Silken-voiced, dreamy eyed LeVar Burton has been advocating against book bans in partnership with PEN America. Now, in the middle of her Trustfall tour, Pink has also joined forces with PEN America, a group that fights for literary and human rights. Fans at her Florida concerts this week were treated to tote bags filled with banned books, coming in at 2,000 total free books for the week. And not a moment too soon, as PEN’s charts have Florida at more than double the number of book bans than the next highest state on the list, Texas. #BeLikableRon2024 might want to take some notes.
Pink on teaming up with PEN: “It’s confusing, it’s infuriating, it is censorship,” Pink said in an Instagram video announcing her action on Monday. The video, which also featured PEN America president Suzanne Nossel, has been liked more than 33,000 times. “Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child, and that’s why I am unwilling to stand by and watch while books are banned by schools,” Pink said in a PEN statement about the giveaway. “It’s especially hateful to see authorities take aim at books about race and racism and against LGBTQ authors and those of color. We have made so many strides toward equality in this country and no one should want to see this progress reversed. This is why I am supporting PEN America in its work and why I agree with them: no more banned books.”
Florida surpasses everyone in banned books: According to PEN America’s latest research, Florida surpassed Texas over the past academic year: There are more books banned in public school classrooms and libraries in the Sunshine State than any other state in the union. PEN America said it recorded 1,406 book ban cases in Florida, followed by 625 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 bans in Utah, and 186 bans in Pennsylvania.” PEN also reported a 33% spike in book bans nationally.
Ron DeSantis lies: “Exposing the ‘book ban’ hoax is important because it reveals that some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination… In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards. Florida is the education state and that means providing students with a quality education free from sexualization and harmful materials that are not age appropriate.”
Florida is the education state??Florida is the education state!! Reader, I fell out of my office wheelie chair reading that (and not in a home office, an office office, with people watching). It takes balls to lie like that, and I honestly did not think the twerp had ‘em. Florida, where students and teachers are fleeing en masse in what’s being called the great “brain drain.” Florida, where they’re implementing the offensive curriculum: “enslaved people developed skills for personal benefit.” Florida, where TV hosts are calling for the eradication of raccoons! That’s our education state! I’m in the hysterical laughter phase before the crash and sobbing commences.
Brava to Pink for spotlighting this crisis. And I don’t use that word carelessly. Cutting off access to knowledge and ideas is fundamental to authoritarian takeovers. PEN America has a Pink page up on their site with helpful info on the book titles being banned, the numbers by states, and how to press your elected officials to do something. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m dying to check out the over-sexualized content of one of these banned kids’ books: Girls Who Code.
Photos via Instagram and credit: Mike Gray / Avalon
This woman is a superstar.. I never expected her to be such a stalwart for sanity and feminism and sanity.. but just wow.. lots of respect to her. Well done!
Let’s stream Dear Mr President this weekend in support pf her.
This is cool.
I love that she is doing this in Florida!!!
Yep. Kinda wonderful
Awesome. Also one of the best singers of the last 20 yrs. I have seen her in several interviews and I would NEVER mess with this woman. She’s not scared. 💗
For awhile I was considering doing my grad work in Florida because the university system there has some really cutting edge programs in education. Not that the political jesters of Florida even know that.
👏👏👏 I agree with this entire article.
Same, thanks, Kismet!
YES! Altogether now, sing along aloud
books 📚 & music 🎶 ftw 🙌
Thank you so much Pink 💘
About a year ago my local bookstore (in Canada) set up a display of books with the sign “Banned Books – currently banned somewhere in North America (mostly Florida)”. The sign makes me laugh but it’s not funny when I see that “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Beloved” among others, are actually banned somewhere.
It’s bewildering to see the required reading of my school days on banned books lists. But what’s even weirder is that kids today have all the knowledge of the world on their pocket devices. You can’t actually deny a kid access to a book any more. All you can do is make it more enticing by banning it. 🤷♀️
The part about this that has me scratching my head is that there is a website that they use to help local groups decide which books to try to ban. So if you go to this site (whose name escapes me at the minute) and put in A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas it not only gives you the “problematic” page numbers, it actually includes the excerpts. So these excerpts are so bad that the books must be pulled – but any child with internet access can go to this site and read all the “problematic” pages with zero context.
