Banned books event on UT campus draws the curious

A steady influx of people roamed the first floor of the Carlson Library as the University of Toledo’s 27th Banned Book Vigil took place Thursday.

Warren Woodberry, 87, was one of 14 speakers at the event organized in coordination with the American Library Association.

“My book was banned,” Mr. Woodberry said. “My book was on the rights of women. I put it in my church and they banned it.”

For We Are Strangers, his self-published book, dealt with discrimination toward women within different religious contexts, and he said that was why the assistant pastor of his church in New Orleans, banned it. Women being able to preach from the pulpit was controversial for his particular denomination of Christianity at the time. He declined to identify which denomination.

Mr. Woodberry’s talk at 11:30 a.m., “Banned Books Un-American,” addressed how banning his book from the formal institution of his religious community silenced his voice from the discussion going on there, he said.

Presentations on banned books ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And all throughout the day, students could get a free snack and walk away with some free reading materials.

UT senior Oliver Marconi, 23, a theater major, rummaged through some of the books being given away at the vigil.

“I was just walking around, but I like to read,” he said, admitting he hadn’t known about the event beforehand. “And I'm like, ‘Oh, interesting.’”

Much of the conversation around banned books in recent times has involved school-age children, the LGBTQ community, and public libraries. But the UT Banned Books Vigil began with its current organizer, Paulette D. Kilmer, 27 years ago, in collaboration with the now closed Thackeray's Books, in Westgate Plaza.

Back then Ms. Kilmer was a professor in the communications department at UT and was worried about her students.

“Students in my classes didn't know what the First Amendment was, and I wanted to be sure they knew what freedom of expression was,” she said.

At the vigil, Hot Rod magazines sat in a pile free for the taking, next to romance novels and political books like, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder, all of which have been banned in one context or another.

During a segue between speakers Ms. Kilmer held up The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, and surprised students by informing them that the classic American novel was banned after it was first published.

“You can't think freely if you can't read freely,” she said.

Even though Ms. Kilmer has been preaching about the importance of allowing access to written media for decades she referenced current laws like Arkansas Act 372, a piece of state legislation currently paused under a federal district court’s preliminary injunction. Act 372 would restrict books based on an unclear measure of “appropriateness” and open up librarians and bookstore owners to criminal prosecution for not removing books deemed inappropriate.

“Children need to see themselves in books,” she said. “If gays and lesbians can't see themselves in books that's pretty isolating.” She went on to say that those who oppose reading materials are exactly the ones who should be reading them, so that they can learn from a differing perspective.

One student who thought similarly to Ms. Kilmer was 20-year-old Coriana Hill, a senior studying psychology.

“I'm kind of a nerd,” Ms. Hill said. “Anything that disturbs society” is something she has an interest in. “Hence, why I'm in psychology.”

Ms. Hill said she often has questions. “I wonder, ‘What was the purpose of the author writing this?’ ‘What did they want society to get from this?’” she said.

The freedom to exchange ideas is important to those who attended the event including Thomas A. Atwood, UT’s associate dean of university libraries.

“Libraries are about conversations,” Mr. Atwood said. And those conversations were instigated through everything at the library Thursday from the first floor galleries, to the books and guest speakers.

Much of what Mr. Atwood liked about the event was the interdisciplinary crossover from university students with different fields of study.

“I had an extra credit,” said Pranav Sawant, explaining why he attended the event. The 23-year-old junior studying information technology, added that he “stayed because it was interesting.”

“Everybody has the right to say whatever,” he said. “I understand you're banning for kids, because they shouldn't view at that age. But I don't think there should be banned books.”