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Having written this column since mid-2021, I sometimes forget what I’ve covered. In some ways, I haven’t written anything new in the world of book censorship because the tactics, goals, and outcomes have not changed much at all over the course of this significant era of censorship, even if the trends in how those means are achieved have.
This week, rather than drafting something fresh, let’s take the time to look back at some of the Literary Activism columns you may have missed from the previous several Mays and Junes (we’ll get to past July posts in a roundup later this summer). Catch up on what you may have missed, and remember that there is nothing exceptionally new in the book—just different names and faces trying to get their 15 minutes of manufactured outrage fame. We are seeing the results of these actions play out and if you’ve been watching or engaged, nothing is surprising. That doesn’t mean it isn’t infuriating, disgusting, or not in need to pushback. It just means that the groundwork’s been being laid so it is simply not surprising in the least.
Getting started in advocacy and activism is intimidating enough for adults. For teens, there’s not only the challenge of what and how they can do things. It’s also the realities of not having the background knowledge, the tools, and the community network that can become hurdles to their engagement on issues that not only matter to them but that also directly impact them. Librarians and educators want to help–yet they, too, are limited in time and resources.
But the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned program now has a solution to these and other barriers that young people face when it comes to defending their rights: meet The Freedom to Read Teen Advocacy Toolkit, a robust program and toolkit built for library workers, educators, and community organizations working with today’s young people to support and bolster teen advocacy and activism.
(Psst: I wrote this advocacy toolkit!)
Several groups in South Carolina have been at the forefront of fighting book bans. One of them is the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. I’m honored to bring an interview with two members of the organization’s leadership, president Jamie Gregory and current president-elect Tenley Middleton. This conversation is a poignant reminder of the necessity of listening to those on the ground and the devastating realities of being a school librarian right now in America and in a state where library workers have some of the largest targets on their backs for simply doing their jobs of meeting the needs of all students.
How to Build a Voters Guide for School Board Elections (May 2025)
This is the first in a two-part how-to series that will offer citizens the tools, insight, and encouragement to build local voter guides related to public school and public library elections. For years, it’s been clear that book bans, censorship, and dismantling of these democratic institutions has come thanks to the work of bad actors being appointed or elected to school and/or library boards. As more people have come to understand the vital role these boards play, so, too, has it become clear that finding information about individual candidates on the ballot can be difficult. These two posts are intended to help pro-literacy, pro-public institution citizens build or collaborate in building of voter guides to ensure that candidates who care about schools, libraries, and the young people who use them have the best shot at being elected. The first post will cover school board elections; the second, public library board elections.
Today, I’m excited to offer this space over to Frank Strong, whose candidate guides in Texas have become indispensable tools for voters. Frank is a leader in the Texas Freedom to Read Project and he’s an educator himself. You can read his work on his Substack Anger & Clarity, where he often covers censorship legislation and policy and how it directly impacts young people.
How To Build a Voters Guide for Public Library Board Elections (May 2025)
For the April 1, 2025, Illinois Consolidated Elections, I created a voters’ guide to contested public library board elections. This wasn’t the initial plan; I intended to cover all the boards with elections. But the effort was Herculean, even with a group of dedicated volunteers, and ultimately, it wasn’t the guide’s goal. So rather than try to cover every public library election on the ballot, I focused exclusively on those elections where there were more candidates than open positions (that is, they were contested elections).
One thing worth emphasizing before diving in, though, is that the goal of this project was fact and information, not perfection or completionism. I knew from the start that I would not have information for every library in the state because Illinois is a big state with many rural communities whose information isn’t as easy to access as suburban or urban areas. Setting aside perfectionism in exchange for accuracy was crucial.
What Is The Library of Congress and What Does the Librarian of Congress Do? (May 2025)
But what exactly is the Library of Congress and what role does the Librarian of Congress play? Those are two questions that have popped up from folks who are deeply concerned about these attacks on the institution. There’s no shame in not knowing. Many people don’t know because it’s an institution and role that have operated effectively without citizen oversight for generations.
