#BookBans
Today on Patreon's 'Aure Free Press' Channel
Republican Book Bans!
When I was young, I loved books. I still do, but before the advent of the Internet, books were my go to source of...
The non-profit PEN America documented nearly 1,500 instances of individual book bans...
Membership to Patreon's Aure Free Press starts at $1.50
Exclusive Content.
Please, join me!
- Aure
#AureFreePress #Mastodon #BookBans #news #GOP #Politics #USA #Trump #MAGA
AI Book Bans: Testing LLMs Against the Freedom to Read | Library Innovation Lab https://lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2023/09/25/ai-book-bans-freedom-to-read-case-study/
Neat experiment #ai #BookBans #censorship #llm #libraries
"Current threats to #librarians and the #books they circulate are necessitating a shift in the content of graduate #library education...
Educators... need to provide graduate students with information about how to physically and legally protect themselves and their organizations... how to prepare for protesters and contentious board meetings... how to articulate, in writing, the reasons for having a particular book, film or material item in their collection."
Illinois recently banned #bookbanning, becoming the first state requiring libraries to adopt anti-banning policies in order to receive state funding: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/illinois-becomes-the-first-state-to-ban-book-banning/
#bookbans #bookstodon #censorship #bannedbooks #bannedbooksweek #bookcommunity
These days, librarians are taking on an old role:
They are defending the rights of readers and writers in the battles raging across the U.S. over censorship, book challenges and #bookbans.
#BannedBookWeek
https://theconversation.com/how-book-banning-campaigns-have-changed-the-lives-and-education-of-librarians-they-now-need-to-learn-how-to-plan-for-safety-and-legally-protect-themselves-205743
"These characters cannot exist"
This is #Christofascism in full swing in #Florida's (dis)education system.
And it won't stop with queer history, and it won't stop with the "happy Black slave" tropes, and it won't stop until the only people with any rights are straight white cis men--until only the wealthy among them have rights.
@fuzztech Americans threw out an army of foreign despots to gain independence, only to see units of domestic despots grow up to fight Americans' constitutionally enshrined self-determination, human & civil rights?
No way!
#MajorityRule #SupremacyClause #CommonGood #CommonGround #DefendDemocracy #HumanityMatters #YourVoiceMatters #YouMatter #RaiseYourVoice #FirstAmendment #BookBans #BookBurning #GOPInsurrection
📚 US lawmakers' resolutions proposal against book bans welcomed
"The growing movement to ban books is eroding America’s proud history of celebrating – and defending – free expression as the hallmark of our democracy."
📚 Iowa book ban leads to disclaimers on Little Free Libraries
"Sad to see book banning in my home state of #Iowa where I first fell in love with reading."
#books #BannedBooksWeek #BannedBooks #bookstodon #bookbans
https://howtobe247.com/iowa-book-ban-leads-to-disclaimers-on-little-free-libraries/
The #BannedBookMobile is at #LittleShopOfStories in #Decatur this afternoon! Stop by and learn about #BookBans - and visit the bookstore while you’re there. #books
I've been posting about it on my blog yearly for a number of years now:
My #church is collaborating with Miami's legendary #BooksAndBooks for a "Walk for Freedom" today in support of freedom to read books that make us uncomfortable and whatever else we want to read.
My pastor was trained by Henri Nouwen. She is a great preacher but today's was one of her best ever.
Here's a link to the Books Unbanned program at the Seattle Public Library with detailed information about it, and a quick and easy application for young people 13 to 26 anywhere in the US to get access to the thousands of ebooks and audiobooks at SPL.
#BannedBooksWeek #BookBans #FreedomToRead #libraries #books #reading @bookstodon
https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/teens/books-unbanned
To celebrate libraries and librarians and the good work they do, an interview with Leigh Hurwtz, collections manager at the Brooklyn Public Library about the Books Unbanned program that provides access to banned books to young people anywhere in the US. My local library, Seattle Public Library, joined in earlier this year and now Boston Public Library has also just started offering the program.
#BannedBooksWeek #BookBans #FreedomToRead #libraries #books #reading @bookstodon
https://lithub.com/brooklyn-public-librarys-leigh-hurwitz-on-helping-young-people-resist-censorship/
Tomorrow on Patreon's 'Aure Free Press' Channel
BANNING BOOK BANS!
When I was young, I loved books. I still do, but before the advent of the Internet, books were my go to source of...
The non-profit PEN America documented nearly 1,500 instances of individual book bans...
