Banned Books Week is taking place this week from October 1st-7th. LeVar Burton is the honorary chair. He will headline a live virtual conversation with Banned Books Week Youth Honorary Chair Da’Taeveyon Daniels about censorship and advocacy at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 4. The event will stream live on Instagram (@banned_books_week). Here are some other online events that might be of interest if you are interested in learning more:
From How to Now: Book Bans in the U.S. on Tuesday October 3rd at 9pm EST. Moderated by Ipek Burnett with appearances by Nic Stone, Becky Calzada, Leela Hensler, and Summer Lopez.
Authors and Advocates on Fighting Book Bans on Wednesday October 4th at 1:00pm EST. Join author John Green, writer and illustrator Mike Curato, librarian and Texas FReadom Fighters co-founder Becky Calzada, and Banned Books Week Youth Honorary Chair Da’Taeveyon Daniels for a conversation about the impact of book bans.
LIVE from NYPL and The Atlantic . Banned: Censorship and Free Expression in America on Thursday October 5th at 7:00pm EST. join The New York Public Library and The Atlantic for a discussion with authors Ayad Akhtar and Imani Perry, moderated by Atlantic executive editor Adrienne LaFrance, about the danger of book banning and limits on freedom of expression.
We also have quite a few books about censorship and book banning if you want to learn more:
Book Banning in 21st-century America by Emily Knox
Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control by Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi
Young Adult Literature, Libraries, and Conservative Activism by Loretta M. Gaffney
Book Banning and Other Forms of Censorship by Carolee Laine
Censorship Moments: Reading Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom of Expression edited by Geoff Kemp
Silenced in the Library: Banned Books in America by Zeke Jarvis
Literature and the New Culture Wars: Triggers, Cancel Culture, and the Teacher’s Dilemma by Deborah Appleman
If you know someone impacted by book bans, there are several efforts to make these books available, including The Digital Public Library of America’s Banned Book Club project and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books UnBanned project.
I think it’s important to remember that books are often banned and challenged because they challenge the status quo or because they deal with difficult topics. However, these are the books that we need the most. They are the books that help us to think critically and to understand the world around us.