the_mary•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Got halfway through a banned book club meeting before the library kicked us out

I joined this small group here in Portland that meets every month to read and discuss books that have been challenged or banned somewhere. Last Tuesday we were in a back room at the public library talking about "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison when a librarian came in and told us we had to leave because the book violated the district's new policy on explicit content. I was stunned because it's a library, you know, the whole point is to have access to stuff. We ended up moving to a coffee shop three blocks away but half the people went home. Now I'm trying to figure out where we can even meet for next month's pick which is "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel. Has anyone else had a venue cancel on them mid-meeting because of content concerns?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake1911mo ago

Wait a library kicked you out for reading a book? That's wild considering libraries are literally supposed to be the one place where you can access banned stuff.

aaron_ellis421mo ago

This kind of thing is popping up more and more often. Just last week our local comic shop cancelled a signing for a graphic novel about growing up queer because they got spooked about complaints from a handful of people. Feels like the public spaces that are supposed to be for everyone are getting real skittish about anything that steps outside a narrow little box. Makes me wonder what other quiet cancellations are happening that we never even hear about.

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piper_dixon451mo ago

Actually, the comic shop thing might not be exactly the same as what the OP is talking about here. A shop owner I know said they cancelled an event because the author had a history of making REAL nasty comments online, not because of the book's topic. I think sometimes people hear one side of the story and assume it's about censorship when it could be about a business protecting itself from backlash over something else. Not saying there aren't legit cases of books getting pulled for dumb reasons, just that we should double-check before lumping everything together. The quiet cancellations you're worried about might be happening way LESS than we think.