Today we’re bringing you a really interesting episode from our friends at This Guy Sucked, a podcast hosted by historian and writer Claire Aubin about the worst people in history. Each episode, Claire sits down with an expert to pull back the scholarly curtain on a terrible person from their research. Because, as they say on the show, it’s never too late to have haters, and you can’t libel the dead.

This particular episode is about the early 20th century filmmaker D. W. Griffith whose 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” led to the resurgence of the KKK among other cultural repercussions we’re still feeling today. Africana studies scholar Kellie Carter Jackson joins the episode to tell us exactly why this guy sucked.

If you like what you hear, you can listen to the rest – and dozens of other great episodes – by searching for “This Guy Sucked” wherever you find podcasts.

Guest

Our guest Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College and host of This Day from Radiotopia. Her book We Refuse is available here. 

Sensitive Themes & Topics

Racism and racial violence, slavery, sexual violence

Credits

- Host & Executive Producer: Claire E Aubin. 

- Editor: Julia Schifini. 

- Music: Marshall Dean Williams

- Multitude: multitude.productions

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, climate scientist and activist. Recently, she sat down with Jordan Kisner, of the Thresholds podcast, to talk about our climate future. You may have heard clips of their conversation in our last episode about Silent Spring. Today, we're playing the full interview as a partnership with Thresholds, a show about about the messiness, overlap, u-turns, revelations, and friction points in the lives and work of artists.

If you like what you hear, head on over to thisisthresholds.com to find more great episodes and subscribe!

When Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States came out in 1980, it literally rocked the boat. Instead of starting where most histories of the Americas start — on the deck of Columbus’s ship as it approached land — Howard Zinn flipped the script, focusing instead on what the people standing on the shore would have seen. In this episode, we look at the ripple effects of Zinn’s radical take on history. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our web page.

• Check out our booklist with titles related to A People’s History of the United States.
• You can find Nick Witham’s book Popularizing the Past at the University of Chicago Press.
• Learn more about the ReVisioning History series from Beacon Press.
• Read more about Howard Zinn, and visit the Zinn Education Project for tons of resources for teachers and students.
• History books are one of the subject areas targeted for censorship right now. Learn what you can do to help by visiting our Books Unbanned homepage, or listening to Borrowed and Banned, our previous series about the state of book banning in America.

We’re getting in your ears to tell you about our first ever live recording of Borrowed! It’s free, at 5pm on Sunday, January 26 at Union Hall, as a part of Brooklyn Podcast Festival (event details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/borrowed-live-tickets-84560078471).

And, we’re collaborating with The Bowery Boys on an episode about Andrew Carnegie’s complicated legacy. That will come out this Friday, January 24 on our feed and theirs (http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/bowery-boys-first/bowery-boys-podcast).

At the edge of Brooklyn, there’s a beach covered with glass bottles, nylon stockings, rusting kitchen appliances, and decaying batteries. The trash didn’t float here, though. It’s eroding from a poorly-covered landfill. We start this episode at Dead Horse Bay, where we ask what trash can tell us about structures of power, and end the episode in 1960s Bed-Stuy, where the local Civil Rights Movement took on a surprising enemy: garbage collection.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/our-garbage-ourselves 

Immigration is a pressing topic in our political landscape right now, with concerns about ICE raids and immigration bans. In this episode, we listen to inspiring stories of recent asylees, the case for more bilingual librarians, and what the library means when we say “American.”

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/new-americans 

There’s something about Brooklyn that makes you want to write. “Everything is alive here,” says poet Mahogany L. Browne. And thank goodness we have writers to capture that. In this episode, we share an interview with Mahogany Browne and Brooklyn poet laureate Tina Chang, plus a story about the classic novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. 

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/writer-grows-brooklyn 

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, a lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, an organization with the goal of bringing a library to every cell block in America. We talked with him about what he read – and wrote – while he was incarcerated, and what it taught him about what it means to be free, to be loved, and to be part of a community.

Read a transcript of this episode on our website, and find books by Betts in our library catalog.