How does that make sense??
@Becks1 – That’s like a parody. Kids, absolutely don’t read page 216 of this *very banned* book. Especially don’t read these three paragraphs. It reminds me of when we all read Judy Blume’s Forever, skipping to the descriptive parts. It wasn’t banned but it absolutely felt like getting away with something we weren’t supposed to do. Although I guess in this case it’s M4L covertly reading the naughty bits (for the kids, ya know?) and giggling to each other as they make lists of the dirty stuff.
Pink > Taylor Swift
And this is why.
Taylor is getting people to register to vote. Pink is getting people to read. They are both doing amazing things to ensure people are staying engaged and fighting back against fascist and authoritarian movements and power in the US. No need to compare… women fighting for people to vote and read in this climate in the US is admirable and they should both be praised for that.
I’m not a big fan of Taylor, but why compare them here, and use one to tear the other down?
Her voter registration push has helped get thousands of young, and mostly female, voters to sign up and get engaged, and we need that demographic to vote.
I didn’t know about PEN America until this article, so thank you, Kismet! Just made a donation and will keep an eye on it.
this is amazing, good for pink!
I’ve mentioned before that book bans are starting to become a real issue in my county – they’re spearheaded by one woman (who is a M4L) and the bans are based on a list put out by M4L. There is no context to this list, they just pull out excerpts and that’s what they recommend the bans based on.
We have a committee process, but it has a big flaw that hasn’t been an issue before now – after the committee votes on a book, the person recommending the ban can appeal that vote, and the appeal is decided by the “superintendent” or one person the superintendent appoints. So this means that it is a de facto committee of one who is deciding these bans and so far half the books have been effectively banned – they’re behind the media desk and can only be checked out with parent’s permission.
Whats the big deal, you ask? Shouldn’t parents know what their children are reading? Well its a big deal if a child is questioning their sexuality and wants to read a book about that without their parent’s knowledge, or whatever else a child may be going through that they dont want to share with their parents. It’s extremely frustrating.
Part of what bugs me about this is that school librarians have the appropriate qualifications to make the book buying recommendations; rando, ultra-religious, right-wing nut jobs do not. I’m a big believer in letting professionals do what they’re trained to do. I’m a big believer in qualifications. And a devoted library-goer since childhood; my reading choices weren’t banned by anybody. Yay for Pink, yay for LeVar Burton, yay for PEN. Let’s not sleep on this.
I’m not the biggest fan of her music, but I love that she is doing this. Most of the people advocating for these book bans have probably never read a complete book. Also, it’s odd that groups allegedly so concerned about sexual content and p0rn never advocate banning the Bible, which is in fact full of the most screwed up narratives of rape and incest that you can imagine.
There was a guy who successfully petitioned a Utah school district to do just that, ban the Bible because of all the sex and violence it contained.
He did that not to ban the Bible. But to prove the point of how ridiculous and hypocritical the book ban itself is. That the ban was so poorly written and supervised that one person in bible-loving uber-religious Utah could easily get any book banned by just submitting a few phrases.
I love this idea. Get the bible banned. Not that any of the MAGATs really read it anyway.
I love this! When I had to go Florida last summer, I packed two different “I read banned books” shirts to wear as my little one-woman protest.
Awesome that Pink is doing this, and so effing irritating that she has to!
This kind of anti-censorship advocacy by a prominent rock star is imperative in order to counter the authoritarian template being promoted by Florida, Texas and right-wing legislators across the country. I applaud Pink, LeVar Burton and any star/celebrity who use their platforms to pushback against the type of fascist control Ron DeSantis seeks.
The Levar Burton memes today are 🔥
He is the best. My brother and I watched Reading Rainbow as kids, and he’s been a lifelong supporter of literacy and love of books.
Good for her. ALWAYS liked her and her music.