LISSO (Library and Information Science Student Organization), Pirate Radio, and the Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) invite you to the Intellectual Freedom Festival from Sept. 25 – Oct. 7!  All events will be held at the Iowa City Public Library at 123 S. Linn St. in Meeting Room A.

Fri. Sept. 25, 7:00 p.m.  “Bloody Cartoons: Freedom of expression and the clash of cultures.”

“Bloody Cartoons” is a documentary about how and why 12 drawings in a Danish provincial paper could whirl a small country into a confrontation with Muslims all over the world. He asks whether respect for Islam combined with the heated response to the cartoons is now leading us towards self-censorship. How tolerant should we be, he wonders, of the intolerant. And what limits should there be, if any, to freedom of speech in a democracy.

Wed. Sept. 30, noon  “Public Libraries, Budget Cuts and Intellectual Freedom: a conversation about the state of Iowa Libraries.”

A panel with: Nick Shimmin – Director, West Branch Public Library; Jennie Garner – Assistant Director, North Liberty Public Library; Susan Craig – Director, Iowa City Public Library; Mike Jorgensen – Adult Services Librarian, Coralville Public Library; Jason Paulious – Young Adult Librarian, Iowa City Public Library; Mike Wright – Head of Acquisitions and Copy Cataloging, University of Iowa Libraries.

Wed. Oct. 7, noon “Intellectual Freedom Remix, feat. Tack-Fu, the Chaircrusher, Pirate Radio and Kembrew McLeod:  What Producing, Sampling, Remixing and Broadcasting have to teach us about copyright and the freedom to create.”

Music, film, books and other media have become imminently shareable with the advent of internet broadband communications.  Some artists see this as a threat to their rights under copyright law.  Meanwhile, a counter-movement of artists argues that strict copyright and broadcasting laws stifle intellectual freedom and creativity.

Tack-Fu and the Chaircrusher are local hip-hop producers who live by their own set of rules for sampling other musicians’ work to create new and innovative music.

Pirate Radio is a local independent radio station that broadcasts music, talk, poetry, radio drama (an original is currently in production), and even weekly bedtime stories from Iowa City.

Kembrew McLeod is a Professor of Communications at the University of Iowa. He has copyrighted the phrase “Freedom of Expression” as a statement about the chilling effects of current copyright laws in the U.S.