Bitch Community Lending Library

What: You're invited to hear Fatemeh Fakhraie, Bitch contributor and founder of Muslimah Media Watch, read from I Speak For Myself: American Women on Being Muslim on Saturday, July 23rd at 11am. Fakhraie wrote a piece called "Roots" in I Speak For Myself, a brand-new collection of 40 personal essays written by American Muslim women under the age of 40, all of whom were born and raised in the US. (Find out more about this important anthology on our blog.)

Following the reading and a Q&A, Fakhraie will be available to sign copies of the anthology, which she will be selling at the event.

Delicious refreshments will be provided, and our lending library will be open for checking out books!

When: Saturday, July 23 from 11:00am - 1:00pm

Where: Bitch HQ is located at 4930 NE 29th Ave. (right off Alberta Street) in Portland, OR

RSVP and invite your friends on Facebook!

Everybody's talking about Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution. Sara Marcus spent the last five years researching for this book which Kathleen Hanna describes as "the first meticulously researched book about Riot Grrrl."

Marcus is about to start her book tour, complete with appearances from Jessica Hopper, Anna Oxygen, Kathleen Hanna, Mirah, and Tara Jane Oneil, among others. Girls to the Front is very likely coming to a city near you, and I don't think you'll regret taking part in this Riot Grrrl revival. Check out the complete events list here.

More after the jump!

It's Banned Books Week, which means that schools and libraries across the US are rallying readers in order to celebrate access to information while bringing attention to the realities of censorship.

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 460 reports on efforts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves in 2009. Let's take a look at a few of the books that have been banned (or challenged) over the past few years.

Everyone's been talking about Jonathan Franzen's new book, Freedom. While book reviewers raved and readers waited with great anticipation for the August 31st release date, authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner both saw all the hype as a platform from which to start asking questions about why books written by women don't get this kind of attention.

Meet Barbara Gordon, librarian at the Gotham City Public Library by day, and crime-fightin' wonder Batgirl by night. Gordon was first introduced to the Batman comics and TV show in 1966, as an attempt to bring in female readers and viewers. While previous female characters (Batwoman and Bat-girl) were introduced in an attempt to dodge accusations of homosexuality between Batman and Robin, Batgirl wasn't there for romance as much as she was for ass-kicking. And did I mention that she was a librarian?

This past spring, Revolutionary Voices, a multicultural queer youth anthology published in 2000, was pulled from the shelves at a Mount Holly, New Jersey high school library. A formal complaint was filed by Beverly Marinelli, a resident of Lumberton, NJ who just happens to belong to a local chapter of Glenn Beck's 9.12 project. Marinelli stated that the book is "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate". Following the request to remove the book, a review committee voted to take the book off the shelves at the school library.

Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie, has been described by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) as "the first creative resource by and for queer and questioning youth of every color, class, religion, gender and ability". The anthology is comprised of prose, art, letters, diary entries, and performance pieces.

More after the jump!

This summer, I'm reading lots of young adult literature. Re-visiting some of my favorites from high school, catching up on some of the gems I missed, and paging through what has been published since I reached adulthood. I invite you to do the same. Re-read an old favorite, or discover a new one. You don't need to be a teen, parent, teacher, or librarian to read YA Lit. All you need is an interest in how stories are being told to teenagers.