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Aug 20, 2023

Keeping Banned Books on the Shelves

In the face of restrictions on books and information, “what gives me hope are the people on the ground, the parents, writers, school librarians, and teachers who are fighting back and are making their

In the face of restrictions on books and information, “what gives me hope are the people on the ground, the parents, writers, school librarians, and teachers who are fighting back and are making their voices heard,” says Allison Lee, shown at right with Stacy Lieberman at the PEN America World Voices Festival in Los Angeles in May. Photo: Courtesy of Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman

Former Tufts roommates Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman team up to defend access to controversial titles and information

Allison Lee, J92, read Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in a Tufts class taught by the late Gerald Gill, a history professor who focused on the experiences of Black Americans.“It opened up an entire world to me that I would not have known from my own lived experience,” Lee says.

Stacy Lieberman, J92, read Art Spiegelman’s Maus in a Holocaust literature course taught by Jonathan Wilson, now a professor emeritus of English.

“It was a life-changing experience for me to read a graphic novel that so accurately depicted not only the pain of what happened during the Holocaust, but what happened to the children of survivors,” Lieberman says.

Concerned about book bans and restrictions on school curricula? Allison Lee, J92, and Stacy Lieberman, J92, share these suggestions.

Read banned books. Lee and Lieberman have started reading as many banned books as possible. “I want to understand the stories that are being told. I’m continually learning, I’m always curious,” says Lee, who recommends All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. More recommendations can be found in the sidebar below and on PEN America’s school libraries’ book ban list and the American Library Association’s most challenged book list.Vote. “Local elections matter,” Lee says. “People might not think 2023 is a big election year, but there are multiple small elections where decision makers about book bans, library defunding, and curriculum are in play—school boards and state legislatures.”Take action. “When we're talking to foster youth or LGBTQIA+ teens who use libraries to get these materials because they can't in other ways, it makes me realize how important it is to support organizations like The Trevor Project, which advocates for LGBTQIA+ teens,” Lieberman says. “Find a grassroots organization and become engaged, because that's where the conversations need to be happening and where your advocacy can make a difference.”

These titles have made headlines for being banned in parts of Florida, Missouri, Oregon, and Tennessee, among other states. Lee and Lieberman are fighting to reverse and prevent such bans.

The two met when they were assigned to a triple in Miller Hall their first year at Tufts, though after a few weeks, Lieberman moved out when space in another room opened up. Their paths rarely crossed again. But now, 30 years later, they’ve reunited in Los Angeles through their work.

Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman, shown in their Miller Hall dormitory room in August 1988, are now the managing director of PEN America’s Los Angeles office and the president and CEO of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, respectively. Photo: Courtesy of Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman

Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman, shown in their Miller Hall dormitory room in August 1988, are now the managing director of PEN America’s Los Angeles office and the president and CEO of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, respectively. Photo: Courtesy of Allison Lee and Stacy Lieberman

Lee is the managing director of PEN America’s Los Angeles office. The organization’s mission is to “protect the liberties and freedoms that make creative expression possible,” she says. Lieberman is president and CEO of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles (LFLA), a nonprofit that supports the city’s public libraries. Both have focused their careers in the nonprofit sector with a deep commitment to the arts, culture, history, ideas, and social justice issues.

Together, they have spoken at events focused on the impact of book bans on public and school libraries. This past April, they were the featured speakers at a public salon held to celebrate the premiere of a new documentary about author Judy Blume. In March, Blume’s 1975 novel Forever was among more than 80 books banned from Florida’s Martin County middle and high schools, along with The Bluest Eye.

Allison Lee, J92, and Stacy Lieberman, J92, recommend reading books that have stirred controversy.

Lee, managing director of PEN America’s Los Angeles office, suggests the following titles.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Analyzing Morrison’s work—including this title—while an undergraduate at Tufts prepared me for how to engage as an adult in discussions around complex topics like race, privilege, identity, beauty, and self-loathing. Now, quite simply, her work reminds me of the power of storytelling. The fact that it continues to be challenged and banned because of the raw realness of that storytelling is an important reminder to me as to why I’m engaged in this fight.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

This graphic autobiography is often targeted by book banners as “pornography” in large part because it charts the course of Kobabe’s own journey of self-identity. In many ways it’s the continuation of the path first forged in the 1970s by Judy Blume, who wrote frankly about teen sexuality, puberty, and other sensitive subjects—but this book has a 21st-century format and point of view. It is honest and real and an important read for anyone wanting to better understand what gender identity means and how to advocate for all.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

