Flintridge Bookstore hosts LET FREEDOM READ: A Banned Books Week Panel, led by moderator and writer/educator Benin Lemus. She is joined by Flintridge Bookstore manager/book buyer Robert Gibbs, children’s book author Andrea Loney, and La Cañada Flintridge Public Library manager Mark Totten. From their unique perspectives, panelists will explore this polarizing issue and discuss, among other topics, why books continue to be banned, the harm censorship causes, and their own personal or professional experiences regarding banned or challenged titles.
Panel moderator Benin Lemus says: “Book banning isn’t just about taking books off shelves; it’s about severing our connection to our fellow citizens – the ones we know and the people we will never meet. One of the most powerful outcomes of reading is that it creates a sense of unity that has the capacity to change us for the better. When we read, we become more fully realized people. We must guard that right at all costs.”
Benin Lemus was born in California and raised in Portland, Oregon. She earned her B.A. in English from Bennett College in North Carolina, an MFA in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California, and a teaching credential in Secondary Education from Mount Saint Mary’s University. She is a 2022 Inaugural Workshop Fellow with Obsidian Magazine’s O|Sessions: Black Listening–A Performance Master Class. Her work was published most recently in Márọkọ́: Journal of African Poetry and TORCH Literary Arts, for which her submission was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Benin’s work as a poet intersects with her vocation as a public school teacher and librarian. In today’s polarized political and social landscape, she believes people need to read more books and push back against the erasure of this country’s fractured past and promising future.
Robert Gibbs has been a manager at Flintridge Bookstore for more than a decade, where he is also a book buyer. Gibbs is a screenwriter and a creator and host of The Junto Presents, a speculative fiction audio drama podcast. He has a Master of Letters and an MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance from Mary Baldwin College in association with the American Shakespeare Center.
Andrea Loney’s children’s books include the Caldecott Honor winning DOUBLE BASS BLUES; the NAACP Award nominated biography TAKE A PICTURE OF ME: JAMES VANDERZEE!; BUNNYBEAR, an ALA Rainbow List title; the biographies VIP STACEY ABRAMS: VOTING VISIONARY and CURVE AND FLOW: THE ELEGANT VISION OF LA ARCHITECT PAUL R. WILLIAMS; and most recently, the futuristic book series ABBY IN ORBIT. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University, and then ran away with The Big Apple Circus for a year before coming to CA. She has worked for the film, television, and gaming industries, mostly at The Walt Disney Company. Now, she teaches computer and writing classes and travels across the country for speaking engagements.
Mark Totten has been the County of Los Angeles Community Manager of the La Canada Flintridge Public Library since 2010. In this capacity, he directs all of the Library’s activities, including reference, circulation, collection development, cataloguing and community programs. He oversees and approves special events, adult programs and children’s activities. He grew up in New York and moved to California to work as a prop maker in entertainment. His first job after receiving his master’s degree was at La Crescenta Library as children’s librarian, followed by an appointment as general manager of the Daniel K. Ludwig Westlake Village Library.
On September 12, at 3 p.m. ET, you are invited to join host Drag Queen Nebuer Styles for Banned Books Bingo. The Banned Books Bingo game card is available in ABA’s Banned Books Week digital assets. This virtual bingo game will not only be a lot of fun but it will also provide a blueprint for booksellers should they want to hold a Banned Books Bingo game in their store during Banned Books Week. Prizes will be awarded. Space is limited, so register today! To register for this event, click here. Hope to see you there on September 12 at 3 p.m. ET!
Celebrate your favorite banned books out loud with the Shimer Great Books School! The Shimer Great Books School at North Central College invites you to a “read-in” in our Oesterle Library and Learning Commons. Bring a selection from your favorite banned book to read out loud, discuss with Shimer students and faculty, and learn more about how Shimer keeps banned books in the conversation. Shimer students and faculty will be present to answer questions about our program and dinner will be served for attendees.
The Banned Books Museum collects and exhibits banned, burned, and censored books from around the world. To celebrate Banned Books Week, we’re live-streaming an online tour of our museum, located in Tallinn, Estonia, with a new section every day!
