MASS FREEDOM TO READ LAUNCHES
BANNED BOOKS WEEK CAMPAIGN A coalition of advocates, authors, booksellers, and librarians launch a campaign to pass An Act Regarding Free Expression (H.3594/S.2328) in Massachusetts In response to growing attacks on the freedom to read across the country, including in Massachusetts, local organizations and national partners have formed a coalition dedicated to protecting the right to access books in Massachusetts libraries. This Banned Books Week (October 5-11), advocates will be supporting a series of banned book events and are spearheading a postcard mailing campaign to encourage state legislators to pass An Act Regarding Free Expression (H.3594/ S.2328). In Massachusetts, challenges to library materials have more than doubled over the last three years, as documented by PEN America and the American Library Association, impacting librarians, students, educators, and creatives. Massachusetts-based authors and illustrators have been further impacted through bans of their books banned across the country since 2021. Massachusetts booksellers have faced harassment and intimidation at their events. Now is the time for the Massachusetts state legislature to pass
a comprehensive Freedom to Read bill that protects librarians and educators from harassment for doing their jobs; and protects authors, creators, booksellers, and publishers from economic harm due to censorship. Malinda Lo, New York Times bestselling and National Book Awardwinning author, and member of the Massachusetts Authors Against Book Bans Legislative Task Force, said: «»Authors and creators directly suffer economic hardship when our books are banned. Every author is a small business, and book bans lead to suppressed demand, canceled school visits, and soft censorship. We creators work very hard to make art that speaks across cultures, time, and experience. When our books are banned, it is our voices that are silenced. I urge legislators to take our voices into account and pass An Act Regarding Free Expression with protections for creators, because the freedom to read is meaningless without the books we create. Testifying in favor of the bill last month, Rebekah Tierney, President of the Massachusetts School Library Association, said: “When students encounter books in a school library
staffed by a professional librarian with characters who look and sound like them, their very existence is validated. They know that a professional adult has assessed and added that book to the collection, and by extension, the student knows that they matter, and they are worth the representation in print and in life.
and librarians make that freedom possible by collecting many voices and providing access to the whole community. I urge legislators to pass an Act Regarding Free Expression to protect workers doing their jobs and readers’ freedom to choose the stories that are right for them.» Coalition members working to pass this vital legislation include American Booksellers for Free Expression, Authors Against Book Bans, The Authors Guild, Beacon Press, Boston Comic Arts Foundation, Candlewick Press, Charlesbridge Publishing, Greater Boston PFLAG, Massachusetts Library Association, Nosy Crow, PEN America, and Penguin Random House. About Mass Freedom to Read
Andrea Fiorillo, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, said in her testimony to lawmakers: «In a democracy, free people write the stories and histories they want to write. In a free market, publishers and booksellers publish and sell the stories and histories they want to publish and sell–and free people choose the stories they want to read. Libraries
Mass Freedom to Read is a coalition of Massachusetts parents and readers, authors and creators, libraries, booksellers, and publishers. We believe that freedom of expression, including the freedom to read, is a fundamental American right, protected by the First Amendment. Learn more at massfreedomtoread.org.
-------BOSTON COMIC ARTS FOUNDATION PAGE LAYOUTS:
Emma Leavitt: p.1,4,5,7 Yasmin Hamilton: p.2,3 Adrian Alvarez: p.6,8