I've known about the Seattle Women's Chorus since I moved here more than 20 years ago, but had never been to one of their concerts. Until two days ago.
SWC was giving a concert titled "Banned and Beloved", comprised of some existing songs and some songs which had been commissioned especially for this concert. All of the songs were based on or tributes to or referenced books which have been banned in some states, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Heather Has Two Mommies, This Book is Gay, Beloved, etc. As soon as I heard of this concert, I bought tickets for me and Sweet Hubby. Even though attending the concert didn't concretely help to un-ban any of these books nor bring the country to its senses, I felt I had to be there as a way to say "I am deeply troubled by the current trend of book banning and want to add my voice to those who protest it."
It is absolutely unbelievable to me that this is a country that bans books. And such a wide range of books for such a wide range of reasons. Books about racism and slavery, books about homo- and trans- sexuality. Books with talking animals. (Apparently some overly religious folks think talking animals are abhorrent to some god or another. I wonder if they also want to censor Mickey Mouse and Bambi.) Even the dictionary is being banned in some counties, because there are words in it about body parts and sex. WHAT??? Banning the dictionary???
The argument seems to be that reading books about racism and slavery will make children uncomfortable. Well, yes, it might. It should. These are terribly uncomfortable topics, to say the least. But they are part of the world that was and the world that is and possibly, sadly, the world that will be. Life is full of all sorts discomforts. Shouldn't we be teaching our children how to navigate their discomfort rather than trying to save them from it?
And I guess the fear is that books about sexual differences will somehow magically make children gay or decide to become trans or some kind of nonsense. Do these banners understand nothing? There's no power in the world that can turn a straight person gay or a gay person straight. If it ain't natural, it ain't happening.
Why are they only trying to protect the feelings of straight white children? Don't people of color and people who are LGBTQAI+ deserve to find themselves in books as well? And this business about banning books with talking animals - that's like banning imagination, which is what allows us to create stories about aliens and time travel and mermaids and gods and being able to fly and, yes, talking animals. Imagination is what gives us the ability to solve problems and to put ourselves in someone else's shoes.
Okay, I'm a bit riled up, as well I should be, as we all should be. And again, I know attending this concert didn't reverse the banning trend. But I loved being there, weeping through it all, applauding like mad for the music and for the underlying message. I'm so glad we went. And now I've seen the Seattle Women's Chorus. Brava to them!
No comments:
Post a Comment