Kairi Hollon tried to go to the library when he was a teenager in Brooklyn in the 1980s, but he kept getting kicked out. Years later, he came back to the library and started to create spaces just for teens. We’ll listen in on a Dungeons & Dragons game in Mill Basin, a teen party at Central, and learn how video games are changing the library.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/teens-take-over 

From “the most expensive pigeon roost in the world” to one of the world’s most unique libraries, Brooklyn’s Central Library has many stories to tell. We’ll dive into the history of Central Library, and bring you stories of small businesses, fashion shows, and one patron’s path from homelessness to determined author.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/work-progress 

It turns out that libraries weren’t always so friendly toward children. That started to change around the turn of the 20th century, thanks to a librarian who is pretty much unknown today. We're taking a field trip to a library truck in the Flatlands, a story time at Central, and to Brownsville in 1914...

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/for-kids-sake 

Sometimes, in the wake of natural disasters, the library becomes an information center, a shelter and a community space. We travel to Coney Island, Red Hook, and Puerto Rico to learn about how neighbors come together after a storm, and how libraries can help.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/weathering-storm 

Online search engines are basically universal, so questions at the library reference desk are changing. We follow the story of one question, “I want to know how I can be happy,” and learn about how libraries are keeping up with the needs of the community.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/across-reference-desk 

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” So goes the quote from librarian Jo Godwin. From Dr. Seuss to kosher books to Drag Queen Story Hour, this episode will explore what it means to challenge censorship, and what happens when patrons disagree with content in the library.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/something-offend-everyone 

Preserving history is about more than battling mold and disintegration. We took a trip to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to learn about how an environmental disaster propelled residents into action, and how the public library is archiving the neighborhood’s past and present.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/oil-spills-and-moldy 

Books on conveyor belts, book vacuums and books in the mail. This episode of “Borrowed” will take you behind the scenes to see how books travel around the boroughs, from Long Island City to Bensonhurst to your bedside table.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/books-are-not-dead 

Brooklyn has so many stories to tell, and a lot of them start at the library. Every other week, “Borrowed” brings you stories that start here and take you somewhere new. Brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. Our first episode launches March 12.

There are so many reasons to read – and reread – The Autobiography of Malcolm X. But for this episode, we’re revisiting the book with the perspectives of readers who are, or were, incarcerated. Malcolm X’s story isn’t just radical for its narrative of change and self-improvement; it also encourages readers to think more critically about the prison system itself. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with titles related to The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
• Learn more about the work that BPL’s Justice Initiatives does for patrons who are incarcerated. You can donate recently-published paperback books to the jail and prison collections at Williamsburgh Library or Central Library only during drop-off times. Please contact librarian Claire Mooney (cmooney [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org) for guidance on what to donate, and when.
• Learn about Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Freedom Libraries
• Watch Inside Story, a video series produced by BPL’s Donald Washington and others who are formerly-incarcerated.
• Read about censorship in prison libraries and other radical ways to read with Book Riot’s Reading and Resistance series.

N.K. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s a Brooklynite, the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the first author to win three Best Novel Hugos in a row. We talked to her about Octavia Butler’s influence on her writing, and how she processes the present moment in her own fiction.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and check out our booklist with titles from Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and more! 

In these unfathomable moments, when the world seems to be falling apart—we often turn to stories for guidance. For the folks in Southern California earlier this year, that story was Parable of the Sower. Readers are returning to the book today because it shows us how speculation – and Afrofuturism in particular – can help us move through the world with our eyes open. 

Read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with titles from Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and more! 
• Learn more about how you can help Octavia’s Bookshelf in Altadena by supporting their Patreon. And, you can check out the Altadena Community Land Trust.
• If you’re in California, check out Ode to ‘Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena,’ an exhibit at the California African American Museum that features Nikki High and others.
• Listen to Octavia’s Parables, a podcast from adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagan that follows the Parable books, or Jessica Bethel’s League of Extraordinary Readers podcast. You can also check out her virtual book club, Literature Noir, or Toshi Reagan’s opera based on the Parable books.

