NCAC - National Coalition Against Censorship

The Youth Advisory Board is a board of bright and accomplished youth members who contribute the youth perspective on many free expression issues and incidents.

The board's primary responsibility is to advise and support NCAC's efforts to stop censorship, particularly when it affects youth. Members of the board interact via a listserv, where they can share articles and action alerts, and where they can discuss certain youth censorship incidents and how best to respond.

Youth Advisory Board members also contribute opinion-editorials to NCAC's website and materials, and distribute NCAC information and resources to their communities.

If you are interested in more information about joining or contacting the Youth Advisory Board, please email Claire Karpen at ckarpen@ncac.org or call (212) 807-6222 ext 22.

Riley Harmon, semi-finalist of the 2004 and winner of the 2005 NCAC film contest, is a young artist working with digital media. His videos and artwork have spread through national television, the internet, and art galleries. Most recently he was nominated for a Student Academy Award in the Central US region. He is currently working towards his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Media Art at the University of Oklahoma. Artwork and videos can be viewed at rileyharmon.com.

Joe Holliday is one of the founding members of The Static Consciousness Film Group, which established underground surrealist art gallery in Los Angeles this year. Joe was a winner in the first YFEN Film Contest, and has also judged the 2005 Contest. He is currently working on a multitude of projects, ranging from political organizing and booking acts to perform at The Zamakibo Gallery, to producing independent films and doing performance art.

Robert Hornung is a film hobbyist and web 2.0 enthusiast who believes that education predicates the effectiveness and preservation of civil liberties. As such, you will often find him in heated debates regarding the origins of the First Amendment and other such incendiary topics. In 2005, he placed in the YFEN film scholarship contest with his submission “Today.” He is currently an undergraduate at Boston College.

Andy Musser was born in California and raised in Oregon where he was home schooled until college. Currently, he is in Colorado attending Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design where he is double majoring in 3D computer animation and children’s book illustration. When Andy graduates, he hopes to have a career creating educational animation and picture books for children. Andy enjoys writing stories that promote activism and the fight against censorship.

Ned Resnikoff is the editor-in-chief of Blue Prints, Middletown High School’s independent student-run newspaper. In 2006 he spent seven months as a communications intern for the Ned Lamont for Senate campaign. In the past, he has written a short novel for young adults, a twenty-minute one-act play, and a short film which ended up winning third place in the NCAC’s annual film contest.

Danya Steele is a media analyst and writer living in NYC. A sought-after public speaker, Danya's done media criticism for panels at Columbia, Oxford University, National Association of Black Journalists, and others. She's worked with ad agency Duval Guillaume-NY, FOX Television, MTV, Rolling Stone, Hot 97, THE AVE Magazine, and more. At age seventeen, she was named one of Teen People Magazine's "20 Teens Who Will Change The World" for her work in youth media.

Kehinde Togun is a graduate student at Georgetown Public Policy Institute. As a Rutgers undergrad, he co-chaired Beyond Campus, a student activist network dedicated to improving education and quality of life for children in Newark, NJ. Kehinde is currently a senior editor at the Georgetown Public Policy Review. He also sits on the national advisory board for Answer, Sex Ed Honestly. Kehinde is a Nigerian native whose career aspiration is to join the fight against Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic.

» February 13th, 2007 Michigan School Board Retains Challenged Books

New York, NY — The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) today welcomed a Michigan school board’s decision to reject demands that it censor Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, and Erin Gruwell’s The Freedom Writers Diary. The Howell school board voted 5-2 last night to allow high school juniors to continue to read the books. “The Board made the right decision, from an educational and constitutional perspective, in supporting students’ freedom to read and the school’s professional selection and review process for curriculum materials,” NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin said. “We are pleased that students in Howell will continue to be able to read these acclaimed works of literature in their classes.”

The books were challenged by members of a local group, the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE), because they contain sexual themes and profanity. LOVE was assisted by the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association, which also assisted in the filing of a complaint with the State Attorney General and the US Department of Justice, claiming that the books violate laws against child pornography and child sexual abuse.

Last night, however, school board members expressed support for the books and the curriculum development process, which involves numerous educators serving on several different committees. Parents who object to the content of the books may request alternative assignments, the board said.

ABFFE and NCAC joined a number of free speech advocates in sending a letter to the school board opposing the censorship of the books targeted by LOVE. The other signers of the letter were the Association of American Publishers, People For the American Way, Aria Booksellers of Howell, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Peacefire.org, PEN American Center, Feminists for Free Expression, and the Youth Advisory Board of the Youth Free Expression Network.

Founded in 1974, NCAC is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. ABFFE is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. It was founded in 1990 by the American Booksellers Association.