S6 Ep. 52: Librarians Against Book Bans: Brooklyn Public Library’s Leigh Hurwitz on Helping Young People Resist Censorship

In anticipation of Banned Books Week, Brooklyn Public Library’s collections manager Leigh Hurwitz joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss how the recent, dramatic rise in book bans disproportionately affects young people, and why BPL has chosen to offer access to its half a million eBooks and audiobooks to every person in the U.S. between the ages of 13 to 21. Hurwitz, one of the librarians behind the groundbreaking digital library card program launched in April 2022, talks about how in its first eighteen months, Books Unbanned has helped more than 7,000 users in all 50 states to access the books they need. Hurwitz unpacks the range of reasons teens cite for needing the cards, including privacy, lack of transportation, and—in some places—the requirement to get a parental signature or use a deadname to acquire a physical card at the local library. They also explain the positive responses from Books Unbanned readers who are able to see marginalized aspects of their identities portrayed on the page for the first time. Hurwitz reads from their Vice article about the program.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Leigh Hurwitz

• “I Helped Thousands of Teens Impacted By Book Bans. Here’s What They Had To Say” | Vice
• Blog posts by Leigh Hurwitz | Brooklyn Public Library

Others:

• Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor | PEN America
• Books Unbanned | Brooklyn Public Library
• “Brooklyn Library’s ‘Books Unbanned’ Team Wins Accolades,” by James Barron, New York Times
• How the Brooklyn Library Helped Fight Book Bans in Oklahoma by James Barron, New York Times, Sept. 12, 2022
• Introducing: Borrowed and Banned | Brooklyn Public Library
• PEN America & BPL Freedom to Read Advocacy Institute
• BookMatch and BookMatch Teen
• Reddit AMA with Freedom Forum
• Libraries for the People
• Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 45: Celeste Ng on the GOP’s War on Children
• Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 5, Episode 12: Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex
• Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 13: Censoring the American Canon: Farah Jasmine Griffin on Book Bans Targeting Black Writers
• “Readers Can Now Access Books Banned in Their Area for Free With New App,” by Christopher Parker, Smithsonian Magazine

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