Borrowed and Returned is a new podcast series that examines what our reading public borrowed in the past, and what we’re all reading now. In conversations with library workers, authors and readers across the country, we’ll return to the books that changed us, and changed America, too. 

First episode drops July 8, with new episodes coming out weekly. Spend your summer re-reading with us! 

A new exhibit at BPL's Center for Brooklyn History explores the history and legacy of slavery here in Brooklyn. The team at CBH gathered documents and accounts from people who were touched by slavery in Brooklyn, and traced the descendants of both the enslaved and enslavers. 

"Trace/s" is up at the Center for Brooklyn History (128 Pierrepont Street) through August 30, 2025. This audio story is a companion to the exhibit, and it was produced by audio journalist and historian Ula Kulpa. 

Trace/s is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA FUTURE 400 program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, and by the Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Foundation in memory of Bill Coleman. You can find more information about the exhibition, and listen to Part 2 of Finding Traces here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/exhibitions/traces

As 2024 comes to a close, we wanted to share with you an episode that we produced all the way back in 2020. That year, we went to Coney Island to record the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, the group of swimmers that congregate on Coney Island every Sunday in winter to swim in the frigid ocean as a way to renew themselves. It’s a fun one, and we hope you enjoy!

Further resources:

• Look at historic photos of the Polar Bear Club and Coney Island.
• Take the plunge with the Polar Bear Club this New Year's Day.
• Help us shape our next podcast series! Fill out this survey and let us know what books you think changed America. 
• Check out the books we loved in 2024.

Graphic novels, Haitian-American book bingo, and The Power Broker. These are just a few of the book clubs happening at Brooklyn Public Library! This episode, we take a tour around the borough to listen in on our patrons' reading habits and ask why we still read together.

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Check out our book clubs happening across the borough!
• Want to read The Power Broker? You can join the club at Macon Library or follow along with the podcast 99% Invisible.
• Read books by Haitian authors for our Haitian Heritage Book Bingo, or comics in Chinese. 
• Join a quiet reading party or an anime club for teens.

Check out what our staff are reading in “The Cover Is Blue” book club.

We're pulling out all the stops for the first annual Freedom to Read Day of Action on Saturday, October 19th! Hear from libraries in Los Angeles, San Diego, Hoboken, NJ and Austin, TX about what they're doing to promote the freedom to read. And, if you're in Brooklyn, meet us on the steps of Central Library this Saturday for a book rally!

You can read the transcript here. 

Further resources:

• Join Brooklyn Public Library on October 19th for our Freedom to Read Day of Action! Or check out events across the country.
• Visit San Diego Public Library and LA County Library online to learn about their Freedom to Read Day of Action events. And you can brush up on the California Freedom to Read Act. You can read the New York Times story about SDPL’s LGBTQ+ book displays
• Learn more about Hoboken Library and the book sanctuary movement. 
• Austin Public Library has events planned for October 19th, and a new podcast called Save the Books!

When Silent Spring came out in 1962, it was an instant best-seller and led to the establishment of the EPA, as well as the ban of harmful pesticides such as DDT. But Rachel Carson’s seminal work also shifted our way of thinking about nature. For the first time, the environment was not just something out there that could be tracked and measured, but something that lived inside all of us. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and visit learn more about the topics brought up in this episode.

• Check out our booklist with books recommended for this episode.
• This episode was a collaboration with the podcast Thresholds. You can listen to Jordan Kisener’s full interview with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson here. And check out Johnson’s new book, What If We Get It Right? 
• Read Bob Musil’s book, Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, and learn more about the Rachel Carson Council. 
• Read Rachel Frazin’s book, Poisoning the Well, which she co-wrote with Sharon Udasin.
• Watch Rachel Carson’s full speech to the National Women’s Democratic Club in 1962.

For Banned Books Week this year, we’re returning to our award-winning series, Borrowed and Banned. Because the fight isn’t over. In 2023, the American Library Association documented a 65% increase in the number of book titles challenged across the country.

