"A top priority of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts is to listen to our constituents," the statement said, "and after hearing from a cross-section of opinions on having Rachel Dolezal participate in this year's festival, we had to consider how her appearance may affect both the audience and the other extraordinary authors we have planned for the Baltimore Book Festival. For that reason, we believe it would be appropriate to remove Ms. Dolezal from the festival line up."