By Maura Cornell
The University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library is hosting a Banned Books week event on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The library will be having free book drawings, give-a-ways, and readings of different banned books.
Banned Books week was created in 1982, in response to rising censorship issues many libraries were facing. The tradition of having a Banned Book week to protest this restriction has been going on in libraries around the world ever since.
This year’s theme is “Censorship Is So 1984 — Read for Your Rights”. The theme is a reference to George Orwell’s novel 1984, which explores suppression and surveillance in the near future.
This theme seems very relevant for Fannie Cox, the Community Engagement Consultant & Liaison Librarian for Ekstrom, and Joan D’Antoni, an English professor at the university.
They have been organizing this event at Ekstrom for many years. To Cox, Banned Books week is crucial as she believes everyone should have the freedom to read. She says everybody, including children, need to have a safe space, such as the library, to experience diversity and new ideas.
“Reading books opens up new worlds,” said D’Antoni.
She is horrified by the thought that people in this day and age are restricted on what they can or can not read.
The challenges and laws being passed that restrict readers’ choices make Cox and D’Antoni believe this infringes on American’s first amendment rights.
D’Antoni feels like “a lid is being shut down on the United States”. The censorship, to her, feels undemocratic.
Cox and D’Antoni both agree that Banned Books week can help fight censorship by keeping people informed. They say if people are enlightened on why certain books were banned, they would be appalled.
Cox hopes this event will have a powerful effect on students at U of L. She believes “people learn by reading. That’s the bottom line of the impact on higher education”. Having the opportunity to read without restriction is important to Cox because there are “so many ways reading can inform someone’s life.”
She states that by banning books, the United States is “dumbing down the future generations.” Banning books about sexual health and difficult topics in United States history can create uninformed adults that don’t understand the root causes of the problems that will plague their futures.
Cox and D’Antoni both think the library is a sacred place, and they hope the censorship of books will prove not to be an issue in the time to come.