This book has faced censorship of one sort or another since it was published in 1899—largely because of its representation of female sexual identity and independence. I read it for a class at Tufts, and was struck by the fact that Chopin never wrote another novel after The Awakening and had difficulty getting any work published. I recently met YA and children’s book author Elana K. Arnold, whose books have been banned because she tells stories of sexual assault and female sexual coming of age. Many of her new works, including picture books on completely different subjects, are being targeted for bans or removals because she’s been pegged a “problematic author”—the cycle continues.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

This 2017 New York Times bestselling novel, inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement, offers a critical look at race and police violence in the United States and was adapted into a film by the same name in 2018. I had the honor of moderating a panel with Thomas at the 2023 LA Times Festival of Books and what struck me the most about her was her optimism. Rather than spending energy or attention on those who seek to restrict access to books, Thomas is focused on the writers, librarians, and students for whom the stakes are highest—and on the generation best positioned to fight back. I carry with me Thomas’s positive message: “The power you have is stronger than the hate anybody could give.”

Lee, an American studies and politics double major, and Lieberman, an English and French double major, remember being dazzled by the ethos of diversity at Tufts — including the books they read for courses. “The emphasis was on creating a community, on celebrating difference, on understanding that your job as a serious student was to explore topics that you did not know, that you maybe weren't comfortable with, that maybe challenged your point of view,” Lee says. “That was part of the liberal arts experience.”Librarians tell Lieberman that their greatest concern is how bans might affect a generation without access to certain books, including those in which young people can see themselves as they’re exploring their own identities. From July to December 2022, Lee says, PEN America identified 1,477 instances of individual book bans that impacted 874 titles, an increase of 28% from the prior six months. The report notes that young adult books are most likely to be banned.

Lieberman worries about efforts to defund libraries, too. “When libraries close, it’s not just access to books that ends, but also access to information—all the community programming that libraries offer. It's where new immigrants go to learn about citizenship. It’s where many learn digital literacy.”

Stacy Lieberman, president and CEO of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, recommends these books.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

This groundbreaking, Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel is a deeply affecting and wrenching depiction of the life of Spiegelman’s father Vladek, as told by his son Artie. With Jews depicted as mice and Nazis as cats, the book alternates between Vladek’s harrowing survival of the Holocaust and what continues to haunt him and his family as a tormented survivor living in New York. The book has been banned for nudity and profanity despite its obvious importance as a novel that powerfully shares the painful history of the Holocaust.

Forever by Judy Blume

With the same openness and honesty characteristic of all of Judy Blume’s work, this novel shares the budding romance of high school students Katherine and Michael, and serves as a helpful and relatable guide to teens navigating their way through the confusion of first relationships, love, and sex. Everyone I knew growing up read this book and passed it around, grateful for all the ways it normalized what we were feeling and answered frankly the questions we were embarrassed to ask. The book is banned due to its graphic description of sex and because the main character actively seeks and accesses birth control at Planned Parenthood.

The Narrative and Selected Writings by Frederick Douglass

I read this powerful collection of autobiographical writing by Douglass, a former enslaved person, abolitionist, and human rights activist, in a Tufts class on Black literature that was taught by Clyde Taylor, who was an associate professor in English then. Reading this book emphasized the power of exactly why books need to be so accessible—so you can put yourself in someone else's shoes and read about others’ lived experiences, which engenders empathy and understanding. That knowledge continues to motivate me to advocate for justice, especially when this book is being banned, along with others by authors of color and/or addressing race.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, illustrated by Henry Cole

This children’s book tells the heartwarming story of two male penguins at New York City’s Central Park Zoo who fall in love and want to start a family like their penguin peers. A zookeeper helps them “adopt” a baby chick. Altogether, their family makes three. My sons’ aunties gifted us this colorful picture book, which is based on a true story, and my boys loved when I read it to them before bed, appreciating that families come in many different forms. The book is banned for celebrating same-sex relationships.

In their work and at public events, the women urge everyone to get involved in protecting such access.

“I’ve been an activist since my time at Tufts,” says Lee, who organized five buses for the 1992 March for Women’s Lives, which drew hundreds of thousands of abortion-rights advocates to Washington, D.C. Lieberman remembers boarding one of them. “Of course Allison organized it all!” she recalls.

“Today,” says Lee, “what gives me hope are the people on the ground, the parents, writers, school librarians, and teachers who are fighting back and are making their voices heard.”