Reading to the beat of their own bongos

The book joint is fixing to be a happening gig, ya dig? A bunch of cool cats are going to make the scene in a flash and it’s all about opening up your noodle for some groovy wisdom.

I apologize unreservedly to all Beat poetry enthusiasts for that tacky take on borrowed lingo from the counterculture of yesteryear. That was totally off the cob. But it helps to illustrate the importance of Freedom to Read Week, starting tomorrow. You could easily have put the newspaper down or written a stern letter to the editor to rebuff my literary tomfoolery.

What I meant to say was that the St. Albert Public Library is set to host the Banned Books Beat Club next Friday.

Adult programming librarian Michelle Papineau-Couture explains that the event will serve two functions: first, to have a good time; and second, to show how important intellectual freedom is.

“Our writer in residence Margaret MacPherson was at the Strathcona County Library this time last year and they did a speakeasy, and they’re doing it again this year,” she began.

“We looked at what Margaret did and we really liked it. We were really inspired. We had read On the Road for our Offbeat Book Club. We thought, ‘We don’t want to copy but we do want to celebrate Freedom to Read so why don’t we make it like a Beat Club?’”

And that’s exactly what they’re going to do. The after-hours salon will be set up in the grand beat cafĂ© club style with round tables set with wine bottles with candles, low lights, espresso and jazz music to set the mood.

Readers will include Natasha Deen (the library’s first writer in residence), a member of the St. City Writers, and a couple of high school teachers who will each share a short reading from a banned or challenged work. Some members from Bellerose High’s Slam Poetry Club will be doing a group poem about censorship.

“We’re going to have a musician at the mid-point doing a Bob Dylan song, followed by an original song. We’re mixing it up.”

But it’s not just one of those things where people sit and listen. The entertainment is meant to spark up some discussions about the bigger issues of challenged, censored and banned literature.

“I think people assume, because we’re in Canada – a western country, that we don’t really have censorship issues with books, but books get challenged all the time,” she continued, noting that challenges can happen for any number of reasons such as if a person feels that a book doesn’t belong in a certain category of the library.

“Most times it’s dealt with in a very civilized way like a conversation.”

That conversation usually includes mention of the library’s Materials Selection Policy, and perhaps the Canadian Library Association’s stand on intellectual freedom.

“Usually that’s enough. What we want to do is just point that out but also point out that we are able to read or watch or listen to whatever we want for the most part. We do have that freedom and we can’t take it for granted.”

That being said, challenges here happen very seldom.

Papineau-Couture wants to keep things positive by making this event feel like a party.

“We’re treating it as a celebration of great works. Often those great works, when they first came out were extremely controversial. If they had been banned or censored we would never have access to them.”

That’s why the readings will come from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, and In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. All of those titles are available at the library.

She has even been choosing some of the library’s most controversial materials as her Staff Choice selections recently.

People can read more about the library’s Materials Selection Policy under the Publications and Policies section of its website (under About Us). There’s also more details on the Offbeat Book Club (under Readers’ Corner, or by visiting offbeatbookclub.wordpress.com).

Crazy.