The POP Project is busy gearing up for our “Paint the Town REaD” event in conjunction with Banned Books Week!
Come out and join us on Tuesday, October 2 from 10:00 am-7:00 pm at Vance Monument in downtown Asheville. Show your town how much books mean to you.
In the meantime, how much do you know about Banned Books Week?
Banned Books Week is an annual event hosted by the American Library Association (ALA) that celebrates the freedoms outlined by the First Amendment, including the freedom to read. Many challenges are made with valient intentions, such as to protect children and the community from difficult ideas. The purpose of Banned Books Week is to promote education over censorship.
Banned Books Week is held on the last week of September, which this year falls on September 30 – October 6. During this time, the ALA draws attention to the harms of censorship by highlighting the benefits of intellectual freedom and access to information, while addressing attempted and successful book bannings across the nation.
Books featured during the week have been challenged in communities around the country by parents, schools, libraries, and other organizations. Thanks to the efforts of booksellers, librarians, teachers, and community members, many book challenges have failed and the books have remained in circulation.
No books have been banned in the USA for about half a century. Thomas Sowell calls BBW “National Hogwash Week” and for good reason. To balance the above story with factual information, read what Dr. Sowell said and many others here: http://tinyurl.com/Sowell
As former ALA Councilor Jessamyn West said, “It also highlights the thing we know about Banned Books Week that we don’t talk about much — the bulk of these books are challenged by parents for being age-inappropriate for children. While I think this is still a formidable thing for librarians to deal with, it’s totally different from people trying to block a book from being sold at all.”
Dan – thanks for your comments. We appreciate your viewpoint, but also like to raise awareness that censorship – of books and information – is still a global issue.