Forty years after Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 to raise awareness about censorship, the issue has taken on new importance across the country. This year more than ever it’s essential that we raise awareness about book banning and censorship. Books unite us. Books encourage boundless exploration and allow readers to spread their wings. Stories give flight to new ideas and perspectives. Reading—especially books that set us free—expands our worldview. Censorship, on the other hand, locks away our freedom and divides us from humanity in our own cages.

The United States in in the midst of a culture war driven by neo-Fascists and white Christian Nationists. Funded by a network of dark money from extremist oligarchs, sham community and parent groups are attacking libraries and school boards on a daily basis in nefarious attemps to ban and censor books.