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Little Havana Theater Director, Louisiana High School Librarian Named Co-recipients of 2001 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
March 26, 2001
New York, New York -- PEN American Center today named Alberto Sarra?n and Deloris Wilson as corecipients of this year's PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. This year, the $25,000 prize will be shared by Sarra?n, an independent Cuban theater producer and director in Miami who risked his theater group to challenge MiamiDade County's ban on arts funding for cultural organizations that stage or produce work by artists currently living in Cuba and Wilson, a librarian who stood up to attempts to remove books from circulation at a high school in northern Louisiana.
The cash award will be presented to the recipients, along with limitededition artworks, at PEN's Annual Gala on April 23, 2001 at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center.
"This year's co-recipients of the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award are two ordinary heroes who defended freedom of expression not in an abstract arena but in their own communities and despite pressure from colleagues, community members, and neighbors to retreat or remain silent," PEN American Center Executive Director Michael Roberts stated in announcing the awards today in New York. "Readers, writers, and lovers of the written word everywhere owe a great debt to Ms. Wilson, Mr. Sarra?n, and all those like them who stand up every day for the freedoms to read and write in America."
Imprisoned for three years in a Cuban jail for counterrevolutionary minors when he was a teenager in the 1960s, Alberto Sarra?n emigrated from Cuba in 1978 and eventually settled in Miami, where his theatrical productions have been a fixture in the Little Havana cultural scene for two decades. With his La M? Teodora (a.k.a Cuban Cultural Group) theater company, Sarra?n routinely staged cuttingedge, criticallyacclaimed plays by Cuban playwrights both inside Cuba and in exile.
In 1996, MiamiDade County commissioners passed an ordinance barring any company that does business with Cuba from obtaining county funds, including arts organizations. Sarra?n refused to sign the affidavit and instead became one of six representatives to join a lawsuit that would challenge the "Cuba Ordinance" in April 2000. A month after the lawsuit was filed, a federal judge ruled the ordinance was unconstitutional. However, Sarra?n faced hostility from within the Cuban ?migr? community and was left theatrically homeless when the theater that donated performance space to La M? Teodora chose not to risk losing its own county arts funding. Despite these losses, Sarra?n continues to stage plays by contemporary Cuban playwrights in Little Havana.
"For a small independent Cuban theater director with everything to lose, Alberto displayed an extraordinary amount of courage in defending the First Amendment," said Howard L. Simon, ACLU of Florida Executive Director. "He ran across countless difficulties ? both professionally and personally ? after joining the ACLU lawsuit against the county, but it was his passion for theater and free expression that gave him the power to continue to fight against censorship of the arts. He is now receiving the nationwide recognition that he justly deserves. He is a true First Amendment hero."
On May 2, 1996, the principal of West Monroe High School ordered librarian Deloris Wilson to remove four books from library shelves: Heartbreak and Roses: Real Life Stories of Troubled Love; Gays In or Out of the Military; Everything You Need to Know About Incest; and Everything You Need to Know About Abstinence . When Wilson protested the principal's order, she was told to remove all books with sexual content from the library.
She responded by pulling over 200 books, including several Bibles, before the principal rescinded that order. Wilson filed a formal grievance and a complaint with the ACLU of Louisiana protesting the removal of the four titles, eventually becoming a named plaintiff in a suit the ACLU filed on October 3, 1996 against the Ouachita Parish School Board. Enduring personal hostility and professional isolation, she documented numerous instances of censorship and protested the establishment of a materials review committee appointed by the principal. Finally, on August 17, 1999, a settlement was reached that returned all four banned books to the library. Ms. Wilson continues to serve as the librarian at West Monroe High School.
This is the ninth consecutive year that PEN American Center and the Newman's Own Foundation present the award to a U.S. resident who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.
Source: PEN American Center
Contact:
New York: Larry Siems, PEN American Center,
(212) 334-1660, ext. 105
Miami: Howard Simon or Alessandra Soler,
ACLU of Florida, (305) 576-2337
