The Cypress Park library will welcome more than 30 outspoken artists and authors on Tuesday, Sept. 11 to celebrate the freedom to read, as part of Banned Books Week.
The event, "An Evening of Education," is being held both to celebrate Banned Books Week and the release of the Chicano Studies anthology "Ban This!"
The book is the brainchild of the Florida-based writer and editor Santino Rivera. When Arizona began banning books on Chicano Studies last year, Rivera decided to call all the Chicano writers he knew to complete an anthology. The aptly titled "Ban This!" includes 39 contributors like Francisco X. Alarcon, Gustavo Arellano, Lalo Alcaraz, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rodolfo Acuna, Art Meza, Matt Sedillo, and Frank Mundo, along with others. Recently published by Broken Sword Publications, the blend of poetry, prose, short fiction and illustrations make for a lively cocktail of incendiary literature.
According to KCET, the event was coordinated by Cypress Park Library staffer Art Meza. Meza was also responsible for bringing noted comic-artist Lalo Alcaraz and author Gustavo Arellano in recent months.
Meza and Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch collaborated on a photo gallery "Strike a Reading Pose" earlier this year.
An evening of education will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the Cypress Park Library, located at 1150 Cypress Avenue.
