Firestorm hosts Sept. 28 book drive for Banned Books Week

Press release from Firestorm Books & Coffee:

Firestorm Books & Coffee will partner with Asheville Prison Books to celebrate Banned Books Week by holding a book drive for incarcerated readers in North and South Carolina. Community members are encouraged to drop by the West Asheville co-operative on Saturday, Sept. 28, to buy a banned or “challenged” book to donate to Asheville Prison Books. Firestorm will then match every gift with a second donated book. Between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Prison Books volunteers will be on-hand to share additional information about their program.

According to Firestorm Collective member Libertie Valance, “If you think that book banning is just the stuff of a parochial past or a dystopian future, you’re mistaken. Right now, tens of thousands of North Carolinians are being arbitrarily prevented from accessing reading material.” Valance noted that the North Carolina prison system, like other state and federal systems, maintains a banned books list. In 2018 the ACLU called that list—which included The New Jim Crow, an award-winning book by Michelle Alexander about mass incarceration and discrimination against African-American—“shameful,” “wrong,” and “unconstitutional.” At that time, restricted titles included I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Stand by Stephen King, and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves by Laura Erickson-Schroth.

“In the era of prison profiteers like JPay we’re potentially seeing the dawn of a new era of prison censorship,” noted Asheville Prison Books organizer Julie Schneyer. “For-profit companies are making big money by using the promise of tech-enabled education to sell e-readers and tablets, but these devices only carry DOC-sanctioned content. This makes it much easier for DOCs to engage in covert censorship, and at the same time, they’re using the availability of these new devices to justify banning programs like ours from sending in free physical books at all. It’s a lose-lose.”

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. www.bannedbooksweek.org and www.pen.org/banned-books-2019.

Asheville Prison Books is a volunteer-run collective which has distributed free books to people incarcerated in the southeast since 1999. In addition to sending books, APB educates and engages the community in dialogue through public events, media, and advocacy around issues of mass incarceration, prison slavery, and their vision of a world without cages. www.avlpb.org

Firestorm Books & Coffee is an 11-year-old collectively-owned bookstore and community event space at 610 Haywood Road. The co-op, known for its social movement-oriented book selection, hosts numerous events related to book access and incarceration. www.firestorm.coop

SHARE
About Community Bulletin
Mountain Xpress posts selected news and information of local interest as a public service for our readers. To submit press releases and other community material for possible publication, email news@mountainx.com.

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.