Books," including, no doubt, books that have been banned or challenged as being inappropriate like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

The event, scheduled for Saturday, September 30, at 8 pm, is "a celebration of the free exchange of ideas," declares a flyer, "and an homage to the libraries that preserve access to knowledge and affirm our freedom to read."

The procession route begins inside Morningside Park at 116th Street and Morningside Avenue. The participants will proceed to the outside of the park, heading north and then west until it reaches its final destination, the campus of nearby Columbia University, probably gathering at the steps of Low Library.

Reminder: Banned Books Week is October 1-7, 2023.

Remake "The Cotton Club" Movie

Prior to seeing Francis Ford Coppola's film, The Cotton Club in 1984, I had interviewed several people who had either worked at the nightclub or knew someone who did. The interviews were for a syndicated article I was writing about the upcoming movie.

Like the film critic Rex Reed, in his Guide to Movies on TV & Video, 1992-1993 Edition (Warner Books, 1992), I had heard a lot about this "Harlem bastion of glamour, sequins, and jazz that characterized the Roaring Twenties in New York night life."

So when I went to see the film I was full of excitement and high expectations. For the first time I would be seeing the fabled night spot on the big screen, and see an exploration of the lives and working conditions of the black performers who worked there in a Jim Crow environment, in, of all places, Harlem.

And, like Reed, I was disappointed. "[W]here," he asked, "is the Cotton Club? Somewhere on the cutting-room floor."

The movie was more focused on the white gangsters who owned the place than it was on the black performers who were its backbone. This was a missed opportunity to explore the racial and socio-economic aspects of the period. Instead of watching this movie, "You [will] learn more about the Cotton Club," wrote Reed, "and the people who made it famous just by listening to old records by Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and Ethel Waters." Amen.

In the hands of Spike Lee, Kasi Lemmons, Barry Jenkins, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, or another capable black director the movie would have been more riveting, more incisive, and more thoughtful. It certainly would have been more black-centered.

If there is one movie that deserves a remake, The Cotton Club is it.

Note: I wrote a similar blog post in February 2015.

The 1984 article I wrote was published in this blog as "Exotic Negroes at the Cotton Club " on February 12, 2013.

A "Conversation" With The Body's Internal Organs

During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, I thought about writing an article that would be an "interview" with the virus. But I abandoned the idea because I felt with all the hysteria going on at the time, people would think I was making light of a serious health issue.

Eric Spitznagel, a writer and AARP newsletter editor, proves that such a health-related article can be done, using a light touch. His article, "The Inside Story of Your  Body...The Major Players Keeping You Alive Have Their Say" (AARP The Magazine, August/September 2023), is informative, humorous, and entertaining. And it does all three without being frivolous. For example, when Spitznagel asks the liver about liver spots, the organ responds, "Nah, that's a myth. Those spots are actually just skin blemishes caused by sun damage. Nothing to do with me!"

In a "conversation" with such organs as the stomach, the kidneys, the intestines, and the liver, we learn how each organ functions and what can be done to maintain their health, or as Spitznagel puts it, "extend their shelf life."

Each "conversation" with an internal organ has a humorous title and illustration. Three examples: the section about the kidneys and bladder is titled "This Way Out," the section regarding the intestines  is called "The Evacuation Team,"  and the stomach section is called "The Blender in Your Belly."

The article is more fun to read than "I am Joe's Kidney" in Reader's Digest. And the information provided has more staying power in the mind because of how it's presented to the reader.

I hope the magazine publishes more health articles like it.