The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Palmer, Alaska, voted 5-2 last week to remove five classics from high school English elective courses including F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as well as Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. So hometown heroes Portugal. The Man have stepped up to announce the band would buy the books for any student or parent who wanted them
Guitarist Eric Howk told KTVA-TV, "We were all students of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school district and we have a lot of teachers there that we love," Howk said.
"I think when it comes to stories and to books, we’re storytellers. You know, we’re songwriters and we’re storytellers and we take the situations and the experiences and the people that we meet and we kind of turn those into the stories that we carry on with us to the next place and to the next town. Storytelling is just kind of sacred to us and it just hits really close to home."
District spokeswoman Jillian Morrissey declined to comment on the offer by Portugal. The Man. The books remain in district libraries, she told The Associated Press.
The Anchorage Daily News reported the agenda for the school board’s next meeting Wednesday includes a proposal to rescind the vote, so here's hoping!
Here's Portugal. The Man in a happier time, playing a Members Only show for WFPK listeners:
Ready for more great music? wfpk.org/stream
