This week, Amnesty International is helping the College commemorate Banned Books Week. Held every September, Banned Books Week celebrates free access of information and raises awareness of the censorship and book banning that continues in the United States and around the world to this day. “We’re very big on freedom of expression, said Amnesty co-chair Emine Altuntas ’11. “Even today, in every country you still see books that are being randomly banned.”

This is the fourth year that this event is being held at Amherst, said Altuntas, who hopes that the event will raise campus awareness of this serious issue: “At Amherst we have access to any information, but we don’t think about the small, provincial towns that don’t have the same access to everything. [We need] to see that we should celebrate the freedoms we have to read and to unlimited access to knowledge here.”

Co-chair Alexa Russo ’12 agreed. “We need to try to figure out ways to make it known that we are in an ‘Amherst bubble’ and that there are serious problems out there.”

Accordingly, Amnesty is planning events that will make the cause a real and pressing issue to Amherst students. They will write quotes from banned books in chalk around campus, have already set up a display in Frost Library and are tabling in Keefe Campus Center all week with a petition for students to sign.

“We want to raise awareness of banned books in as fun and interactive a way as possible,” said Russo. “[Many students] would be amazed to learn which books are banned in some places. The issue can get a little abstract, but seeing a quote from a book you love brings it closer to home.” For example, Russo cited, Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic” is banned in some areas of the United States because it allegedly encourages children to break dishes rather than put them away.

The highlight of the week will be the read-outs of banned books on Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone is welcome to participate in the readout and spend 10 to 15 minutes reading an excerpt from a book that is or once was banned.

The event has had a different theme each year. Last year, it was women’s rights, and this year, it is LGBT. However, participants in the read-out are free to read from a book on any topic.

Though Altuntas admits that she was not happy with the turnout of Banned Books Week last year, she is hopeful that this year’s event will be much more successful. This event also coincides with Amnesty’s Light Bulb Swap this week, in which students are encouraged to switch their incandescent light bulbs for more environmentally-friendly bulbs. The organization will also be holding another event in the first week of November. As a follow up to their awareness campaign last year on behalf of death row inmate Troy Davis, his sister will be speaking on campus.