(Editor’s note: As of last month, Congress has taken back the power to appoint the Librarian of Congress)
The State of U.S. Civics Education (May 2025)
What does the average American know about their civic rights or about how this country’s democracy and government operate? The answer depends on who you ask, of course, and in an era where many are labeling the moment a Constitutional crisis, understanding the reality of American civics education helps explain where, why, and how a country built on democracy so easily lets it slip away from the grasp of its citizens.
The First American Union Understood The Necessity of Public Libraries and Education (June 2024)
One of the first unions in the United States was the National Trades’ Union. Wages were not keeping up with inflation in the 1830s — sound familiar? — and workers realized cooperatives created among them had the power to help protect them from further exploitation by the workplace. Those cooperatives joined together at the city level and then ultimately, the national. The National Trades’ Union, established in 1834, aimed to support all working people across the trades because working people working together created solidarity.
The National Trades’ Union demanded the following: national minimum wage, national working hours, public education, and free lending libraries.
At her graduation from the West Ada School District (ID), instead of shaking the hand of district superintendent Dr. Derek Bub, Annabelle handed him a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale Graphic Novel, one title among many that were banned from the district during the 2023-2024 year. The video of this moment has garnered millions of views on TikTok, but that was never the point.
In fall 2023, Annabelle was sitting in a classroom with windows that faced the school cafeteria. From there, she witnessed an altercation between a teacher and her school librarian. Annabelle described it as unlike any interaction she’d seen between school faculty members. It was loud, it was hostile, there was a lot of gesticulation, and it grabbed her attention.
The argument was over books. Specifically, this argument was over The Handmaid’s Tale (Graphic Novel), which Annabelle discovered after her class period ended and she went to the library to ask. The library and the librarian were among her favorite things at school.
What Do Book Challenge Forms Look Like? (May 2024)
Every school and public library has different policies and procedures surrounding book challenges, and the processes behind the way a book moves from challenge to banned or returned differs, too. This is why some institutions are much more likely to remove books than others — their policies are easy to maneuver or undermine if they have a policy at all.
A Censorship Language Primer (June 2023)
It has been years since talking about the meanings behind words used to discuss book bans and censorship. Although we might all think we’re using the words the same way, in many cases, the nuance and gravity of language can be lost when the wrong word is used. It might sound nitpicky, but it’s not. Clarity around language and meaning around book bans is important. To communicate the true extent of what is happening and on how many different levels, a shared understanding of words and their meanings is crucial.
70 Years of the Library Bill of Rights (June 2023)
The Bill of Rights is unique in that it is not a top-down policy from ALA itself. It was created and updated through the membership of ALA, via the elected Council. As issues have come up during the course of its existence, the Bill has stood, with only additions — not subtractions — made to the document.
It is important we know and understand the document, as well as use it as a guiding tool for ensuring libraries remain open, accessible, and as equitable as possible to all. This means both having the books and resources representative of all people and *also* having mechanisms in place — policies and procedures — to ensure that those who disagree with materials in the collection have the right to express those views and have them addressed. Good policies and procedures are foundational to the First Amendment Rights of all, and for libraries that follow the Library Bill of Rights, this means not bowing to loud pressure but allowing it to do what it needs to do through the proper channels.
You Need To Talk About The Sex Parts in Banned Books (May 2022)
We need to be talking about the sex parts and the gender parts of the books being challenged. Those with the platforms to do good work against book bannings need to be versed not just in the easy-to-reach-for classics but the harder books. The books that hold up a mirror and a window to readers in today’s society. The books that, for young readers, offer insight into who they are and what the world around them really looks like. You can ban discussions of LGBTQ people in the classroom but that doesn’t stop LGBTQ individuals from being inside those same rooms. It simply puts yet another barrier into their lives.
American culture is a prude culture. We’re afraid to talk about the messy and complex stuff. We refuse to engage with accurate terminology for human anatomy and human chemistry. It is much easier to accept violence on a mass scale as just the cost of being a person in the US than it is to accept that a child might be queer and deserves to read about people like them. That indeed, they may see a picture of sex between two individuals with the same body parts depicted in a book meant to be for sexual education — yet somehow, it’s perceived as okay to lie to children about “the stork” bringing “a baby,” rather than explain that a baby is created when an egg and a sperm meet.