Tune in daily to hear museum director Joseph Dunnigan talk about censorship around the world, highlighting some of his favourite stories of book bans, and of course answering any questions you have about the museum and the collection.
We’ll be live on our Facebook page every day at 16:00UTC, so wherever you are in the world you can join us 🙂
Oh, and if you happen to be in Tallinn during Banned Books Week, drop by the museum in person and use the secret password ‘1984 speaks to my soul‘ to receive a free gift 😀
The Banned Books Museum collects and exhibits banned, burned, and censored books from around the world. To celebrate Banned Books Week, we’re live-streaming an online tour of our museum, located in Tallinn, Estonia, with a new section every day!
Tune in daily to hear museum director Joseph Dunnigan talk about censorship around the world, highlighting some of his favourite stories of book bans, and of course answering any questions you have about the museum and the collection.
We’ll be live on our Facebook page every day at 16:00UTC, so wherever you are in the world you can join us 🙂
Oh, and if you happen to be in Tallinn during Banned Books Week, drop by the museum in person and use the secret password ‘1984 speaks to my soul‘ to receive a free gift 😀
The Banned Books Museum collects and exhibits banned, burned, and censored books from around the world. To celebrate Banned Books Week, we’re live-streaming an online tour of our museum, located in Tallinn, Estonia, with a new section every day!
Tune in daily to hear museum director Joseph Dunnigan talk about censorship around the world, highlighting some of his favourite stories of book bans, and of course answering any questions you have about the museum and the collection.
We’ll be live on our Facebook page every day at 16:00UTC, so wherever you are in the world you can join us 🙂
Oh, and if you happen to be in Tallinn during Banned Books Week, drop by the museum in person and use the secret password ‘1984 speaks to my soul‘ to receive a free gift 😀
The Banned Books Museum collects and exhibits banned, burned, and censored books from around the world. To celebrate Banned Books Week, we’re live-streaming an online tour of our museum, located in Tallinn, Estonia, with a new section every day!
Tune in daily to hear museum director Joseph Dunnigan talk about censorship around the world, highlighting some of his favourite stories of book bans, and of course answering any questions you have about the museum and the collection.
We’ll be live on our Facebook page every day at 16:00UTC, so wherever you are in the world you can join us 🙂
Oh, and if you happen to be in Tallinn during Banned Books Week, drop by the museum in person and use the secret password ‘1984 speaks to my soul‘ to receive a free gift 😀
The Banned Books Museum collects and exhibits banned, burned, and censored books from around the world. To celebrate Banned Books Week, we’re live-streaming an online tour of our museum, located in Tallinn, Estonia, with a new section every day!
Tune in daily to hear museum director Joseph Dunnigan talk about censorship around the world, highlighting some of his favourite stories of book bans, and of course answering any questions you have about the museum and the collection.
We’ll be live on our Facebook page every day at 16:00UTC, so wherever you are in the world you can join us 🙂
Oh, and if you happen to be in Tallinn during Banned Books Week, drop by the museum in person and use the secret password ‘1984 speaks to my soul‘ to receive a free gift 😀
Join New York Times bestselling authors Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give, On the Come Up, Concrete Rose) and Jerry Craft (New Kid, Class Act) for a conversation about the censorship of books dealing with racial identity and racism. The authors will discuss the censorship of their work and the implications for readers, authors, and the community. They will be joined by Jeremy C. Young, Senior Manager of Free Expression and Education at PEN America, who will offer perspective on how legislation is impacting and even fueling censorship. The program will be moderated by Amber Payne, Co-Editor in Chief for The Emancipator, a digital commentary platform born from a collaboration between The Boston Globe and Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research.
This event will stream LIVE on the Banned Books Week Facebook page on September 21 at 6:00 p.m. EDT: @BannedBooksWeek
This event made possible with the support of HarperCollins Publishers.
About the Panelists
Angie Thomas was born and raised in Mississippi, but now calls Atlanta her home. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed.
Angie is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel, The Hate U Give, started as a senior project in college. It was later acquired by the Balzer+Bray imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in a 13-publisher auction and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, winning the ALA’s William C. Morris Debut Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (USA), the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize (UK), and the Deutscher Jugendliterapreis (Germany). The Hate U Give was adapted into a critically acclaimed film from Fox 2000, starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr.