Listen to the first episode of the series about what happened in one Oklahoma town when their freedom to read was challenged. And how one teacher’s response caught the nation’s attention.

Read the transcript here, and check out the following resources:

• Like what you hear? Listen to the rest of Borrowed and Banned, our award-winning podcast, series by visiting this page.
• We’ve got a week of programming around Banned Books Week this year. Check out our calendar and attend an event in Brooklyn!
• On October 19, 2024, libraries across the country are coming together for a Freedom to Read Day of Action. Learn more about how you can join!

Bedford-Stuyvesant is perhaps one of Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhoods. Its tree-lined streets and grand brownstones have been here for over 150 years. This episode, a re-broadcast from 2019, tells the story of Bed-Stuy through the lives of three women who set down roots here in different ways: activist Hattie Carthan, writer Paule Marshall, and novelist Naomi Jackson. 

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Check out our list of books curated for this episode.
• Learn more about Hattie Carthan on our Brooklynology blog, or check out the Magnolia Tree Earth Center archive at the Center for Brooklyn History.
• Visit Magnolia Tree Earth Center. You can also attend their new art exhibition opening on September 7th.
• Read Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, or her 1983 essay, "From the Poets in the Kitchen."

Splitting her time between Athens, Georgia and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Nicole A. Taylor is a food writer and author of several cookbooks. She sat down with BPL’s Bed-Stuy Tea podcast to discuss finding and preserving her Southern voice, the pleasures of restaurant research, and her favorite local spots to eat and drink.

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Listen to more episodes of Bed-Stuy Tea on our website, or subscribe to BKLYN Community Audio on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.
• Check out the cookbooks and books mentioned on this episode.

It's summer and school's out! No matter what age you are, you can spend your summer at the library with book lists and activities galore. We go over the facts and stats of BPL's popular Culture Pass program, which has helped thousands of New Yorkers visit museums and performance spaces in the city ... for free!

Read a transcript of the episode here.

More resources:

• Reserve free passes to museums and performance sites across NYC with Culture Pass (and your library card)!
• Is there a kid or teen in your life? They can spend their summer at the library with fun events, activities and book lists.
• Visit Brooklyn Botanic Garden or New-York Historical Society and 100 other cultural institutions and performing arts spaces this summer with Culture Pass.
• Summer is a great time to get out and visit our libraries! If you haven't started the challenge yet, read about our new prizes for Browse the Branches, the initiative inspiring New Yorkers to visit all 62 BPL branches by the end of the year. 
• Check out these "Explore Your City" summer reading lists for adults, teens and kids of all ages.

Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting Drag Story Hours since 2016. It's one of our most popular, colorful, and well-attended events for kids. In this episode, we explore why Drag Story Hour is important, and how it’s had to change in recent years in response to an increasingly tense political climate.

More resources:

• June is Pride Month! Celebrate at the Library with crafting, story times, film screenings and more!
• Learn more about Drag Story Hour and explore their resources for parents and caregivers.
• Have a kid? Attend a story time at a library branches across Brooklyn and check out out our recommendations for new LGBTQ+ books to read with your kid.

Outside of Brooklyn, Arthur Miller's name has largely faded from memory. On this episode, we tell the story of the Black community leader who was killed by NYPD chokehold in 1978, the movement pushed forward as a result of his death, and the ways that Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History helps to keep the story alive.

Further resources:

• Listen to the "Voices of Crown Heights Oral History Collection" or visit the Center for Brooklyn History in person. 
• Check out our list of books created specifically for this episode.
• Watch a recording of the June 2023 public program "Say His Name, Arthur Miller: A Death By Police Chokehold 45 Years Ago."
• Listen to the 2018 episode about Arthur Miller on Flatbush + Main,the podcast from the former Brooklyn Historical Society.
• Visit CBH's online exhibit, "Brooklyn Resists," to learn more about Brooklynites responding to systemic racial injustice over the years, and see photos of the 2020 protests in Brooklyn, contributed by community members.

