HOUSTON, TEXAS - Local literary nonprofit Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say is organizing The Librotraficantes Banned Book Caravan from Houston, Texas to Tucson, Arizona leaving Houston on Monday, March 12 and culminating in Tucson, Arizona Saturday, March 17.
The caravan will be filled with authors and activists who will be taking banned books back into Arizona, to give to students. The bus will include banned authors, new authors, as well as concerned advocates of First Amendment rights of Equal Protection and Freedom of Speech.
The Caravan will be making stops in Texas, New Mexico, and, of course, Arizona. Banned writers have embraced the caravan and will participate along the route, including Mac Arthur Genius recipient Sandra Cisneros, who kicked off our fundraising efforts by making a generous donation; Guggenheim Fellow Dagoberto Gilb, whose work recently appeared in the New Yorker and Harpers; and best selling author Luis Alberto Urrea, who was the first to enthusiastically support the project through Twitter.
The caravan is intended to:
- Raise awareness of the suspension of the Mexican-American Studies Program and the removal of banned books.
- Promotion of banned authors and their contributions to American Literature, Non-Fiction and Poetry.
- Celebrate diversity: Children of the American Dream must unite to preserve the civil rights of all Americans.
Founded in 1998, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say has gone from the party hall of Chapultepec Restaurant to Exhibit Hall F of the George R. Brown Convention Center. Today, the entire city is their forum. When they began, organizers were told that there was not an audience for Latino literature. Today we are all thrilled to say that this is the largest book event in Houston.
WEBSITES: www.Librotraficante.com and www.NuestraPalabra.org
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