Redwood City Library Foundation Board Member Gina Meyers is clear: “After doing research, we found that over the past few years, the number of books that have been banned across the country, in different areas, has increased dramatically.”
According to PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) USA, from July 2021 to March 2022, 1,145 titles by 874 writers in 86 school districts across 26 states were affected. Texas tops the list with 713 titles.
Among the efforts that have been made at the national level to revoke these threats and prohibitions, the auction of a "fireproof" specimen of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood for 130 thousand dollars. The Canadian writer herself certified that the copy was "fireproof" when she tried to burn it publicly.
The Redwood City Library Foundation Board has also decided to do something special for Banned Books Week this year: on Wednesday, September 22, from 5 to 8 p.m., there will be a downtown Redwood City bar crawl where each establishment will feature a banned book and offer special drink discounts.
The tour will begin at the Redwood City Library and continue to the following establishments: Alhambra, Angelicas, Blacksmith, City Pub, CRU, Gourmet Haus Staudt, Little Green, LV Mar, Quinto Sol, The BottleShop, The Hub, and The Sandwich Spot.
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased on the website: eventbrite.com
Gina Meyers explains that the idea for this very original fundraiser came from the calls speakesies, places where, in 1922, alcoholic beverages were sold illegally during the prohibition in the United States and some people were discreetly notified where they could share a drink. «In 2022 we want libraries not to become the speakesies of banned books."
“I think it’s important for people to know that,” Meyers continues, “especially to explain to them what we’re talking about. Sometimes when we say banned or threatened books, people assume that these are titles that are no longer in print or have been pulled from the shelves, but often that’s not the case.”
The most common pushback regarding banned books, says Gina Meyers, is the threat of defunding public libraries, as happened with the Patmos Little Library in Jamestown, Michigan. “They had a graphic novel with LGBTIQ content, and a group of people decided it was too visible. So the library pulled it off the shelves but didn’t remove it—they put it under the desk, so that kids wouldn’t accidentally see it but it would be available if someone asked for it. But that group of people wasn’t happy with it staying there, so they started a campaign to convince the community to vote NO in an upcoming referendum to fund the library.”
The graphic novel in question is Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, an autobiography in which the author comes to terms with being non-binary. It is the most banned book in the United States according to The New York Times.
After the Patmos library was effectively left without these funds, anonymous donors managed to raise $245,000 in two campaigns on the online platform GoFundMe, of which $50,000 came from the novelist's own pocket Nora Roberts.
According to the American Library Association, banning and/or threatening books causes significant harm to communities: “Students cannot access critical information that helps them understand themselves and the world around them. Parents lose the opportunity to engage in teachable moments with their children. And communities lose the opportunity to learn and build mutual understanding.”
According to a cloud of topics for which books are threatened or banned in the United States, compiled by the same association, the most abundant is LGBTIQA+, followed closely by Black Lives Matter, Political point of view, Racism, Religious point of view and Anti-police, among others.
In addition, Nathalie Baptiste, writer and reporter of the HuffPost and of Mother Jonesstates that there is a plot of the most conservative groups in the United States (for example, Moms for Liberty and Catholic Vote) to destroy public libraries.
Among the books that have been threatened and/or banned over the years are essential titles of universal literature such as Huck Finn, by Mark Twain, in the 1880s, because it was considered racist and anti-religious; The grapes of wrath, by John Steinbeck, in 1939, for the use of vulgar words and profanities, I know why the caged bird sings, by Maya Angelou, in 1969, for its language and portrayals of racism, explicit sexuality and teenage sex; Blue eyes, by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison in 2007 because it depicts the sexual abuse of a child and has explicit sexual content, among many others.
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