(bright orchestral music) - [Michelle] Tonight, removing books from libraries.

- If you don't like the book, shut it.

Don't take it off the shelf for everybody else.

- [Michelle] Then the enduring legacy of southern New England's stone walls.

- When you're here fixing a wall, it's like you're transported back in time.

- [Pamela] And Brown University's budget woes with Ted Nesi.

(bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music continues) - Good evening and welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin tonight with a story about what can and can't be read in Rhode Island libraries.

- State lawmakers are taking action on the issue with a bill.

It comes as the Trump administration recently ordered hundreds of books be removed from the US Naval Academy because the subject matter was seen as being related to diversity, equity, and inclusion topics.

Tonight, supporters and opponents here weigh in on the so-called Freedom to Read Act in Rhode Island's legislature.

- People are afraid to put certain kinds of books on their shelves.

Books by LGBTQ+ authors, books by Black, indigenous, and people of color.

- [Michelle] Rhode Island-based author Padma Venkatraman has has been writing children's novels for more than 15 years.

Many she says, have been censored in some fashion around the country.

- These are my titles that have been censored.

So "Born Behind Bars," "A Time to Dance," "The Bridge Home" and "Safe Harbor."

- [Michelle] Venkatraman is the co-leader of the Rhode Island chapter of Authors Against Book Bans.

She's pushing for the passage of the Freedom to Read Act, which aims to prohibit library materials from being censored.

- I think the most important thing that the bill will do is to stipulate in Rhode Island that writers have a right to write whatever they wish, that illustrators have a right to illustrate whatever they wish.

- [Michelle] It's a right, Venkatraman says, Rhode Islanders can't take for granted given the rise in book bans nationwide in recent years.

According to the American Library Association, there were 821 attempts to censor library books and materials in 2024, the majority of those demands, 72%, came from pressure groups and government entities.

16% came from parents.

- The most important people that I think are being hurt are their children, because one of the most wonderful things about books is that you can put yourself in someone else's experience for a little while.

- [Michelle] The proposed law requires that all public and school libraries have a policy for requesting that books be reconsidered.

For instance, if a book in the children's section is challenged, at least one librarian who works in that library would review the book's appropriateness and decide if the book needs to be moved to a different section or removed entirely.

Decisions can be appealed.

- Parents are well within their rights to decide what their kids can read.

- [Michelle] Beatrice Pulliam supports the bill.

She's the deputy director at the Providence Public Library and the president of the Rhode Island Library Association.

- The issue is taking an individual's choice and applying it broadly to other children and other folks' ability to access the material.

- [Michelle] The Freedom to Read Act has drawn passionate voices on both sides of the issue.

Many people testified at a state senate hearing last month.

- I'm not quite sure what to call the opponents of this bill, but I will try: close-minded biased, nasty, dark, fascist.

- This bill is nothing more than adopting into law what the agendas of many on the left, including those on this committee, seek, which is absolute legal right to racialize, radicalize, and sexualize Rhode Island's kids via age-inappropriate books and other materials in our libraries.

- [Michelle] At the hearing, most people spoke in favor of the bill, but Senate minority leader Jessica de la Cruz does not support it.

She says there's no issue with the way book challenges are currently handled.

- Republicans are all for freedom to read any book you want, but I would say that when it comes to school-aged children, there needs to be some oversight.

- [Michelle] Under the proposed legislation, authors and librarians, among others, could sue government bodies that enforce censorship.

- What this law does, though, is that if a parent objects and they bring it to the school committee, the school committee can then be sued by the librarian and the librarian could sue them, which is completely possible the librarian would do.

- [Michelle] The bill states damages per censored work would be between 500 to $5,000.

- School committees and towns, cities and towns, are very strapped for cash.

So I don't think that school committees would bring it to a lawsuit or have the lawsuit heard out in court, because they don't have the funds to do so.

- [Michelle] The legislation would also shield librarians from getting sued by someone unhappy with their decision.

- Library budgets are finite, and the idea that a library would then have to pay legal fees to protect staff is just kind of beyond the pale.

- [Michelle] According to a list compiled by the Rhode Island Authors Against Book Bans, 35 books have been challenged across the state since 2020.

Most were unsuccessful.

- We're in a blue state here.

There's a lot of library support.

Everyone has a story of how their library experience shaped them as a child.

