Upcoming FTP Events + Banned Books Week Action Checklist and More!
For the People Monthly Newsletter: October 2023
Upcoming FTP Events
Please join FTP for the following events that we’re hosting or co-hosting this month. It’s a busy month for library activities with Banned Books week running from October 1st-7th and Friends of Libraries Week running October 15th-21st, but we promise our four events are focused on action and will leave you prepared to throw yourself into the struggle.
October 5th: How They Did It
Thursday, October 5th from 6:00PM - 7:30PM Eastern
A Webinar with FTP, Library Patrons Union, and Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship
Free event registration: https://howtheydidit2023.eventbrite.com
Join us for a dynamic how-to session focused on local organizer efforts to strengthen and defend public libraries. We'll hear firsthand accounts from the Hennepin County Library Patrons Union and Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. Discover how these organizations threw themselves into the struggle, built power, navigated challenges, and made a difference in their local public libraries.
Participants can expect to leave with lessons learned and examples of step-by-step actions that could be applied elsewhere. This event is all about practical takeaways and constructive advice that you can apply to your own local library initiatives, so please also feel encouraged to come with questions for a Q&A.
The Library Patrons Union is an explicitly leftist, community-run union of Hennepin County Library patrons (in Minnesota), organizing for more just public libraries.
Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship is an all-volunteer, grassroots organization dedicated to fighting attempts to ban or restrict books based on subjective standards of inappropriate content. We believe that informed citizens are good citizens, and access to information is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. To that end, we oppose any legislation aimed at restricting citizens' First Amendment Rights, as well as the right to read freely.
Live captioning and ASL interpretation will be available during this event.
October 7th: Return to Sender: Take Action Day (in person)
Saturday, October 7th from 12:00pm - 6:30pm Eastern
Free event registration: https://RTSAction2023.eventbrite.com
Address: The People’s Forum 320 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
The Return to Sender exhibition conveys that the prison itself is censorship, which is multifaceted and complex. Thus, the only way to put an end to prison censorship entirely is by putting an end to prisons. In the meantime, there are nearly 2 million people in U.S. jails and prisons daily who need access to books & information. Join us on October 7 as part of Banned Books Week (October 1st-7th) to discuss prison censorship and to take actions against it. Activities will take place at the People’s Forum, 320 West 37th Street (between 8th & 9th avenues), from 12 to 6 pm. MASKS ARE REQUIRED IN THE SPACE WHERE WE’LL BE GATHERED. They will be provided on site to those who don’t have one.
October 10th: Beyond Book Bans: Building Power in Public Schools and Libraries
Tuesday, October 10th from 8:00pm - 9:00pm Eastern
A Webinar with SURJ & FTP
Free event registration: https://act.surj.org/a/beyond-book-bans-web2023
Whether it's Toni Morrison's Beloved that opened your heart in high school English class or Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow that powered a generation of people to fight against mass incarceration, most of us have been transformed by a book that's currently on a banned book list.
But it's more than books. These bans represent a larger swath of chilling authoritarian-style policies that are affecting communities across the country, seeking to divide us along lines of difference. We not only need to fight to protect the stories we love, but fight to put our people at the tables where these policies are decided.
Join Showing Up for Racial Justice and For the People Leftist Library Project for a community conversation, “Beyond Book Bans: building power in public schools and libraries” to hear stories about how regular folks are building people power to make decisions about how the libraries and schools in their communities are run.
Opening remarks by abolitionist organizer (and co-founder of For the People Leftist Library Project) Mariame Kaba.
Live captioning and ASL interpretation will be available during this event.
October 26th: Criminalization 101 for Information Workers
Thursday, October 26th from 6:30-8:30 pm Eastern
A Webinar from FTP with Interrupting Criminalization and Project NIA
Free event registration: keep an eye on our newsletter for an event link later this month
Join FTP for a teach-in as part of Interrupting Criminalization and Project NIA’s Building Your Abolitionist Toolbox series. We’ll be covering the various intersections of libraries, library work and criminalization, including surveillance and privacy issues, retribution against library workers, social work and social services, and more. The session will also include power mapping, resource-sharing, and opportunities for discussion.
Banned Book Week Action Checklist
In addition to the excellent events above, FTP is encouraging library defenders to jump into the fight. Commit yourself to the actions below now! And feel encouraged to circulate the lovely graphic (from Flynn Nicholls) on your socials to encourage others to get involved as well.
