3CR and KYD Present ACLU Benefit CENSORED!

ThirdCoastReview.com (3CR) and Kill Your Darlings (KYD) Live Lit present CENSORED! We Read Banned Books: An ACLU Benefit to raise money for ACLU Illinois and to conclude the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom's Banned Books Week, an annual celebration to support "the freedom to seek and express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular" (www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks). In two acts, prominent local authors will read from famously banned books. Censored music will also be featured, and local booksellers, including 826CHI, Haymarket, Belt Magazine and Publishing, will host tables in the lobby. The Public House Theatre has generously donated the venue space.

Monday, October 2, 2017, 7-9 p.m. The first Monday in October was chosen to coincide with the new session of the Supreme Court, the judicial line of defense for the American Constitution's First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60613; full service bar

Free Clark Street parking (no Cubs game); CTA busses; Sheridan Red Line

TICKETS: Pay-what-you-can at the door; $10 minimum suggested

Pre-sale at 773-230-4770; http://thepubtheatre.com - net proceeds benefit ACLU IL

Patrons can pre-purchase event tickets and/or just make a donation in these amounts: $10; $35; or $50

Scheduled readers include Northwestern University's Bill Savage, Juan Martinez and

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius; SAIC's Ruth Margraff; UIC's Mary Anne Mohanraj; former DePaul professor Ada Cheng; journalists Paul Dailing and Andrew Huff, whose Gapers Block site was the precursor to 3CR; ACLU of Illinois' Director of Communications Ed Yohnka; as well as 3CR's Editor Nancy Bishop, Literature Editor Emma Terhaar and Calendar Editor Julian Ramirez, and the evening's curator and emcee Karin McKie. Aloysius (on electric guitar) and Margraff (on accordion) will provide interstitial music.

Slated selections include Lolita, The Member of the Wedding, Persepolis, Tropic of Cancer, Lord of the Flies, Huck Finn andTo Kill a Mockingbird.

BIOS: Ignatius Valentine Aloysius teaches writing at Northwestern University and in the graduate Writing Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, while pursuing a binary life as designer, songwriter, and lead guitarist for Reverend Ruin, a hard rock/metal band.

Ada Cheng is a professor-turned-storyteller and performing artist.

Paul Dailing of 1,001 Chicago Afternoons is a journalist and creator of the Chicago Corruption Walking Tour.

Andrew Huff is the former editor and publisher of Gapers Block, and is the host of live lit series Tuesday Funk and 20x2 Chicago.

Ruth Margraff is a New Dramatist, a Chicago Dramatist and a School of the Art Institute of Chicago writing professor, who has published Red Frogs & other plays, Previously Blue/Dah Teatar Sourcebook, SEVEN, Deadly She-Wolf..., Cafe Antarsia, Night Vision, Elektra Fugues and other writings (RuthMargraff.com).

Juan Martinez, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, is the author of Best Worst American.

Mary Anne Mohanraj wrote Bodies in Motion, The Stars Change, and eleven other titles, and she's an English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Card-carrying ACLU member Bill Savage teaches American literature at Northwestern, and it all begins with a banned book, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Since 1999, Edwin C. Yohnka has been the Director of Communications and Public Policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Bishop, a 50-plus year ACLU member, said, "Like the ALA's Banned Books initiative, Third Coast Review is dedicated to the infinite variety of literary arts, performance and 'culture, curated.' 3CR and KYD are proud to benefit the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been on the front lines on the fight for freedoms under the Bill of Rights since 1920, and the Illinois chapter, one of its largest affiliates."

To post a comment, you must register and login.