Whether it's Toni Morrison's Beloved that opened your heart in high school English class or Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow that powered a generation of people to fight against mass incarceration, most of us have been transformed by a book that's currently on a banned book list.

But it's about more than just books. These bans represent a larger swath of chilling authoritarian-style policies that are affecting communities across the country, seeking to divide us along lines of difference. We not only need to fight to protect the stories we love, but fight to put our people at the tables where these policies are decided.

Join Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and For the People: A Leftist Library Project for a community conversation, “Beyond Book Bans: building power in public schools and libraries” to hear stories about how regular folks are building people power to make decisions about how the libraries and schools in their communities are run.

Opening remarks by abolitionist organizer (and co-founder of For the People Leftist Library Project) Mariame Kaba.

Live captioning and ASL interpretation will be available during this event.