Angie’s second novel, On the Come Up, is a #1 New York Times bestseller as well, and a film is in development with Paramount Pictures with Angie acting as a producer. In 2020, Angie released Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal to Writing Your Truth as a tool to help aspiring writers tell their stories. In 2021, Angie returned to the world of Garden Heights with Concrete Rose, a prequel to The Hate U Give focused on seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter that debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Jerry Craft is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature (2020); the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature (2019); and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African American writer (2020). Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City.
Jeremy C. Young is the senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America. In this role, he advances PEN America’s advocacy for free expression in educational institutions, advocates against censorious legislation and politically-motivated efforts to ban books and curricular materials, and supports academic freedom in higher education and the freedom to read, learn, and teach in K-12 schools. A former history professor, Young holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Indiana University and is the author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He was a 2021 New Leaders Council Fellow and a recipient of the Roger D. Bridges Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
About the Moderator
Amber Payne is co-editor in chief of The Emancipator, a multimedia publication created to reimagine the first abolitionist newspapers in the United States and reframe the national conversation around race and equity. This collaboration between The Boston Globe and Dr. Ibram Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University will amplify critical voices, ideas, data, and debates around hastening racial justice.
Amber was a 2021 Nieman fellow at Harvard University. She formerly served as managing editor of BET.com, overseeing the daily editorial output and leading digital video strategy. Prior to that, Amber was executive producer of Teen Vogue and Them. In 2015 she launched NBCBLK, a section of NBCNews.com dedicated to elevating the conversation around Black identity, social issues, and culture. Amber started her career at NBC Nightly News producing breaking news and feature stories. Raised in Southern Maryland, she is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Join the Center for Educators & Schools in a conversation about how classroom censorship policies weaken the quality of education.
Book bans and classroom censorship policies are sweeping the nation. Join the Center for Educators & Schools in a conversation about how classroom censorship policies weaken the quality of education and negatively affect educators, students, and society at large.
Chloe Latham Sikes, Ph.D., IDRA Deputy Director of Policy, will discuss what the current censorship landscape looks like today, where teachers can find resources to learn more, and what this means for the future of the teaching profession.
This event is open to all educators across the country and is part of the New York Public Library’s Banned Books Week.
Interested in finding out more about the Center for Educators and Schools? Visit them at nypl.org/ces or subscribe to their monthly newsletter here! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to educators@nypl.org.
See IDRA’s We All Belong ~ School Resource Hub with tools for teaching in a climate of classroom censorship: https://idraseen.org/hub/
MLA Intellectual Freedom Panel and Salisbury University Libraries in conjunction with the Wicomico Public Library and the Eastern Shore Regional Libraries (ESRL) are hosting a Banned Book Week Event calling attention to current efforts to censor books, the impact such efforts have, and underscores the importance of the freedom to read. Please join us virtually or in-person to hear the keynote speakers Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford and a distinguished panel. There will be a display of the posters submitted by local school students.
Award-winning librarian Martha Hickson at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice to enlighten us about the state of censorship & what YOU can do to defend the right to read (& with a very special guest appearance by Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket!)
In schools & libraries around the country, extremists are attempting to ban books & trample students’ First Amendment right to read. In a discussion designed to educate, aggravate, & activate, Martha will deliver the latest news on censorship, share the strategies she used to fight back here in NJ, & provide you with tips & tools to keep free people reading freely.
As the extraordinary Martha sez her own self, “Defending the right to read is not a one-person job. The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice with its commitment to diverse voices & safe spaces is the perfect ally for libraries & by partnering with the Center we will fight the Ed Scare affecting our schools, libraries, & the greater community.”
Join BRCSJ Community Liaison Martha & Chief Activist Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber in community-buildin’ conversation that promises to be equally empowerin’ & entertainin’
Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice HQ
12 Stockton St.
Princeton, NJ 08540
If you find this program & the work we do meaningful & believe in the mission & vision of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, please consider donatin’ whatever is within your means & within your hearts to help us continue to build this extraordinary new home our community needs & deserves. It’s hard to be a safe-space without a space…
paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/3348328
