Celebrate the Freedom to Read @ the Library

 

 

This year Banned Books Week (BBW) is September 24 – October 1.  Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association (ALA) event reminds Americans not to take the freedom to choose or express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. Further, BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

 

To increase awareness of the important role librarians, booksellers, teachers, and community members play to protect First Amendment rights with their efforts to keep challenged books in library collections, the Friends of the Library is sponsoring fully-costumed characters from the pages of banned and challenged books at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library on Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

 

The Friends of the Library support and fund library programs and events from proceeds generated from the Second Editions Book Store (located in the Central Library lobby) and organized book sales held during the year. Friends of the Library vice president Barb Lindstrom sees the Banned Book demonstrations as an extension of the groups’ advocacy role, “Libraries shouldn’t be forced to censor books,” she said. For Lindstrom, the selection of reading material should be a personal decision. “It is my opinion that no one should tell somebody else what they can or cannot read.”

 

Friends members will dress up as familiar figures from The Bible, Oliver Twist, Gone with the Wind, and The Arabian Nights. Second Editions’ clerk Antonio Quinn will even don a Dracula outfit for the cause. “We are celebrating the unbridled voice, the unfettered imagination, the creative flame, and a recognition of the triumph of the spirit against those who seek to silence or suppress it,” he eloquently stated.

 

Fellow players acting to promote the power of literature, Overton High School students dressed as mimes and holding signs with titles and the reasons why attempts were made to ban said titles. Books featured during this quiet demonstration include: Little Red Riding Hood, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Diary of a Young Girl [Anne Frank], and the American Heritage Dictionary.

 

From September 24 to October 14, the Second Editions Bookstore will feature a sale of 500 books that were, at one point, considered offensive and in some cases burned.  Speaking of the sale Quinn commented, “The joy of reading is the only fire we're burning.”