The American Library Association has been organizing its annual Banned Books Week since 1982. This year’s Banned Books Week will be held September 18-24. One of the ways in which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is participating in this national event is by sponsoring a panel presentation focusing on the freedom to read. This panel presentation will take place on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center.
One of the organizers of this panel presentation is Becca Worthington, the head Children’s Librarian at ImaginOn. I contacted Becca and asked her for more information about this panel discussion. Here is what she sent to me:
Every year, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is thrilled to celebrate Freedom to Read Week during National Banned Books Week (September 18-24), and we are always excited to have a forum to safely discuss the dangers of censorship and what we can do to support and protect the freedom of information. This year, however, we’re kicking it up a notch.
Attempts to ban books from schools and public libraries are rising at an unprecedented level across the country. In fact, as of September 16, the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (ALA’s OIF, the official organization for tracking book bans and challenges across the United States) reported 681 documented attempts to either ban or restrict library resources in school, university, or public libraries so far in 2022, which is on pace to break records as the highest number of challenges in a single year since the OIF began recording statistics twenty years ago. That’s not good. In fact, it’s terrifying.
As high-profile censorship challenges continue with worrying frequency, it is important to acknowledge that censorship in a variety of forms is also happening here in Charlotte and the surrounding areas. We decided to put together a panel discussion on the topic and open it up to the public.
The event, “From Censorship and Silence to Celebration: A Freedom to Read Panel,” will take place on Wednesday, September 21st from 6:00-7:00pm in the Wells Fargo Playhouse at ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center. It will be moderated by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s CEO, Marcellus “MT” Turner, and panelists will include Jessica Reid, Media Coordinator at Eastover Elementary who has dealt with book challenges at her school library; Bridget Thomas, founder of the QC Banned Books Club with over 200 members; Dr. Mark West, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has been teaching courses on children’s and young adult literature since 1984 and who has written two books on censorship; and Alicia D. Williams, author of Genesis Begins Again, which received the Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris prize finalist, and won the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
We would love for anyone interested in learning more about the dangers of book banning and censorship and the importance of free expression and first amendment rights to consider attending. And if you’re curious and would like to know about promoting and supporting the freedom to read, please visit https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/
As one of the panelists who will be participating in “From Censorship and Silence to Celebration: A Freedom to Read Panel,” I urge everyone in Storied Charlotte to join the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in celebrating and exercising our precious freedom to read.