UPDATE: Persepolis not banned at Lab School Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Arundhati Roy speaks in Chicago. Book banning, no small thing

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Arundhati Roy speaks in Chicago. Book banning, no small thing

Persepolis not banned at Lab School or New Trier

by Mike Klonsky

Persepolis not banned at Lab School

Funny. It seems the Klonsky brothers are the best news source in town on this one. Clair Kirch quotes from both our blogs as she tries to make some sense out of the continuing book-banning fiasco at CPS. But as folks in the community say, "the Common Sense Bus doesn't stop on Clark St."


If the banning and restrictions on Persepolis was just a "clumsy, at best, and brainless at worst", "ham-handed" 

Arundhati Roy -- Chicago book banning, no small thing

by Mike Klonsky

Arundhati Roy reads from The God of Small Things (M. Klonsky pic)

Listening to author/activist (The God of Small Things), Arundhati Roy last night at Northwestern's Thorne Auditorium, was a powerfully provocative experience. As her narrative, on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, wound around and through the global struggle for peace, democracy,  human dignity, Arundhati couldn't avoid mention of the banning by CPS of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis. She noted how strange it was that in countries that routinely practice torture, it is considered inappropriate to learn or talk about it.

The packed auditorium applauded loudly when Anthony Arnove of event sponsor Haymarket Books, announced that there were copies of Persepolis for sale at the book table, alongside of Roy's own Field Notes on Democracy and Walking With the Comrades. Arnove drew a laugh when he offered a discount to Chicago 7th-grade students.

The mayor was tactfully nowhere in sight last night. In fact, Rahm has been conspicuously AWOL from the