On Saturday, October 19, libraries, bookstores, and different companions and advocates throughout the nation will likely be holding neighborhood occasions and rallies in opposition to guide banning as a part of the inaugural Freedom to Learn Day of Motion. The trouble has been spearheaded and arranged by the American Library Affiliation, the Affiliation for Rural and Small Libraries, Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and the ALA’s Unite Towards E book Bans initiative.
As guide bans and challenges—together with coordinated, politically motivated campaigns—proceed to proliferate after reaching an all-time excessive in 2023, Unite Towards Books Bans notes on its web site, “It’s extra vital than ever to point out help for native libraries and the liberty to learn.”
The New York Public Library will host an occasion from 12 to 2 p.m. on the foremost department at 475 Fifth Ave., that includes music and a roster of audio system together with drag queen, writer, and artist Sasha Velour, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race; authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (And Tango Makes Three), and pupil activist Da’Taeveyon Daniels, the youngest-ever member of the Nationwide Coalition Towards Censorship’s Advisory Council.
Central Library Plaza is the positioning of Brooklyn Public Library’s Day of Motion from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., which can embody actions, guide giveaways, and audio system. And at Flushing Public Library’s Plaza, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., Queens Public Library will likely be celebrating the liberty to learn and gifting away banned or challenged books (whereas provides final) donated by Penguin Random Home.
The Unite Towards E book Bans web site additionally supplies extra info and sources for readers and occasion hosts. Supporters can discover a checklist of occasion areas in addition to quite a few downloadable and printable promotional supplies. Those that can’t attend an in-person occasion can nonetheless take part by making the most of instruments and suggestions for utilizing social media to spice up the liberty to learn message, or by pursuing any of the opposite advised actions.
And it’s not too late to utilize a number of the NYPL’s different sources, which had been featured throughout Banned Books Week final month. A number of objects from the NYPL’s new, everlasting on-line exhibition “Banned: Censorship and the Freedom to Learn” will likely be on show within the McGraw Rotunda within the NYPL’s foremost department till November 21. The NYPL’s Middle for Educators and Colleges has produced a brand new curriculum information, Studying Dangerously, as an accompaniment to the exhibit.
Submissions for the NYPL Freedom to Learn Nationwide Teen Artwork Contest—that includes a $500 grand prize and 20 honorable mentions receiving $250—and the QPL Banned Books Library Card Design Contest—which comes with a $2,000 money prize—are nonetheless open as nicely.
