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Freedom to Read: Banned Book Week 2019 Celebration

Event date: 
Friday, September 27, 2019 - 7:30pm to 9:00pm

Join Charis and Reforming Arts, in partnership with PEN America, as we discuss some of the contemporary challenges to free speech and reading that we all face. The evening will have a special emphasis on the challenges to free speech and free reading people incarcerated in Georgia and around the United States face. Learn more about how you can support arts organizations like Reforming Arts and PEN America and also how you can help fight against book banning in schools and prisons. 

Since it was launched in 1982, Banned Books Week has been shining a light on censorship, and the fight for free expression is as urgent as ever. In recent years, attacks on the right to read have become bolder, as legislatures have introduced bills that would eliminate crucial safeguards for the right to read books that some people find offensive. The theme of this year’s celebration is “Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark. Keep the Light On!”

In recognition of National Library Week (April 7–13, 2019), the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom released their list of the Top 11 Challenged Books of 2018. In 2018, ALA tracked nearly 350 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services, as well as 483 books that were challenged or banned. Once again, many of the challenged materials included LGBTQIA+ content, including Alex Gino’s GeorgeA Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss and EG Keller, Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, Drama by Raina Telgemeier, This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman and Kristyna Litten, and Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan. The National Coalition Against Censorship shared their own report about the right to read behind bars as well. 

We will highlight some of the books recently banned in the U.S. and talk about why LGBTQ content is especially in danger for censorship in schools and in prisons. 

This is a Charis Circle From Margin to Center Literary Event. The suggested donation is $5.

Event address: 
Charis Books and More
184 S. Candler St.
Decatur, GA 30030