Artist and avid reader Karen Moss felt overwhelmed by the never-ending news of book bans happening all across the country.
“Freedom to read whatever you want is critical in a democracy,” Moss told GBH’s Under the Radar. “I was frightened by the idea that book-banning was happening here, and it’s happened throughout history from time to time. But it’s shocking the degree to which it started happening here and the way it started and the way it caught on. And so that’s what led me to focus on this now.”
As she’d previously done in addressing other social justice issues, Karen used her canvas to make a statement — this time, intimate portraits of her loved ones and their favorite banned books. The portraits are showcased in a new exhibit at the Boston Public Library’s central branch in Copley Square.
Each portrait features a single person reading a banned book of their choice. The subjects are Moss’ friends, families and neighbors, and even fellow artists.
In one black-and-white portrait, abstract painter Cullen Washington Jr. reads “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.”
In two portraits — one in color, and one in grayscale — a neighbor and Holocaust survivor reads the graphic novel “Maus” by Art Spiegelman.
“Dr. Anna Orenstein just turned 99,” Moss said. “She lives in my apartment building, and I came to know her about 11 years ago when I moved in. She was in Auschwitz, and she was liberated by the Russians. And she’s very tired now. But she does like to talk to me about her past. And so when I go to visit her, the thing that she’s talking about lately is the day she was liberated from the camp.”
Other portraits include a boy reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling; Moss’ studio mate reading “Our Bodies, Our Selves” by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective; and Moss’ husband and son reading Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Alan Moore’s graphic novel, “Watchmen,” respectively.
“All these people are very dedicated to truth and freedom to read what you want to read,” Moss said of her subjects. “So for that reason, they felt they were part of a mission.”
Providing access to frequently banned books is also the mission of the Boston Public Library, said Julie Roach, the library’s collection development manager.
“It is important that all of us be able to exercise our intellectual freedom rights and read what we want to,” Roach said. “That’s part of being a good citizen: to be able to explore our points of view and be able to have access — freedom of access — to information. So the library really takes the responsibility of protecting those rights very seriously.”
Moss said she hopes her portraits can help in that effort by continuing to raise awareness about the ongoing book bans happening throughout the country, including in Massachusetts.
“A lot of people I’ve been talking to lately weren’t aware that this was a serious crisis, and I was astounded,” Moss said. “I want them, first of all, to be aware of the problem and secondly, to be actively involved in their community and talk to their librarians and find out what’s going on in their local libraries.”
Guests
- Karen Moss , Boston-based artist
- Katherine Mitchell, visitor experience coordinator at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library
- Julie Roach, collection development manager at the Boston Public Library