So it was surprising, but now we're aware.

- [Michelle] The bill would limit requests to reconsider books from school libraries from students who go to that school or their parents or guardians.

- It does make it more difficult for just some random person to come in with a whole list of books that they haven't read and said, "You need to ban them," which is happening and is happening, including in our state.

- [Michelle] The books that people have tried to ban in communities across Rhode Island include "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult, which follows the unfolding of a school shooting; "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe, a graphic novel that explores the author's gender identity and sexuality; and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, it's about a boy who lives on an Indian reservation.

Supporters of the Freedom to Read Act say the local challenges mirror what's happening nationally.

According to the American Library Association, the most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors, inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes, and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice.

Venkatraman says the increase in book challenges nationwide has affected her financially.

- I have seen that after this era of increasing censorship, my school visits have dropped by 50 to 75% compared to the pre-censorship era, if you will.

- And that is strictly in Rhode Island?

- That is all over the country.

- [Michelle] She shared a recent experience with a school in Washington State surrounding her latest novel, "Safe Harbor."

- All of their teachers, all of their staff read the book, loved the book, and then they decided that "Safe Harbor" could not be their One School, One Book read as they had been thinking, because the kids in "Safe Harbor" are immigrants.

- [Michelle] It tells the story of an immigrant girl from India who rescues an injured seal from a Rhode Island beach with a Mexican American boy.

- That is the arc of the story.

- What was the reason they gave you for deciding not to make that their book selection?

- They said the reason was that the kids were immigrants and immigration was part of something that they did not want to discuss.

- Venkatraman says that's an example of soft censorship.

In her case, the book wasn't purchased because there was fear it would be challenged.

According to the Knight Foundation, 2/3 of Americans oppose efforts to restrict books in public schools.

Still 6 in 10 survey respondents saw age appropriateness as a legitimate reason to restrict students' book access.

What is the biggest misconception that you think supporters and opponents have of the other?

- I've never wanted to ban a book.

I don't care how crazy the book is to me, or how offensive.

If it's out there, then people can read it and make a decision on the content that they read.

But I take objection with having content that may not be age-appropriate for children.

- Supporters of the bill, like Venkatraman, say students don't need to read books they or their parents may find objectionable, but that should not prevent another student from accessing it.

- If you don't like the book, shut it.

Don't take it off the shelf for everybody else.

And also, when we talk about gender and sexuality, I mean when a child is, let's say, not getting a talk that is open about sexuality at home, if they go and try to find, whatever, answers to the questions in a book, I think it is so much safer than if they try to find answers on the internet or try to find answers in real life not knowing what they're doing.

- The bill is still being reviewed, but the spokesman for house speaker Joe Shekarchi says he anticipates action will be taken before the session ends in June.

Up next, take a walk through the woods, and you're bound to come across long stretches of stone walls.

Many were built more than two centuries ago.

These historic walls function as more than a barrier.

As a local geologist told us back in September, they unite the region in a way nothing else does.

- [Mike] I've always had a deep interest in history, especially local history and Rhode Island history.

And when you're working on these walls, there's something really magical about it because you know that other people have put each of these stones into place.

- Mike Minto has been building and repairing stone walls for about 20 years, a skill he's passed down to his son.

When Minto was in high school, he spent his summers working on a farm, fixing collapsed stone walls was part of the job.

Minto went on to become an English teacher and then a farmer, but his love of masonry kept tugging at him.

Did you wonder, "Can I build a career out of this?"

- I had a moment where was really thinking about, what do I want to really do with my life?

How do I wanna spend my days?

I didn't want to have a nine-to-five job.

I wanted to blend my career with a lifestyle.

(gentle acoustic music) - [Michelle] A lifestyle that revolves around history and the outdoors.

Minto is the owner of Rhode Island Stone Walls.

Most of his work centers around restoring them, including at Casey Farm in Saunderstown.

The property which is owned by Historic New England features more than 10 miles of stone walls.

- A lot of times walls will start to sag, and if it's a repair as opposed to a full restoration of a wall, you basically take out a section of the wall and you do it with two diagonals so that you can tie into the existing wall.

And you're generally trying to make it match what's on either side of it so that it doesn't look like you just fixed a spot in the wall.

- It's really, really well built.

