Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. This week of awareness brings to light current and historical attempts to censor books in our nation. The entire book community comes together in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. The 2021 theme unifying events across the country is: “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”

Oberlin College Libraries and the English Department are partnering together to host a Banned Books Read-Aloud event on Wednesday, October 6 at 4:30 p.m. in the Academic Commons (first floor of Mudd Center). We invite the campus community to join us in a public reading of excerpts from their favorite books that have been censored, banned, challenged, or excluded from curricula throughout the years. By reading them in this forum, we celebrate our freedom of speech, our freedom to read, and our freedom to explore the written and spoken word unbounded by censorship.

No need to sign up or RSVP; just show up and read with us. You can bring a book of your own, or check out one of ours!