Poets & Writers Theater

In this virtual event, Banned Books Week honorary chair and award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay joins youth honorary chair Julia Garnett, a student activist who fought book bans in her home state of Tennessee, for a conversation about advocacy and fighting censorship.

“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them.” In this 2011 video for Banned Books Week, frequently censored author Judy Blume speaks about the negative effect that book banning has on children.

“Books aren’t dangerous. At least, they’re not dangerous to those of us who want to create an equitable and just society,” says author Ibram X. Kendi in this Washington Post video which takes a look at the history and common themes of banned books in America.

“Read the books they don’t want you to. That’s where the good stuff is,” says LeVar Burton in this video from The Daily Show With Trevor Noah on some of the latest banned children’s books which include themes on race and racism, and LGBTQIA+ characters.

“They are not just a challenge in an individual school system or library, but legislation being introduced in statehouses that would affect the availability of books all over the state in every school and library.” In this PBS NewsHour video, Jeffrey Brown speaks with PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel about the intensifying efforts across the United States to ban specific books related to LGBTQIA+ issues, race, and freedom of speech.

“As someone who is now a part of the next generation of Black queer writing, I pull a lot from what James Baldwin stood for,” says George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), in this video for GLAAD’s NEON series. Johnson, whose book has been banned from school libraries, is the 2022 honorary chair of Banned Books Week.

“What does it mean when we say books unite us? It means that books can be the tethers, that books can connect human beings.” In this video, Jason Reynolds, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2021, talks about the importance of reading a range of narratives and stories that make up this “tapestry of life” and the danger of censoring that knowledge. “To censor a book is to damage the framework in which we live,” says Reynolds.

"When they ban or challenge a book, it instantly makes it prime reading material for that community." Sherman Alexie, the author of some of the most frequently challenged books in America, speaks about the backlash of book banning and why he feels events like Banned Books Week are important for the future of literature.

"Censorship is the enemy of truth." Bill Moyers discusses what books and libraries have meant to his life, and expresses his dismay and frustration over the prejudices that motivate others to ban books.

“It’s like banning ideas, banning thoughts, banning people,” explains Walter Mosley, one of 13 authors who express in this video—released to recognize Banned Books Week 2013—their thoughts on censorship and banned books.