- [Michelle] Robert Thorson is also mesmerized by stone walls, a fascination that began when he moved from Alaska to Connecticut in the mid-80s.

- I could not believe how many stone walls were there in the forests of Eastern Connecticut.

And I just said, "What is that thing?

Why are they different?

Why do they look the way they do?"

Stones are selected for the purposes of lying flat on the top.

- [Michelle] Thorson has been studying them for decades.

He's a professor of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut.

He describes stone walls as a signature land form in New England.

The region has hard crystalline rocks that were spread out by retreating glaciers.

As forests were cleared to create farmland, glacial stones were then used to separate fields and pastures.

- When you change the land by removing the trees, you change the physics of the soil, and that causes the concentration of stone after you've settled.

And when you have enough stone along a border, you can begin to do something with it, especially if you're running out of wood.

What we have here is a wall that was probably blasted out for this trail.

So the stone was moved a little bit.

- [Michelle] For Thorson, these walls represent hard work and tenacity.

- These stone walls are fantastic symbols of the new republic, the early Americans, the prideful development of a country before the troubles of the Civil War.

- [Michelle] But Thorson says these walls also reveal a darker part of America's history.

- There's no doubt that some slaves built stone walls, and there's no doubt that prisoners built stone walls.

There's no doubt that there's some nastiness associated with the construction, but the vast majority are built by people who live on the farm with stones from the farm with money from on the farm.

- How does Rhode Island stack up against the other New England states in terms of the amount of stone walls that we have here?

- Well, Rhode Island wins the prize for having the most concentrated stone walls.

And part of that has to do with the fact that it's a small state, just by measurement.

But most of it is it's settled early on very hard rocks by very enterprising people, okay?

And they just stayed and stayed and stayed.

And so the longer you stay in one place, the more the stone walls become built up and well-organized.

(gentle acoustic music) - [Michelle] Including in southern Rhode Island where farming was big business and high walls were needed to keep in livestock.

Farm records at Casey Farm indicate there was a farmer in the 1780s who built more than 900 feet of five-foot walls around the barnyard and pastures in exchange for 650 pounds of Narragansett cheese.

Minto says the rich history here captures the essence of what he loves about the work.

- When you're here fixing a wall, it's like you're transported back in time.

These walls are old, most of them.

Some of these were built in the late 1700s.

Most of the wall building in this area was more late 1700s, early 1800s, but some of these walls are older than that 'cause this land was cleared very early.

- [Michelle] Minto's 19-year-old son Ben enjoys working alongside his dad, and he feels the responsibility of the job.

- I think all over New England stone walls are so important and historical and tell such a story that as someone who's repairing or building them, I think you have a duty to do the absolute best you can and take your time with the work.

- [Michelle] It's work that provides a home and hiding spot for various animals, including chipmunks and snakes.

Thorson says it's important that all New England communities have a plan in place to protect these historic walls.

- In some places, you can go into a rural property and you need a permit to take down an old barn and you need a permit to dig a little peat, or to take out a little bit of sand and gravel out of it, but you can do whatever you want with the stone walls over that, there's no regulations 'cause we just simply haven't developed them yet.

- [Michelle] Thorson encourages people to wander through the woods and go wall watching.

He appreciates the detail that went into cobbling together all of these stones.

- It's not just a wall.

Somebody made it, some living, breathing person who cares about his breakfast and the fate of his children built that wall.

And the cool thing about that is somebody like me who comes from Alaska and arrives in New England, they unify this place in a way that nothing else does.

- Finally, on tonight's episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and our contributor, WPRI 12's politics editor Ted Nesi, discussed local toy maker Hasbro's decision to stay in Rhode Island, at least for now.

But first, how the proposed federal funding cuts to Brown University could impact Rhode Islanders.

- Ted, welcome back, it's good to see you.

I wanted to start with the challenging times that Brown University is currently facing.

We know it's one of the most influential institutions in Rhode Island, and I wanted to focus on the conflicts that the university is facing with the Trump administration.

We are seeing this play out at other institutions, including Columbia University and Harvard, where we have seen the federal government pull back funding citing alleged antisemitism.

And we know that the president has his eyes on Brown University as well.

- Yeah, so the White House confirmed to, Michelle, back on April 3rd that the administration plans to halt or freeze over half a billion dollars in research funding for Brown.

Yet two weeks later, as we record this, Brown tells me they still haven't received any official notification from the White House.

