Culture Wars
Dear Fellow Citizen Readers & Writers,
We enter hollow ground covering unseen sinkholes when we ban works of art. When we ban books like PUSH, The Color Purple, Beloved, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X we stand not just to close our collective minds, but to lose them.
We’ve entered into an age where the inability to feel and empathize has led to a collective psychosis characterized by mass murders in the classroom and in our places of worship.
PUSH is a book about the awakening and healing of a violent and violated child. Through acts of of love, demonstrated by her teacher and classmates, she becomes an academic success story and a proud, loving mother. PUSH is a story about the power of language, the letters of the alphabet, that many of our children leave school never having learned.
PUSH is about the power of language to transform and open the mind and the heart.
PUSH heals.
PUSH teaches.
But most of all PUSH loves.
When we ban books like PUSH, we are in danger of falling into the sinkholes of hate and prejudice and ignorance and of losing what little love we have left for each other.
Yours in healing, hope, and love,
Sapphire
In June of 2022, PUSH was listed as one of “the 25 Most Significant New York City Novels
From the Last 100 Years published between 1921 and 2021" by the New York Times.
In August of 2022, PUSH was one of 52 books pulled from Utah's Alpine School District.
“Sharing stories important to us means sharing a part of ourselves. Books reach across boundaries and build connections between readers. Censorship, on the other hand, creates barriers. Banned Books Week is both a reminder of the unifying power of stories and the divisiveness of censorship, and a call to action for readers across the country to push back against censorship attempts in their communities."
― American Library Association
“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”
―Laurie Halse Anderson
"Books are under profound attack in the United States. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. PEN America pushes back against the banning of books and the intolerance, exclusion, and censorship that undergird it.
PEN America tracks all book bans in libraries and classrooms across the U.S. in our Index of School Book Bans, updated for the 2022-2023 school year.
Read the Banned in the USA Report."
Tallahassee Democrat
These 5 books banned from Florida school shelves might surprise you
by Ana Goñi-Lessan & Steven Walker
Bookseller Tiffany Razzano Relishes Dealing in Banned Titles
By Jim DeLa/Community News Collaborative
Florida schools got hundreds of book complaints — mostly from 2 people
By Ian Hodgson
These books got the most complaints in Florida schools
By Ian Hodgson
Two books are back in District 20’s school libraries, after being removed in April
By Eleanor Sheahan
Who is the Independence Law Center, the group pushing school book bans and anti-LGBTQ+ policies?
By Meredith Willse
Florida school district removes five books after parents object to ‘sex, violence, pedophilia’ on their pages
By Selim Algar
WCTV
‘Push’ among five books banned from Leon County high schools
By Chasity Maynard
LGBTQ Nation
Progressive org demands school district ban the Bible after it banned other “obscene” books
By John Russell
Two challenged books to remain in Old Rochester libraries
By Sawyer Smook-Pollitt
Banned books to return to Central York with passage of new library policy
Central York School District prepares for final vote on new book policy
By Tyler Hatfield
The 10 Most Banned and Challenged Books in 2023
By Orrin Grey
FOX 43 TV
Central York school board sends book review policy to a vote
By Logan Perrone
Why can't we have our own mind?': Central York speaks out on book ban
By Meredith Willse
FOX 43 TV
York County school district removes two popular books from library shelves
by Marshall Keely (WPMT)
Politico
Penguin Random House, others sues Florida school district over book bans
By Andrew Atterbury
Utah School District’s Reversal on Decision to Remove 52 Books From School Libraries Is an Important Step in Recognizing Students’ Speech Rights
Penguin Random House sues school district over book bans
By Jo Yurcaba
The 11 most banned books of the start of the 2022-2023 school year
Afternoon Drive with Allison Devereaux
CBC Afternoon Drive host Josiah Sinanan conversation on how the book, PUSH continues to stir discussions today
Latin Times
Anti-LGBTQ Book Bans Intensify in Michigan as Muslim-Americans Join Pro-Censorship Crusade
By Elle Yap
It's banned books week! What's been pulled in Genesee County? By Kent Davis
The Detroit News
Dearborn book bans draw supporters and foes
By Myesha Johnson and Hannah Mackay
Detroit Free Press
Dearborn Public Schools removes 7 books from libraries after parents complain
By Emma Stein
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah school district pulls 52 books after concerns and flagged another 32 for later review
By Courtney Tanner
