![Banned Book Awards champions children’s right to read](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/judy-blume-connected-digitally-at-the-ceremony-and-was-honored-with-a-lifetime-achievement-award.jpg?id=51524548&width=1200&height=1600)
Judy Blume connected digitally at the ceremony and was honored with a lifetime achievement award.
Alexander Wilburn
Judy Blume connected digitally at the ceremony and was honored with a lifetime achievement award.
There can be no question that democratic freedoms are currently being attacked and restricted in the United States, and somehow, children and the information they have access to have been the ongoing targets of attack.
As AP News reported in 2023: “More than 1,200 challenges were compiled in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the American Library Association began keeping data 20 years ago.” Conservative groups across the country have become well-organized machines harassing individual public and school librarians with threats of legal and violent action. The message from these groups, often supported by government leaders, is that children should not have access to books — books meant for young readers — that engage with topics of race, gender or sexual identity.
At Fisher Center at Bard College, the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Banned Book Awards was held Saturday night, Feb. 17, honoring a group of middle-grade and young adult authors with the first Awards for Bravery in Literature. These recipients, authors of some of the most challenged books in the country by counties, local governments and school boards, were acknowledged for their literary accomplishments and for championing stories full of independent thought, compassion and important social messages.
The award ceremony was hosted by Anna Eleanor Fierst, Roosevelt’s great-granddaughter and chair of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill. Fierst was joined on the stage by speakers Emily Drabinski, the president of the American Library Association; George McCalman, author of “Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and Unseen”; Matt Nosanchuck, the deputy assistant secretary for operations and outreach in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education; Lee Rowland, policy director at the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU); and Cameron Samuels, a student at Brandeis University and the executive director of SEAT, a youth civic organization. Last year, at age 18, Samuels testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee addressing book bans.
The recipients of the Eleanor Roosevelt Awards for Bravery in Literature were the following, in alphabetical order:
— Laurie Halse Anderson for “Shout: The True Story of a Survivor Who Refused to be Silenced” from Viking Books. Anderson is the author of the 1999 young adult novel “Speak,” adapted into a Sundance Festival film in 2004 starring Kristen Stewart. “Speak” tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped at a party the summer before her first year of high school and finds herself ostracized by her fellow students as she finds the strength to name her assailant. Twenty years later, Anderson wrote “Shout,” a companion memoir about her own adolescence. “Speak” was a National Book Award finalist, but in 2020, was also named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States.
— Mike Curato for “Flamer” from Macmillan. A semi-autobiographical graphic novel written and illustrated by Curato, set in 1995, it details a summer at a sleepaway Boy Scouts camp where a 14-year-old Filipino boy navigates changes in his male friend group — which include bullying and homophobic slurs — leaving him isolated, hating himself and contemplating suicide. PEN America reported that “Flamer” was banned in schools in at least six states during the 2021-22 school year, and in Utah’s Alpine School District, was filed as “pornographic.”
Macmillan
— Alex Gino for “Melissa” (previously published as “George”) from Scholastic. “Melissa” has appeared on the American Library Association’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books list every year since its publication. The children’s novel follows a 10-year-old transgender girl named Melissa, known as “George” to her family, whose one wish is to play the role of the talking spider Charlotte in her fourth-grade class’s production of “Charlotte’s Web.” The novel was at the center of the 2018-19 Oregon Battle of the Books controversy, a school reading challenge that two school districts refused to participate in because of the inclusion of “Melissa” on the reading list.
— George M. Johnson for “All Boys Aren’t Blue” from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A coming-of-age memoir, Johnson details their ’90s youth in Plainfield, New Jersey, with a focus on coming to terms with their Black and queer identity while also addressing Black, queer male readers today as they search for role models and representation in their own lives. In 2021, a Flagler County school board member and a retired teacher filed a criminal complaint against the Florida school’s superintendent for carrying the book.
Macmillan
— Maia Kobabe for “Gender Queer” from Simon and Schuster. The graphic novel written and illustrated by Kobabe has been in the eye of the book-banning storm since its publication, publicly challenged by conservative politicians like South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, among others, citing the novel to be “obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors.” In a town hall in 2023, Youngkin was called out on his views on the book and trans youth by a transmasculine Arlington high school student named Niko. “Look at me,” Niko said to Youngkin. “I am a transgender man. Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?”
Simon and Schuster
— Jelani Memory for “A Kids Book About Racism” from Penguin Random House. The young reader’s book for ages 3-6 was initially written for Memory’s own children — his four white step-children and two Black biological children — before he submitted the book for publication. The introduction tells children, “This is a book about racism. For reals! And yes, it really is for kids. It’s a good book to read with a grownup. Because you’ll have lots to talk about afterward.”
The ceremony’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by NYCLU’s Lee Rowland to the incomparable author of beloved young adult books, Judy Blume, who joined the audience digitally from her home in Key West, Florida.
Since the publication of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” in 1970, the name Judy Blume has been synonymous with the inner heart of girlhood. The author of classics like “Blubber,” “Tiger Eyes,” and “Forever...,” Blume has not only captured the complexity of puberty as childhood innocence slips away and the shadow of adulthood looms, but taken the emotions and plights of young girls seriously. Tackling stories centering on faith, death, virginity and love, Blume’s novels continue to be a lifeline to readers grappling with understanding a world that often deliberately hides uncomfortable truths, even when it comes to a girl’s own body and mind.
“As someone who argued with [former White House communications director] Pat Buchanan over masturbation, I’m sorry to say I’ve heard a lot [when it comes to challenging books],” Blume said at the ceremony. “It is different today. It is scarier because it is coming from the government more and more, and from state legislatures. It is very political now. We just have to keep going. We just have to keep working together.”
Her advice to her fellow authors, as well as to young aspiring novelists, was clear: “You’ve got to knock the critic off one shoulder, and you’ve got to knock the censor off the other shoulder. When you’re locked up in your little room writing, you cannot think of what will happen. You just have to go for it.”
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.