This week, September 27-October 4, is Banned Books Week, a national celebration of the freedom to read. The American Library Association compiles an annual list of most banned books based on newspaper reports and the reports from librarians across the country. These are books that have been challenged with a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that the book be removed because of its content or appropriateness. Banned Books Week serves as an annual reminder of the fragility of intellectual freedom and as a barometer of issues being debated in American culture. Sadly, every year many of the top-ten banned titles are books addressing LGBT lives, particularly books for children on non-traditional families and for adolescents coming to terms with their sexuality. Case in point, this year’s number one banned book—for the second year in a row—is Justin Richardson and Peter Pannell’s charming children’s book And Tango Makes Three, illustrated by Henry Cole. The book is based on the nationally publicized, true-life story of the pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo that formed a couple and raised a penguin chick together. Parnell and Richardson used this story to address the challenges facing non-traditional families in a sweet and accessible way. Despite winning numerous national awards and recognition—including the American Library Association Notable Children’s Book Award, the ASPCA’s Henry Bergh Award, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Book of the Year, and Bank Street Best Book of the Year—it is the most challenged book in the country. Thankfully, And Tango Makes Three is readily available at branches across The New York Public Library. So are past top-ten banned books, such as Annie on my Mind. For more information about Banned Books Week see their official website and ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

We were thrilled recently to host a visit from Judith Armstrong, close friend of LGBT Committee Ambassador Kay Tobin Lahusen. Judith stopped by the Library to take a look at The Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs and to meet Laura Karas who is about to begin processing the collection. Laura has just completed work on the ACT UP, Gran Fury, and Joseph Sonnabend archives, which she worked on as part of the Library’s MAC AIDS funded project to process and digitize AIDS activist collections. Due to her amazing work, Laura is about to move on to work on another project processing the Gittings and Lahusen Papers. Laura will organize the hundreds of boxes in the collection into a coherent body of materials that future scholars can easily consult for research. Judith took some great snapshots so that Kay could get a sense of her collection onsite and the people doing the work. Pictured above are Laura Karas and Melanie Yolles, the Head of Manuscripts processing, with a picture of the 1965 Mattachine march on the Pentagon. Melanie has done tremendous work here for many years in the processing and promotion of LGBT collections. She herself processed the Martin B. Duberman Papers, among many others. The Gittings and Lahusen Papers are a truly monumental resource in LGBT civil rights. They are incredibly rich in documentary photographs, flyers, letters, newspapers, journals, and ephemera documenting the on-the-ground struggles and strategizing of LGBT activists in the 60s and 70s. They will be central for scholars in years to come in writing the history of modern LGBT culture and consciousness. More pictures from Judith’s visit below:

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There is currently an amazing photography exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Louis B. Cullman Center. Focus on the 70s: The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan presents 400 photographs from across Duncan’s career. Kenn Duncan—who was a champion roller-skater and professional dancer before picking up the camera—worked predominantly for Dance Magazine and After Dark, which had a prominent following in the 1970s gay community. Duncan, who died in 1986, photographed a wide range of 1970s celebrities—and unknowns—in dance, theatre, and film. His subjects included: Warhol drag superstar Candy Darling; divas like Bette Midler, Eartha Kitt, and Twiggy; LGBT performers like Sal Mineo, Lily Tomlin (pictured above), Harvey Fierstein, and Ian McKellan; masculine icons like Joe Dallesandro, Brad Davis, and Joe Namath; as well as cast shots for shows from Hair to The Wiz to Oh! Calcutta!

In the words of the exhibition’s curator, Robert Taylor “Ken Duncan’s camera captured the decade of the carefree 70s. It’s been said that if you remember the 70s, then you weren’t really there and, yes, the decadence did seem pervasive. But through Kenn Duncan’s lens, everything was beautiful.” This is what grabbed me seeing the show—everyone is just so gorgeous and real. In a strange way the work is reminiscent of Andy Warhol in its insistence that anyone can be a superstar.

On September 25th at 6pm Patrick Pacheco will give a talk and slide show “Before Out was In: Life After Dark with Arnold, Bette, the Baths, and the Boys.” Pacheco, who was a writer for After Dark, will remind us of the gay milieu that Duncan moved through and recorded.

More of Duncan’s work can be seen in his published collections Red Shoes, Nudes, More Nudes, and DIVAS! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan, which is forthcoming from Rizzoli in October.