The Banned Wagon seeks to combat national books bans with stop in Bushwick
The truck tours around the United States, giving out free copies of books that have been banned in public libraries and public schools in different parts of the country.
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In recognition of Banned Books Week, The Banned Wagon made a stop outside the Brooklyn Public Library's Bushwick Branch on Monday, providing free copies of books that have been banned in public schools and libraries in different parts of the country.
While the titles spanned the gamut from children's books to memoirs to well-known titles like "The Diary of Anne Frank," Brooklyn Public Library, spokesperson Fritzi Bodenheimer says that most of them focus on themes about LGBTQ characters, are written by an LGBTQ author or involve people of color.
"When you take books off the shelf, you're erasing a whole group of people from history," Bogenheimer said.
"These people have stories, and stories like these, whether it's good, bad, or ugly, we need to hear and understand," said Lenval Laid, who traveled all the way from the Bronx to attend the event.
The Banned Wagon makes stops around the country, with its main goal to raise awareness, says tour manager Travis Bernard.
"There's a lot of people that - they matter - these stories matter, they want to get involved," he said.
"Sometimes you find yourself in one of these books - and I think that's the best part," said Karina Rojas, who lives nearby where the event happened. "I relate to this person - not only this person, these people are going through the same experience as I am."
While book bans in New York are rare, the American Library Association says that there has been a major increase in them nationally since 2020. The association says 5,668 books were banned last year - the highest single-year total since it started tracking the data in 1990.
"One of the biggest ways we can really combat against these stories being silenced - we gotta say these names, say these titles. That's the way we're going to keep these stories alive," said Laird.
The Brooklyn Public Library has also been at the front of this effort, offering digital library cards to teenagers around the country through its Books Unbanned program. It says that so far, it has allowed 21,000 people the ability to access banned books anywhere they have the internet.
