SHORT TAKES : Ginsberg Seeks an Apology

Allen Ginsberg wants a parents’ group to apologize for requesting that access to an anthology of his poems be restricted.

The group, Coalition of Concerned Minority Parents, also criticized the lack of black authors in the library of North Central High School.

“If my work were taken out of libraries, censors would have excuses to take out many other basic texts of early black cultures,” Ginsberg wrote May 17 in a letter to Mmoja Ajabu, a group spokesman.

Ginsberg, 64, said the group owed him an apology or at least an acknowledgment that his work is not in opposition to their ideas.

Ajabu said he intends to reply to Ginsberg but not apologize. He said since the book described homosexual activity, “We felt it should be under the instruction of an adult who is aware that it is not the norm.”

The school decided in November to continue to allow unrestricted student access to “Collected Poems--1947 to 1980,” an anthology recommended for independent study.