Save Our Stories

On the first day of Banned Books Week 2025, Penguin Random House hosted a Save Our Stories Supper on the rooftop of Washington, D.C.’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Because of our work on the Teach Truth campaign, our executive director was invited to attend.

The speakers included Trevor Baldwin of the James Baldwin family, Kyle Zimmer of First Book, Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, John Chrastka of Every Library, authors Ellen Oh, Kim Johnson, David Levithan, Jason Reynolds, and many more authors and brave teacher, student, and librarian plaintiffs in legal cases to defend the freedom to read. Each shared remarks for two minutes.

Here are three clips from the evening.

Mychal Threets, PBS resident librarian

We all have stories to share. Banning books is banning stories. Banning stories is banning existence. Banning existence is banning hope. Book bans declare some voices, some stories don’t deserve to be heard, to be told. And I cannot accept that. I refuse to believe that. No voice should ever be silenced. No voice should ever be made to feel invisible. Together, all of us in this room, these literary giants, together, we have the joy of uplifting stories. Your stories, our neighbors’ stories in the words of my heroes Mr. Rogers and LeVar Burton. Uplifting and having the audacious honor of sharing stories of Palestine, of Gaza, of the Congo, of Sudan, Jewish stories, stories of Yemen, stories of Ukraine, neurodivergent stories, homeless stories, LGBTQIA+ stories, your stories, our neighbors’ stories. Stories out to be shared to be saved. They keep memories, hope, joy, and legacy alive from Hind’s Hall to library halls to bookstore halls. Sharing stories is my favorite way to celebrate one another, to see one another, and to hear one another.

Emily Lewis, English teacher and plaintiff, Iowa

Americans should know that banning books doesn’t just steal words from our shelves. Banning books steals words from our mouths. In Iowa, teachers were not prepared. Our state, a field of dreams, where Annie Kinsella spoke out against book banning. Is this heaven or more like Gilead? My students may never know. Atwood is, as you guessed it, banned. They have used words to build laws that banned so much of what is true. In Iowa, HF802, 583, SF496, to name just a few. I’ve seen in action how our world is built and governed by words. In courtrooms with many of you where the state’s attorney admits to never having read 1984. Can you imagine? What if he had? Case in point. Even with victories won, the appeals, the fight continues. Words are dissected for meaning and application. Motions filed with much anticipation. Meanwhile, books stay boxed up in dark corners. Curriculum ran more monochromatic by the hour. Removing a book so that it cannot be read has turned into removing it as even a concept to be said. As quickly as one might turn a page wondering about if became wondering worrying about when became whispers in corners became distrust amongst both colleagues and community becomes silence. This is the part where I end with a punch. A triumphant fist in the air. A radiant symbol of hope as I spout a montage of quotes from books that I wish I could teach. But my hope is of the dirt and flame. It’s a single candle. It’s not a roaring blaze. And I need you all to lend your light and to add your muscle to our fight. I need you to share our words wide. Because Americans should know that banning books doesn’t just steal words from our shelves. It steals words from our mouths. Thank you.

Ibram X. Kendi, professor, Howard University

I stand before you as someone who has been radically changed by the book. Each of you have been radically changed by the book. Each of us as we were walking in here, we were passing people who had been radically changed by the book. And internal revolutions eventually become societal revolutions. When we radically transform ourselves, we end up radically transforming society. Which to me is what book banners fear the most. To ban books is to ban revolutions, societal and internal. To defend banned books is to defend revolutions. To defend revolutions is to defend what brought us the human rights that are frankly slipping away. And there may be no more precious human right than the right to revolutionize ourselves as human beings through the power of the book.