So they're in the dark a bit, but they're certainly bracing for what they expect is coming down the pike.

To put the amount in perspective, that's about double Brown's annual research budget.

So it's a lot of money we're talking about here.

We just don't exactly know what the effects would be until we get more specificity.

- And Brown University President Christina Paxson has not been commenting publicly about this.

Understandably, she probably wants to wait for official confirmation, but she has signaled her concern over the broader situation.

- Yeah, I think Chris Paxson, like all elite university leaders, realized when they saw what happened to Columbia that they could be next and they needed to think about it.

She sent a campus message before we heard about the freeze for Brown, but as all this was bubbling up, saying this raises profound questions in her eyes about academic freedom, these universities' independence from the federal government, what that relationship should look like.

They do want that federal research funding to continue to flow.

And we have now seen other schools since then, like Harvard, most importantly, take a different approach from Columbia, say they're not gonna play ball with the administration on this and comply, even if they lose funding.

So that might make Paxson more likely to push back when it's official at Brown, but we just don't know yet.

- And Ted, this is one of multiple policy changes on federal funding that the Trump administration has made affecting Brown.

And we should point out, the university is fighting back.

- Yes, you had first there was the NIH funding cut, which was they wanna lower the amount of NIH grants that is put toward general administration university, that's been halted by a judge.

Brown just joined a lawsuit with other institutions suing the Department of Energy over their efforts to cut research grants.

So a lot of this is in flux right now, much of it paused in litigation, but it's certainly already led to disruption and confusion, I think.

- And all of this comes as the university was already dealing with other financial issues.

Earlier in the school year, they announced they're facing a $46 million structural budget deficit.

So this is just insult to injury.

- Yes, correct, they've already had layoffs of Brown, minor layoffs, but some layoffs, and there's just general belt-tightening going on across the campus.

Administrative offices, academic departments being told to look for where they can reign in spending, maybe not filling jobs, things like that.

- Which may surprise people, because you think of Brown University and you think, "Oh, they have a large endowment, they should be set."

- Right, and it is a large endowment, right.

We wouldn't wanna say otherwise, it's $7 billion, but of course, it's an endowment, which means you can't spend the vast majority of it each year.

And then Brown sometimes, it's in a funny place, because they are very wealthy, certainly by Rhode Island standards, by any standards, but compared to the peer institutions they compete with for faculty, for research like Harvard, like Yale, they have a much smaller endowment.

So they sometimes feel a little caught in the middle in that sense.

- And of course, it's not just the people at Brown who are worried, but I'm thinking about Rhode Island state officials who look at Brown and say this is such a linchpin for economic development strategy.

- Right, so much of the state's efforts on the life sciences rely on Brown bringing in these research grants.

It's a major employer, over 5,000 employees at Brown, projects, capital projects like the new laboratory building in the Jewelry District.

They run the state's only medical school.

They're a key funder of the main health hospital network.

So all of the effects, if Brown is really hurting in the coming months, could be felt, I think, by more people outside of Brown too.

- Okay, let's switch gears now talking about Hasbro, the Pawtucket-based toy maker has announced they will not be deciding whether they plan to move their headquarters until later this summer.

Let's take a listen to what Governor McKee had to say.

- We've made a proposal to them that I think is tough for them to walk away.

So it's an indication that they're still considering Rhode Island.

We want 'em to stay here, and we're gonna continue to work with them to make that happen, 'cause we wanna make sure that all the jobs are here, and Hasbro's been a great partner in Rhode Island for a century.

And hopefully that happens.

If it doesn't, we'll wish 'em well.

That won't stop us from continuing doing the economic development that we're doing right now.

- And Ted, people are speculating that this delay is partly being driven by the tariff announcements.

- I certainly think so.

I mean, Hasbro, their toys and games, so much of that comes from Asia.

And I tend to think that their executives felt that this was a time they really need to focus on dealing with that disruption, at least in the short term, other than some kind of big relocation, but we shall see.

- Okay, always good to see you.

Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.

- Lastly, we have exciting news to share.

"Rhode Island PBS Weekly" has been nominated for eight New England Emmy Awards, and our station received a total of 17 nominations this year.

Congratulations to everybody on the team who made that happen.

What great news.

- It is, it's good news and we're grateful.

- And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and YouTube, and you can visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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