Listen in on one of BPL's most popular art programs: a theater workshop where, once a week, budding thespians come together to read plays, talk about character motivations, and dig into some surprisingly emotional and political topics.

• Read a transcript of this episode on our website.
• Join fellow thespians at Central Library's theater workshop. Or, find a creative writing workshop at branches across BPL.
• Read along with the theater workshop by checking out the plays on our booklist.

The Library needs your help to protect our funding or risk losing over 16 million dollars. Send a letter to your elected officials. 

We revisit an episode from January 2021 in honor of National Library Workers Day, and ask: what do librarians do all day? When they're not planning programs or working the reference desk, these librarians are also obscure trivia players, birders and ... sword fighters! 

Read a transcript here.

• Have a minute? Vote for Borrowed and Banned in the Webby's! We were nominated for an award in the "Best Writing for Podcasts" category. 
• Celebrate National Library Workers Day by thanking your favorite library worker or attending one of BPL's National Library Week events.
• Listen to "On the Frontlines," an episode from our Borrowed and Banned series about library workers fighting for the freedom to read.
• Check out these lists of hobby books for adults and for kids.
• Read our blog posts about birding with kids and historical birding in Prospect Park.
• Not for the faint of heart: Learned League.

Teens and older adults are perhaps the two age groups you might think have the least in common. But a new program at BPL seeks to bring the two generations together ... by having them debate.

Read a transcript of this episode on our web page.

Resources mentioned on this episode:

• Learn more about services for older adults at BPL and programs for teens!
• Listen to "Bridging the Gap," a podcast series on our BKLYN Community Audio feed and check out these books about debate.
• Take this very short survey to let us know what you think about Bridging the Gap: Intergenerational Debate at BPL.

Brooklyn has 62 neighborhood libraries, each with a distinct architecture, culture, and soul. To kick off the new season and to celebrate our audio stories coming home to Brooklyn, we'll take a tour of the borough with the help of our neighborhood libraries and some of our stalwart patrons who visited all 62 of them ... in a matter of days!

• Read a transcript of this episode.
• Take our Browse the Branches challenge! Not in New York City? You can read your way through the branches with this book list.
• Help us keep our libraries open by fighting for our city funding. Write to your city leaders! Or, send a letter on behalf of Queens Public Library and New York Public Library.
• Did you miss our dedicated series about book bans? Never fear. You can binge every episode of Borrowed and Banned now. Start with our first episode.

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer who documents the extremes, from nightclubs to war zones. She’s also the author of several books, including Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun, a memoir of the Syrian War co-written with Marwan Hisham. We sat down with Crabapple to talk about the difference between words and images, making art in the world, and the power of cartoonists to disrupt fascism.

You can read a transcript of this episode here. And check out the following links:

• Check out our booklist with books recommended for this episode.
• Read Molly Crabapple’s Drawing Blood, and you can pre-order her new book about the Jewish Labor Bund.
• See Molly’s drawings and articles about the Dallas Six and the NYC taxi driver strike. You can also read Molly’s interview with Art Spiegelman.
• Art Spiegelman’s comic collaboration with Joe Sacco was published in The New York Review of Books earlier this year. You can check out Sacco’s Palestine and his more recent War on Gaza from the library.

Student activists in York, Pennsylvania organized a silent protest when hundreds of books were banned from their classrooms, paving the way for lasting change in their community. In this final episode of the series, we tackle the challenge head-on: from encouraging open dialogue about the books on our shelves to the ongoing work of protecting the freedom to read. 

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

How will you use the stories you’ve heard over the course of this series to protect the freedom to read? Send a voice message to podcasts [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org and tell us what you’re seeing in your community, or what you want to see. We might play your voice on an upcoming bonus episode, so be sure to introduce yourself with your name, your age, and your location. 

