Banned Books Week kicked off yesterday, marking 30 years of “celebrating the freedom to read.” The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA) will be commemorating the 30th anniversary with their “50 State Salute to Banned Books Week” and a “Virtual Read-Out,” which encourages readers to share videos of themselves reading excerpts from their favorite banned book.
The cause is especially close to our hearts this year at NYU Press, as one of our books made the banned book list, just as it was being released in its second edition!
Following the Tucson Unified School District’s decision to entirely dissolve its Mexican-American Studies program, several books that had been part of its curriculum were banned. Books that made this list included Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales, and NYU Press’s own Critical Race Theory by scholars Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic.
We’d like to take part in the celebration this week and show our support in the fight against censorship! To start, we’re sharing this video reading below, uploaded by Colorado College Feminist and Gender Studies professor Heidi Lewis.
Do you have a favorite banned or challenged book? Let us know in the comments section!