If you decide to commit to these actions, you can let us know using this form. The first 10 respondents will receive a small gift from FTP and we’d love to be able to follow up and see how it goes.
See more here: https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/fight
Mini-Grants from Get Ready, Stay Ready
In addition to the action checklist above, FTP has created and compiled other great resources for library defenders, but we’re not the only ones bringing together resources to help defend and strengthen libraries.
The organization Get Ready, Stay Ready currently has an online form that you can fill out to apply for a mini-grant of up to $2500. The point of the grant is to help communities get prepared for book challenges and to promote their Get Ready, Stay Ready Community Action Toolkit. They clarify that applications are accepted on a rolling basis and ask that you allow 4 weeks from time of submission for review and decision notice. These mini-grants will be available until the funding is exhausted. You do not need to be an incorporated 501c3 to apply for these grants.
Updates from Library Land
Here’s a roundup of interesting news and media from the last month that we think you’ll appreciate:
HOME: an exploration of being & belonging in resistance (12 library and archive workers writing for up//root: a We Here publication)
West Bonner parents say they saved their school district (Darren Svan for Idaho Education News)
Gen Z Needs Public Libraries (Elliot Sang on YouTube)
Librarians Didn’t Sign Up to Be Queer Activists—but This Year, They Are (Melissa Gira Grant for The New Republic)
The Stories We Tell (Kaitlyn Greenidge for Harper’s Bazaar)
America's Top Librarian on the Rise of Book Bans (Tressie McMillan Cottom with guest Emily Drabinski - audio)
Report: Attempts to Ban Books in 2023 Are Outpacing Previous Year by 20 Percent (Chris Walker for Truthout)
Milwaukee Public Library Now A Place For Teens To Work Out Conflicts (Devin Blake for Urban Milwaukee)
Secretary of State Giannoulias responds to bomb threats at Chicago-area libraries (Kelly Jensen and Alexi Giannoulias on WBEZ - audio)
For the People Data Collection Update
For The People is compiling the first-ever nationwide database of public library board seats to support leftists in running for, or seeking appointment to, office. Back in early March we launched our Data Collection Project Volunteer Task Force. We had an amazing response to calls for volunteers last month and currently have every remaining library system checked-out to a volunteer. Most in-progress batches are due by the end of October, after which point anything still incomplete will be made available again for new volunteers. You can sign-up in advance for any batches that get re-opened in the future.
"Phase Two" is also progressing. This new phase involves direct outreach to the public library systems that don't publish the info we're seeking on the web.
Volunteer Scoreboard
Huge congrats to Hermie’s Daughter for coming in 1st place! And massive thanks to Lauren and Anonymous Volunteer Extraordinaire for being our next two highest level contributors. All volunteers will receive a prize package as described below.
[Note from the editor: tabulation of points happened mere minutes before the newsletter went live this month, so most volunteers didn't have a chance to opt-in. Sorry for the missed opportunity! If you volunteered in September, you will still receive an email asking if you'd like to opt-in in the future. And we can also update this newsletterafter the fact if you'd like to have your name or an alias included.]
We really appreciate all of the amazing volunteers who have helped out with this project so far. The prizes are incredible, as you can see below:
1st place🥇: Two items from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $70 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
2nd place🥈: One item from the For the People Bonfire Store (not to exceed $30 in total value) + A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
3rd place🥉: A signed copy of Mariame Kaba's book Let This Radicalize You (or a $10 Bookshop gift certificate)
The scoreboard is an opt-in situation, so volunteers are named "Anonymous Volunteer Extraordinaire" by default unless they explicitly agree to have their name or an alias included on the scoreboard.
Calling All Library Board Candidates
For The People is assembling the first cohort of candidates who are ready to run for a library board seat or seek appointment, and we want YOU to be a part of it! Our cohort will receive 12 weeks of training in three 4-week sections. You’ll learn how to run for office, identify and pursue an appointment, and govern effectively as a leftist library board trustee. This cohort is aimed at candidates who are on track to run or seek appointment between January 1, 2024, and March 15, 2025.
If you’re interested in running but not quite ready yet (or if your race is later than 3/15/25), stay tuned for our next cohort.
To apply for the Cohort, complete our online application here—and congratulations on taking a huge step to defend public libraries!