Membership to Patreon's Aure Free Press starts at $1.50
All funds collected go towards production costs.
Exclusive Content.
Please join me!
- Aure
"Jennifer Petersen keeps 73 school books she detests in her basement…In the last year, she read each one. She highlighted and typed up excerpts from more than 1,300 pages…that she says depict sexual acts." https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/28/virginia-frequent-school-book-challenger-spotsylvania/
(#paywalled)
See the photo of her books bristling with bookmarks.
Reminds me of the woman speaking to Dr. Johnson in 1755 after he published his dictionary.
𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯: Sir, thank you for omitting all the dirty words.
𝘋𝘳. 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯: Madam, I'm glad you checked.
Petersen is one of these serial filers….
The majority of school book objections center on titles by or about #LGBTQ individuals or people of color…. Petersen, though, has just one criterion by which she judges a book. Does it contain material that, under #Virginia #law, qualifies as sexually explicit, pornographic or obscene? Less than ⅓ of the titles she challenged have LGBTQ characters or protagonists of color….
#BookBans #Education #Literacy #Extremism #Infantilization #Heterosexism
Petersen, 48, is part of a small army of #BookObjectors nationwide. School book challenges reached historic highs in America in 2021 & 2022, acc/to the #ALA. And just a handful of people are driving those records. A WaPo analysis of thousands of challenges nationwide found that 60% of all challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from 11 adults, each of whom objected to dozens — sometimes close to 100 — of books in their districts.
Across 434pgs of challenges — longer than many of the books she objected to — Petersen offered variations on a theme.
“This book reads like a how to guide for raping teens,” she wrote of one.
“The book normalizes teen sex & ... glorifies & incites teens to have sex,” she wrote of another.
“What is the fascination,” she asked of a third, “w/so many of these books containing detailed sexual content?”
#BookBans #BookBanning #Censorship #Education #Politicization #Literacy #Extremism #Hysteria
Jennifer Petersen keeps 73 school books she detests in her basement.
She ordered most from Amazon. In the last year, she read each one. She highlighted & typed up excerpts from more than 1,300 pages — of the 24k+ pgs she read — that she says depict sexual acts. Then she filed challenges against 71 of the books w/ #SpotsylvaniaCounty #PublicSchools, the #Virginia district where one of her children is a student & the other is a recent graduate.
She challenges one #school #book a week. She says she’ll never stop.
The majority of all school book challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from just 11 people. Meet #JenniferPetersen.
#BookBans #BookBanning #Censorship #Education #Politicization #Library #Literacy #Extremism #SystemicBias #Infantilization #Repression #Oppression #Heterosexism #Hysteria
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/28/virginia-frequent-school-book-challenger-spotsylvania/
Jennifer Petersen keeps 73 school books in her basement that she masturbates to daily. There, I fixed the opening sentence for you WaPo. #bookBans #banningbooks #wapo
B.S. requires a decimating response!! Well done!
#CRT
#ThoughtsAndPrayers
#DragQueens
#GOPLies
#BookBans
#GOPHypocrisy
#NRAProfitUberAlles
Gift Link from the Washington Post: She challenges one school book a week. She says she’ll never stop.
Virginia mom challenges one school book a week. She’s had dozens removed. - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/28/virginia-frequent-school-book-challenger-spotsylvania/
"The majority of all school book challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from just 11 people. Meet Jennifer Petersen."
"The MAGA Republicans, Biden said, are openly 'attacking the free press as the enemy of the people, attacking the rule of law as an impediment, fomenting voter suppression and election subversion.' They are 'banning books and burying history.'"
#democracy #Biden #MAGA #Republicans #VoterSuppression #BookBans #education #FreePress
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“If there’s one American belief I hold above all others, it’s that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is ‘right’ and what is ‘best’ should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently. As a nation, we’ve been through too many fights to preserve our rights of free thought to let them go just because some prude with a highlighter doesn’t approve of them.”
— Stephen King, in his blog
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
— John F. Kennedy
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
— Oscar Wilde
“The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him, and that is why Puritanism was the most destructive and evil force which ever oppressed people and their literature: it created hypocrisy, perversion, fears, sterility.”
— Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It’s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”
— James Howe
Autostraddle: Also.Also.Also: Everything You Need To Know Heading Into Banned Books Week https://www.autostraddle.com/banned-books-week-primer-what-you-need-to-know/ #Dykes #LGBT #LGBTQ #Trans #Lesbian #2SLGBTQ #Podcast ##affiliatemarketing #Society+Culture #also.also.also #linkroundup #bookbans #regular
One of the few times when a double negative is actually a positive. 🙂
'It’s a library; only the stupid and the evil are afraid of those.'
