This University of Illinois System-hosted symposium will feature speakers and panel discussions on topics including book banning, censorship, and the importance of reading to foster public dialogue, inclusion and engaged citizenship.
Taking place Aug. 20-21 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “Free People Read Freely: Literacy, Inclusion, and Democracy” will open with a keynote conversation moderated by Urbana poet laureate and UIUC faculty member Ruby Mendenhall. Keynote participants are:
- Clint Smith, New York Times best-selling author and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and
- George M. Johnson, whose memoir about growing up black and queer has been widely banned.
The second day of the symposium will open with a keynote address by writer, activist and professor Tony Diaz. Diaz led the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle banned books back into Arizona in defiance of the state’s ban of Mexican American studies at that time.
View the full schedule and register for the free symposium at carli.illinois.edu/Free-People-Read-Freely.