More resources:

• Watch Edha and Christina's TEDx Talk and follow their advocacy organization, EmpowerED. 
• Read about the new "Fight Book Bans Act" introduced in Congress. 
• Learn about PEN America's work to catalog book bans, including a recent report that identifies a culture of fear and intimidation and cumulative book ban data from 2021 to 2023.
• Writer George M. Johnson wrote about BPL's Chief Librarian Nick Higgins as a 2023 TIME100 Next Person of the Year.
• Check out every book mentioned on our Borrowed and Banned series! (Psst. You can check them out with a Books Unbanned library card.) And, listen to our 2022 episode about the launch of Books Unbanned and the history of book challenges at BPL.

Library workers often risk their livelihoods when they speak out against censorship, spurring community members to pick up the fight for intellectual freedom. We tell the story of how one Louisiana parish came together to defend their library amidst book challenges, tip lines, and even sign burning.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Find the people in your community who care about public libraries and get together with them.

More resources:

• EveryLibrary Institute is an organization that seeks to build voter support for libraries. Learn more about their support of St. Tammany Library Alliance here. 
• Book Riot and EveryLibrary teamed up to survey parents about their perceptions of public libraries and book bans. Read the full results of the survey here.
• Read Emily Drabinski's essay about St. Tammany Library and a report in the Louisiana Illuminator about the chaotic regularity of book challenges in the parish. 
• Most people oppose book bans, according to surveys from the American Library Association and CBS.
• Check out this list of challenged and banned children's books.

Maia Kobabe's debut memoir, Gender Queer, was the most frequently banned book in 2021 and 2022. We talked with em about what it's like to be on the recieving end of so many challenges, and the importance of public libraries.

Read the transcript here.

More resources:

• Check out Gender Queer.
• Find Maia's resources for defending Gender Queer, and eir recent comic about book bans and libraries.
• Read The Washington Post's article on book bans.

Despite being one of the most frequently banned authors, Toni Morrison’s work has inspired countless others to tell stories outside the mainstream. We take a closer look at Morisson's writing, her legacy, and her impact on the anti-censorship movement.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Learn how you can support and defend public libraries at Libraries for the People.

More resources:

• Read Toni Morrison's books. If you're a young person, you can apply for a Books Unbanned card to check out digital library books for free.
• Listen to Toni Morrison's full 2016 talk that was part of the BPL Presents series Brooklyn by the Book, co-curated by Community Books, BPL Presents & Congregation Beth Elohim.
• Watch Toni Morrison's speech when she accepted PEN America's PEN/Borders Literary Service Award in 2008.
• Learn more about the National Coalition Against Censorship's Student Advocates for Speech program.

George M. Johnson talks about their debut Young Adult memoir All Boys Aren't Blue, the support of their family, their love of Toni Morrison, and the importance of standing against book bans. 

Read the transcript here.

Resources:

• Check out All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson. 
• Read about Johnson's family supporting their book when it was challenged in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
• Access other banned books with our free Books Unbanned library card for teens.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Talk about the books that are important to you, even if they aren’t challenged.
• Stay informed about what books are being challenged in your area by subscribing to Book Riot's Literary Activism Newsletter. Each week, journalist Kelly Jensen writes about the latest in book banning trends, stories, and reports from across the country. 

More resources:

• Read the new "classics," selected by teens. 
• If you're a young person, you can join the Intellectual Freedom Teen Meetup, BPL's monthly virtual meeting to talk about the freedom to read.
• Check out Dr. Emily Knox's Book Banning in 21st Century America and her research on challenges to diverse books.
• Listen to our full interview with Mike Curato.

Read the new "classics," according to teens.

Mike Curato talks about his award-winning graphic novel Flamer, his writing practice, and how it feels to have his story vaulted into national headlines as parents, politicians, and school boards campaign to remove his book from school and library shelves.

Read the transcript here.

Resources:

• Check out Flamer from BPL, or other books by Mike Curato.
• See what books were most frequently challenged in 2022, according to the America Library Association.
• This conversation touches on suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or is in crisis, you can talk to someone at the suicide and crisis lifeline. Just call 988. It’s free, and it’s available 24 hours a day.