- "The Bridge" by Iain Banks
📚 Florida school district 'bans books with LGBTQ characters entirely'
Asked whether books with LGBTQ characters would need to be removed - no matter the content - the superintendent said "Yes."
#books #lgbtq #lgbt #lgbtqia #bookBans #bookstodon
https://howtobe247.com/florida-school-district-bans-books-with-lgbtq-characters-entirely/
Book Banning Debate Moves to U.S. Senate [Library Journal]
https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/book-banning-debate-moves-to-us-senate
> The ongoing debate over the freedom to read moved to the chambers of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing September 12 entitled “Book Bans: How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature.”
So I read #Flamer last week, one of the books recently banned in Cobb, and read it in one sitting. It's sweet and funny and carries a powerful message for #GayTeens trying to find themselves and their way in the world. And it's beautifully illustrated.
It's #AntiBullying and active #SuicidePrevention.
I'm not really buying why they claim they wanted it removed from the shelves: my conclusion was that they were motivated by #homophobia.
EveryLibrary Institute and BookRiot Releases Findings From “Public Libraries and Book Bans – Parent Perception Survey” https://www.infodocket.com/2023/09/27/everylibrary-institute-and-bookriot-releases-findings-from-public-libraries-and-book-bans-parent-perception-survey/ #libraries #bookbans
"How social media is helping book bans spread"
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/27/2195559/-How-social-media-is-helping-book-bans-spread
"Books with LGBTQ characters that were taken off the shelves include The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Scythe by Neal Schusterman, and Attack on Titan by Ryo Suzukaze.
Popular Information asked the Charlotte County school district to respond to this discovery. The school district did not do so.
#Florida #BookBans #education #LGBTQ #homophobia #Republicans
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"Popular Information has obtained logs of the books recently removed from Charlotte County high school libraries. The logs, which were produced in response to a public records request filed by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, reveal the books removed from the date the original guidance was issued through the beginning of September. The logs show that numerous books with LGBTQ characters were removed from high school libraries just prior to the start of the school year."
Yesterday, Popular Information reported on a directive by school superintendent Mark Vianello to remove all books with LGBTQ characters from libraries in Charlotte County, Florida, schools.
After this report was published, a spokesperson for the school system contacted Popular Information and stated that these books were removed only from K-8 schools, not high schools.
But as Judd Legum reports,
#Florida #BookBans #education #LGBTQ #homophobia #Republicans
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https://popular.info/p/update-unraveling-whats-really-happening
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Monday prohibiting school boards across the state from banning books, instructional materials or curricula categorized as inclusive or diverse.
Under the new law, which went into effect immediately after its signing, the state can fine schools that would block textbooks and library books that allow students to learn about diverse communities.
The bill — formally known as AB 1078 — also authorizes Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction, to purchase instructional materials for school districts, regain costs from the purchases and determine whether to fine school boards if they do not abide by the state's updated instructional standards.
Newsom called the new measure "long overdue," emphasizing that the banning binge of materials needs to come to an end."
#NPR #California #BanningBans #BookBans #LGBTQ #GavinNewsom
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1201804972/california-gov-newsom-barring-book-bans-race-lgbtq
"Vianello also says teachers must ensure that books with LGBTQ characters and themes do not enter the classroom, even if they are self-selected by students for silent reading. According to Vianello, books with "[t]hese characters and themes cannot exist." In Charlotte County, #Florida, superintendent speaks the language of extermination. When #DeSantis claims that widespread #bookbans in Florida are a hoax, don't believe him. He's lying.
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-orders-librarians
Florida school district orders librarians to purge all books with LGBTQ characters
#censorship #Florida #GOP #BookBans #LGBTQ #USpol #news
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-orders-librarians
As Judd Legum reports, the superintendent of the Charlotte County, Florida, public school system, Mark Vianello, has ordered schools in the district to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. This ban is not directed to books considered to have sexual material — it's a ban of any book that has a character who is LGBTQ.
#Florida #BookBans #LGBTQ #homophobia #transphobia #Republicans #education
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-orders-librarians
📚 Controversy erupts as Texas teacher fired for using Anne Frank graphic book:
"Censoring one of the most important works documenting the Holocaust and punishing the teacher who dared teach it is pretty much in line with what fascists do."
