Bookstores are marking Banned Books Week with displays, lists of banned titles, and in other ways.
Banned books were the focus of a pop-up shop event last Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. Ciona Rouse, owner of Bard's Towne Books & Bourbon, hosted the event at Nashville's Blue Room, affiliated with Third Man Books and Third Man Records.
Some 60 people attended the event, where special guests from the community read excerpts from banned books, including Toni Morrison's Beloved. There was also live music, giveaways, and a selection of banned books for sale.
On Instagram on Friday, Rouse posted: "Last night was SO good for my soul. Good thing we WILL do it again. Watch this space for more from Bard's Towne Books & Bourbon--a poetry-centric bookstore & bourbon-lovin' bar committed to liberation--popping up around Nashville! 💙"
Incidentally, Rouse is one of the participants in the inaugural BincTank mentorship program. This was her first pop-up for the bookseller, and she plans to open a bricks-and-mortar location eventually.
Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, N.Y., is putting on two events related to Banned Books Week. On Thursday at 4 p.m., it's hosting "Banned Books Week: Books Unbanned Storytime," in collaboration with the Carroll Gardens Public Library, and at 6 p.m. on Thursday, it's presenting "Banned Books Week: Fighting Book Bans with Banned Authors!" at the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The second panel features Maureen Johnson, Frederick T. Joseph, Niña Mata, Eliot Schrefer, and is moderated by Philomena Polefrone, advocacy associate manager at the American Booksellers Association.
 |
|
| Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, N.Y., labeled books in plain brown wrappers with "reasons" titles were banned or challenged. | |
At Gramercy Books, Bexley, Ohio, more than 50 banned titles will be 20% off, in-store and online.
Books Inc., with 11 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, is highlighting the most banned books of the year, staff favorite banned books, and bargain banned books. It's also urging customers to support its nonprofit Reading Bridge, which works with schools, community groups, and parents to "ensure students across the San Francisco Bay Area can choose from new, diverse, and inclusive books regardless of socio-economic status."
The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, N.Y., wrote to customers, in part, "With censorship on the rise, The Bookstore Plus is proud to offer ALL books to our readers. We feel strongly that our customers should be able to decide what they want to read and not let others limit their choices. If we don't have the book you are looking for we are happy to order it. No questions asked and we never share your personal information."
Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., is donating 20% of sales from its banned books list to American Booksellers for Free Expression. The store explained: "To us, the effort to ban a book is a symptom of, among other things, fear--not of the book but of the ideas within it. Yet, each of us generally has the confidence in our own judgment to know that a book filled with ideas we discount or despise will not magically cause us to embrace these ideas and reject our values. The crucial step is to grant that same confidence to everyone in our community--not to assume they will arrive at the same conclusions and keep the same values as you, but that they have the right to reach their own conclusions and keep their own values.
"Are there books that are just 'bad'? Absolutely. Can we all agree on which ones they are? Not so much. And even if universal accord were possible, we maintain that vile things love the dark but die when exposed to the powerful light of your curious, independent mind.
"And, every now and then, you'll read a book that is so well-reasoned and beautifully argued that you find yourself willing--happy even--to change your mind and expand your view. That's beautiful. That's life. Don't ban that. Embrace it."
Amanda Hurley of Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg, Fla., added perspective to the current wave of book bannings, writing in the store's newsletter: "When I first became a bookseller in 2008, we would celebrate Banned Books Week and customers would inevitably exclaim 'banned books?!! Are people actually still banning books?' The past few years, however, no one has asked that question. Rather, the conversation has switched to 'what can we do about all the book banning?'
"Banned Books Week is one week a year that we get to call attention to the injustices and dangers of book banning, and to our freedom to read and share books--and we encourage you to celebrate that this week and every day!"