The Challenge

Student activists in York, Pennsylvania organized a silent protest when hundreds of books were banned from their classrooms, paving the way for lasting change in their community. In this final episode of the series, we tackle the challenge head-on: from encouraging open dialogue about the books on our shelves to the ongoing work of protecting the freedom to read. 

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

How will you use the stories you’ve heard over the course of this series to protect the freedom to read? Send a voice message to podcasts [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org and tell us what you’re seeing in your community, or what you want to see. We might play your voice on an upcoming bonus episode, so be sure to introduce yourself with your name, your age, and your location. 

More resources:

• Watch Edha and Christina's TEDx Talk and follow their advocacy organization, EmpowerED. 
• Read about the new "Fight Book Bans Act" introduced in Congress. 
• Learn about PEN America's work to catalog book bans, including a recent report that identifies a culture of fear and intimidation and cumulative book ban data from 2021 to 2023.
• Writer George M. Johnson wrote about BPL's Chief Librarian Nick Higgins as a 2023 TIME100 Next Person of the Year.
• Check out every book mentioned on our Borrowed and Banned series! (Psst. You can check them out with a Books Unbanned library card.) And, listen to our 2022 episode about the launch of Books Unbanned and the history of book challenges at BPL.

Help us keep our libraries open by fighting for city funding. Write to your city leaders! Or, send a letter on behalf of Queens Public Library or New York Public Library.