#books #bookstodon #bookbans #censorship #freespeech
https://howtobe247.com/controversy-erupts-as-texas-teacher-fired-for-using-anne-frank-graphic-book/
📚 Artists unite against book bans: Ariana Grande, Roxane Gay join 150+ names - here's the full list:
"We cannot stress enough how these censorious efforts will not end with book bans."
#books #bannedbooks #bannedbooksweek #bookbans #FreeSpeech #Censorship #bookstodon
https://howtobe247.com/artists-unite-against-book-bans-ariana-grande-roxane-gay-join-150-names/
#Libraries #BookBans #SavingDemocracy
Local libraries can save democracy, one reader at a time https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/4214822-local-libraries-can-save-democracy-one-reader-at-a-time/
Whilst #VanillaISIS in #Amerikkka goes full #WokoHaram with #BookBans, #McDonalds in #Germany literally offers small #books as alternative to their #Toys with every #HappyMeal...
If you are sitting at a debate table across from Nikki Giovanni and LaVar Burton, *you are on the wrong side of that table.* #bookstodon #bookbans #libraries
from our very own @tuphlos, about the recent lawsuit over the "READER" Act (which is basically bullshit).
The background is here:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/93001-stakes-are-high-as-judge-hears-motion-to-block-texas-book-rating-law.html
The order is here:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/binary-data/ARTICLE_ATTACHMENT/file/000/006/6363-1.pdf
@GW OMG, in Abbott's Texas it's all about pre-pubertal despotic assholism.
Anne Frank started writing her diary shortly after she turned 13 & it finished with her death at 15.
Eighth graders are usually 13/14. No reason to hide the writings of a girl their age from them — except for the despotic idiocy of the insurrectionary Abbott-regime.
#AnneFrankDiary #BannedInAbbottistan #Texas #AbbottDictatorship #BookBans #BookBurning #DisqualifyAbbott #Insurrection
Nearly Half of All #BookBans Last Year Happened in #Florida
https://newrepublic.com/post/175679/pen-america-report-book-bans-florida-2023
"For the most part, the book bans are not being pursued by individual parents concerned about a particular book. Instead they are coordinated efforts by ideological organizations seeking to purge scores of books from the shelves. Challenges of 100 books or more are not uncommon. …
ALA President Emily Drabinski explained that while 'attacks on libraries right now are shaped and framed as attacks on books' these efforts are really 'attacks on people and attacks on children'."
#BookBans
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"While much of the attention on book bans in the United States has centered around school libraries, the ALA report reveals that censorship efforts in 2023 are just as likely to target public libraries. According to the report, 49% of challenges to books were in public libraries — up from 16% in 2022."
~ Popular Information
"On book bans, Google Fusion, car-free cities, cars as spyware, and a podcast recommendation."
My latest newsletter: Five things for September 21, 2023.
#BookBans #SocialReboot #BanCars #gaming #podcast #AmBlogging
https://loudpoet.com/2023/09/21/five-things-september-21-2023
For everyone in the U.S. who loves books and is concerned about the #BookBans and the threats to #Libraries from #Christofascists and the so-called #MomsForLiberty, this blog post has a round up of links of yesterday's Senate hearing.
Take the time to learn what was said and what's happening, especially in those states fighting to protect the right to learn and read freely.
https://raforall.blogspot.com/2023/09/senate-hearings-on-book-banning-from.html
Addendum 13
See also Addendum 10
🇨🇦 CANADA! 🤬
"Empty shelves w. absolutely no books." Students, parents question school board's library weeding process
Confusion around new equity-based process
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peel-school-board-library-book-weeding-1.6964332
* "confusion" | "equity-based" 🤨
* Harry Potter | Hunger Games | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - examples of books no longer found in Mississauga public high school library
#Canada #education #BookBans #populism #Ontario #FarRight #CultureWars #transphobia #SOGI #ChristianRight
is there a Mastodon book club and if there isn't can we start one pretty please? 🥺 🦝
#bookstodon #reading #books #bookclub #book #bookbans #bannedbooks
Moms for Liberty's push for book bans in US public schools mirrors the tactics of the John Birch Society from the 1960s. History repeating itself? 🔄 #BookBans #EchoesFromThePast
Learn how to bust book bans. Especially of interest to NC parents!
❓ How do we determine who owns information in the age of AI & book bans?
Sept 6, 2 - 3 PM MDT!
You are invited to join author Peter B. Kaufman of
MIT Open Learning as he talks with Stanford Ed professor emeritus / PKP Co-Scientific Director John Willinsky about "The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge"
Registration: https://ai4pg.gatherlearning.com/events/the-new-enlightenment-and-the-fight-to-free-knowledge
Kudos to the organizations who stepped up to fight #HB900 instead of complying with fascism for financial gain.
