ABC x Nina Siegal: An Evening on Banned Books

Each year, Banned Book Week invites us to learn about those books that face special challenges in reaching their readers due to book bans. This year, we have the honor to welcome journalist and award-winning author Nina Siegal for a special evening lecture on Banned Books!

This is a free event with limited capacity, so please reserve your ticket here.

For the last few years, books have been taken from school and public library shelves, challenged by parents and activist groups, and banned by government legislators across the United States, and now, globally as well. From the multiple removals of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from schools, through various indictments of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover to Alabama's effort to remove The Diary of Anne Frank from school curricula because it was "a real downer," Americans have often been quite avid in their attempts to rid their schools and libraries, and sometimes even bookstores, of literature that in challenges social norms.

What's happening here? Isn't freedom of speech and expression a defining trait of American democracy?

On September 24, Amsterdam-based New York Times journalist and award-winning author Nina Siegal will explore the current trends and long history of book banning in the United States, revealing how contested literature has defined this country's identity and sense of itself since its earliest origins. We'll look at literary classics, such as Harper Lee's To K*ll a Mockingbird, and George Orwell's 1984, as well as recent releases that have come under attack, such as the graphic novel Gender Queer, and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project.

There will be a selection of banned books titles available to peruse on the evening itself.

Host or Publisher The American Book Center