Foundation 451: Get on the Banned Wagon!

Hi. I'm Adam. I'm am a Advanced Placement English teacher, author, college instructor, and (past) elected official. Books have been taken out of our school classrooms and libraries, and online student access to ebook libraries has been completely eliminated in many areas and in many places large percentages of students do not haver Internet access. Unfortunately, many of our students cannot afford to buy these books, have no place to buy them, and have no transportation. They also can no longer discover or stumble upon information becasue their access has been so greatly curtailed. I want to help.

Last year nearly 5000 different book titles were banned in school libraies and many public libraries accross our nation. The number increases each year, with many areas no longer even allowing the titles to be reviewed after being removed.

 

So I founded a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to help us purchase used copies to distribute to age-appropriate students in areas with heavy banning of books. We started with a number of extremely successful distributions in the summer of 2022, distributing groundbreaking and justly celebrated books such as Slaughterhouse-Five, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Kite Runner. If it has removed it, I will do our best to make it available, getting as many as I can into as many hands as possible. We will also carry the top ten banned and challenged books on the ACLU's and American Library Association's lists, as well as others that are de facto banned because the subject cannot be mentioned or discussed—think the "Stop WOKE Act" and "Don't Say Gay" in Florida, which means that even a specific book isn't banned by name, if it has certain material in it, or people of color, or LGBTQ characters, it is absolutely banned and cannot be used in a school.

We do this through direct distributions at events, by creating Teen Safe Spaces and Libraries, by creating and stocking lending and giving libraries in heavily affected areas, by creating and stocking libraries tailored to specific populations in need, and creating educational opportunities for the public to understand what book banning is, how it is done, and how to recognise and fight it. We started in Florida and now do this across the country.

Free people read freely and we aim to help. You can see our work detailed on NPR, Al Jazeera, Dutch and French publoc radio and television, many newspapers including USA Today, on many podcasts, and featured in documentaries such as Banned Together.

We also work with The Zinn Education Project, The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, and other national organizations.

We are enlisting the help of many local businesses as future distribution points, and we'd love your help to get this done.

We will also created a website resource where these books can be accessed in hard copies for those who cannot get to events and cannot afford books, because many do not have access to the Internet. Further, we are creating a series of Little Free (Banned Book) Libraries, Inclusive Teen Safe Spaces with banned book libraries, and a standalone library specializing in banned books.

Our longer-term goal is something we have cheekily decided to call the Banned Wagon: A bookmobile specializing in banned and challenged books that can visit events far and wide to bring these books to students and their families.

Please help us get the job done. All donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please give generously!