Hopefully publishers and librarians will remember who was ready to sell them out and take their business elsewhere in the future.
Who's complaining about #school #library #books in #Florida?
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/08/24/florida-school-book-complaints-library-challenges-ban-department-of-education-bruce-friedman-vicki-baggett-parental-rights-sold-patricia-mccormick/
"Of the roughly 1,100 complaints recorded in Florida since July 2022, more than 700 came from… two districts [that] make up less than 3% of the state’s total public school enrollment. About 600 of the complaints came from two people — a Clay County dad and a Pensacola high school teacher."
"There is a terrible parallel between the violence people inflict on this planet and each other. Public servants are threatened for doing their jobs. Librarians and teachers are under siege because Republicans want to rob schoolchildren of history, literature, and knowledge."
~ Renée Graham
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #CultureWars #violence #BookBans #censorship #trans #drag
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/08/22/opinion/climate-disasters-right-wing-hate/
New Report From Pen America: Surge of Intrusive Legislation to #Intimidate #Teachers, Drive Self-Censorship in Schools. Proliferation of Nearly 400 “Educational Intimidation Bills” Nationwide; Missouri Leads, Followed by Texas and Oklahoma. #censorship #freespeech #libraries #education #CivilLiberties #legislation #LegalResearch https://pen.org/press-release/new-report-surge-of-intrusive-legislation-to-intimidate-teachers-drive-self-censorship-in-schools/ #bookbans #fascist
Quick question to ask:
Should old well-known and classic books be rewritten for modern sensibilities? For example, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl have been scrubbed clean of words like 'fat' and 'ugly'. Will be adding the final polling result to an article (if people respond) 😂
📚 Georgia's limited book challenge uptake as teacher fired for reading book about gender fluidity to class
Georgia's Republican lawmakers introduced a law to challenge school library books, but few parents have utilised it, sparking ongoing debates. Unfortunately, a teacher has been put in the firing line in the meantime.
#Books #BookBans #bookstodon #Education
https://howtobe247.com/georgia-limited-book-challenge-uptake-as-teacher-fired
How to destroy public education. Ban books and fire teachers who use them.
#antiLGBTQ #bookbans
📚 Top librarian fired by Wyoming board as book ban compared with Nazi Germany
On member of public responded: "When you start outlawing books because of your personal, religious, and moral beliefs in this country, you're going against the Constitution". Library director Terri Lesley was fired after working there for 25 years for allegedly not enforcing a new strict book ban policy.
https://howtobe247.com/top-librarian-fired-by-board-as-book-ban-compared-with-nazi-germany/
"Amid all the skirmishes over individual book titles and challenge policies, it's easy to miss the toll it's taking on librarians, kids, and the country.
Jones's case may be more extreme than most, but countless other librarians around the nation who are also feeling the heat are also quitting in droves, leaving libraries short-staffed.
It's all driving up the human, civic, and financial costs embroiled in the battle over books."
#BookBans #libraries #FreedomToRead
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/11/1192034923/the-plot-thickens-the-battle-over-books-comes-at-a-cost
If there’s a more perfect intersection of #techbro and #qanon cultures than this I can’t think of it. #bookbans #ChatGPT #iowa #librarians https://www.popsci.com/technology/iowa-chatgpt-book-ban/
As the battle over #bookbans in #schools and #libraries continues to play out in various states across the U.S., the toll it’s taking on #librarians is coming at a great cost — personally and financially. Many librarians are speaking up about fearing for their jobs and safety. NPR’s Tovia Smith traveled to Louisiana where tensions have been flaring up — pitting librarians against book ban advocates in the local community. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1193446007 #education #censorship #CivilLiberties
Librarians in Florida are getting death threats. https://tinyl.io/98VT
#Florida #libraries #bookbans #BlackMastodon #LGBTQ #fascism
"We are allowing [#military] recruiters into #schools where kids can sign on the dotted line, but they can't read about actual service members and soldiers' experiences." https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/education/hudsonville-public-schools-remove-military-book-from-libraries-community-concern/69-2b4e5227-c1c3-45a2-9129-f27cbbeefa92 #books #libraries #BookBans
@EU_Commission Any plans on fighting against #BookBans within the #EU, like those #Christofacist #Hungary under #Orban imposes?
If not, please shove those "#FineWords" of yours right up your backside...