Contact: Shani Leonards
Claremont Branch Supervisor
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6280
Celebrate Banned Books Week with
Two Claremont Book Group Events On The Color Purple
Berkeley September 3, 2014—The Berkeley Public Library’s next Claremont Branch Book Club meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, September 17, at the Claremont Branch. Celebrate Banned Books Week (September 21-27, 2014) by joining us for a discussion of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The following week on Wednesday, September 24, is a screening of the movie adaptation from 5:30-8 pm.
Walker’s Pulitzer Prize (1983) and National Book Award winning novel has been challenged in school and public libraries since its publication the 1980s, most recently in 2008 over concerns about sexually explicit themes. Steven Spielberg’s adaptation was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and ranked as the number one movie of 1985. For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6280.
The Color Purple relates the story of Celie, an uneducated woman living in the rural American south who is abused by her father, deprived of the children she bore him and forced to marry a brutal man she calls "Mister". Over the course of the novel, which spans four decades, Celie is transformed by the friendship of two remarkable women and acquires self-worth and the strength to forgive. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library at www.berkeleylibraryfriends.org.
The Claremont Branch is located at 2940 Benvenue @ Ashby in Berkeley CA 94705, and is open: Monday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 am-8:00 pm, Thursday 12 noon -8:00 pm, and Friday and Saturday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm. For more information about this program, call 510-981-6280.
Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website: www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.
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