Author and librarian Jarrett Dapier visited the library on May 15 to talk about his new book with AJ Dungo called “Wake Now in the Fire.” Based on true events, the book follows students’ lives as they help organize a walkout to protest the banning of “Persepolis” in Chicago Public Schools.
Dapier had originally gotten the idea to write this book when writing his thesis in graduate school. He wanted to write his thesis on censorship and how it affects teen readers, which reminded him of the ban of “Persepolis” in CPS. He then he set out to find out why the ban had happened.
“I set out to make a timeline and research everything we know from beginning to end [of the controversy of the banning of “Persepolis”],” Dapier said. “I wanted to see if I could answer the what, why and how. I interviewed librarians, teachers, and students who organized the protest.”
Dapier had the opportunity to interview a CPS teacher who had to go along with the ban, and he told those listening to him in the library that she had tears in her eyes when she turned in the books to an administrator. She told her students who loved the book that it had been banned, which set off a reaction that ended with the students organizing and forming a walk out.
“The students organized quickly,” Dapier said. “[They found out about the banning of “Persepolis”] on Tuesday, and by Friday they had organized a walkout and a protest at the corner at Western and Addison. That protest got Chicago Tribune attention.”
When he first began researching the story, Dapier could not find out much information from school officials, but then he submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Chicago Public Schools to see if he could get any new information. Chicago Public Schools ended up sending him 46 pages of emails that were all redacted. However, he was easily able to lift the redactions, which allowed him to access new information that answered the what, why and how he was looking for.
“There are incorrect ways and correct ways or permanent and not permanent [ways of doing redaction]. I opened [the emails] on my computer, and I just highlighted it all with black highlighter and the unhighlighted it, and I had everything,” Dapier said. “It answered all the questions which [Chicago Public schools] had claimed didn’t exist, but it also answered the who, what, why and how.”
Drapier’s research resulted in him having enough information to write “Wake Now in the Fire.” To learn about a real-life story concerning censorship and how students fight against it, take some time to read Drapier and Dungo’s new book.
