ACLU Hosts 8th Annual Banned Book Night

The Water Street Bookstore became a clandestine gathering place on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Inside the only store still illuminated at 7 p.m., a crowd listened intently as six readers presented selections from various books banned in the United States for the town of Exeter's annual Banned Book Night. This event was co-sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire (ACLU-NH) and organized by ACLU-NH board member Pat Yosha.

Exeter first initiated its Banned Book Night tradition as part of the Banned Book Week activities organized by the national ACLU and the American Library Association. “We, along with the national ACLU, introduce to the public books that have been banned for various reasons,” Yosha said. “We want to promote the freedom to read, the freedom of speech, the First Amendment, which is why we celebrate this event…Each year we find six local readers, show them a list of one hundred books, and they can choose from the list.”

Yosha stated that the need for Banned Book Night originated from library censorship, often due to parental concerns. “Sometimes it’s because they’re too sexually explicit, sometimes they think it’s propaganda for some party or some cause, sometimes they don’t like the profanity of the language, sometimes they think they’re promoting some kind of an idea,” Yosha said. “Each of the books that are being read tonight has been banned more than once, sometimes repeatedly, for a variety of reasons.”

The Water Street Bookstore was a natural partner for this event. “Our mission is to build community around the written word, a diverse and vibrant community, and there is nothing more on mission we do every year than to host and support... this event,” owner and founder Dan Chartrand said. “Banning books is essentially saying these do not deserve to be within community, and I would disagree wholeheartedly…Censorship is rarely effective, and it’s better to let the information flow freely.”

Banned Book Night has long solicited readers from the Academy community, including both faculty and students. This time around, the readers were lower Liam Ahern, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dr. Stephanie Bramlett, authors Paul Durham and Joe Pace, former State Representative Eileen Flockhart and Leslie Haslam, Director of Exeter Adult Education. Previous Exeter readers include Director of Exeter Summer Russell Weatherspoon, English Instructor Courtney Marshall and Theater Instructor Rob Richards.

This year, Ahern read from Go Tell On the Mountain by James Baldwin. “I’ve known about James Baldwin and his impact on the world,” Ahern said. “But I've never read any of his stuff. So when I got the chance to do that and also be a part of something really awesome like Banned Book Night, I really just jumped on it.”

Ahern was further motivated by the symbolic significance of reading out censored text. “I think America is far from perfect, but one of the things we do have is freedom of speech. We have to uphold those values, even when the state rails against,” he said. “There was a time where somebody tried to silence these words and just coming together to read them out loud, I think is important…[We have to] recognize that America did try to keep these words out of our mouths.”

Leslie Haslam, who read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, also felt the need to share a reading because of the importance of confronting difficult topics. She noted that fear of controversy sparked by a book’s content does not justify the right to censor it, adding that it is sometimes necessary to readers. “If someone wants be ban a book because it makes people too upset, well maybe sometimes we need to be upset,” she said.

Several Exonians attended the event and were forced to reflect on freedom of speech.

“The event was full of very thought-provoking selections…from often underrepresented and suppressed viewpoints,” senior Thomas Wang said. “I particularly enjoyed the Fahrenheit 451 quote that they ended the event on which demonstrated the importance of books and the freedom of the press in contrast to the on-demand media that we are used to today. The timelessness of these selections and their messages really echoed in me."

The ultimate goal of Banned Book Night was to promote creative discourse and critical thought on a range of topics. “We want to encourage the exploration of all thinking, of all ideas. Suppression of any kind seems to me to be dangerous,” Yyosha said. “Without the freedom to look at all ideas, we’re really closing our thought. I think that is anti-democratic and anti-educational.”