May 4, 1967, Cleveland Plain Dealer

--by Gerald M. Minnery 

The poetry reading session and concert to raise funds for poet D. A. Levy and book store owner James Russell Lowell will be held in Case Tech’s Strosacker Auditorium on Mother’s Day, May 14.

The event was originally booked into Masonic Auditorium, then Masonic officials canceled their contract last week because they said they had believed "it was an affair for a returning Vietnam war hero."

The Case auditorium was obtained by the "University Circle Teach-In Committee," a two-year-old group composed of students and faculty from Western Reserve and John Carroll Universities and CIT.

THE COMMITTEE coordinator, Dr. Sidney M. Peck, a WRU associate professor of sociology, said:

"We feel a particular responsibility to the poets of our city so that they can write and speak without police harassment and censorship."

"The action of the Masonic Association was a simple act of censorship and a denial of freedom of speech. We must keep our community open for the free flow of opinions."

The committee hopes to raise defense funds for Lowell, charged with selling obscene material, and Levy, who is charged with publishing and disseminating obscene literature.

THOSE APPEARING at the affair will include best poet Allan Ginsberg and a folk rock group. Tickets are available at Discount Records stores and at Publix Book Mart, 900 Prospect Avenue S. E.

Spokesmen for the Lowell and Levy fund said they still planned to sue the Masonic Association for damages, contending their box office will be hurt by the disparity in seats between the two auditoriums – Strosacker holds 700 persons, Masonic Auditorium 2,200.