Book Sanctuary Cities Like Chicago Are a Response to Book Bans, Censorship

Imagine facing possible felony charges for lending students library books. That unimaginable scenario is currently playing out in Florida, “where teachers are being told” to remove any “unvetted” books from classroom libraries or risk prosecution. 

Florida is far from the only state where state officials seem eager to challenge and ban books. In North Dakota, lawmakers are considering a bill to ban books with “sexually explicit” content — which includes sexual or gender identity — from public libraries, as well as imprison librarians who don’t comply. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Indiana have reintroduced a similar bill that would criminalize librarians for giving minors what some may view as obscene material. 

But as book bans and challenges unfold across the country, some cities and libraries have landed on a novel solution: declaring themselves “book sanctuaries.” A book sanctuary program acts as a safe space for books. It protects challenged books, or ones that are in danger of being banned, while ensuring communities and library members can access books with a variety of viewpoints and ideas, explains Lessa Kanani‘opua Pelayo-Lozada, president of the American Library Association. 

Take the Chicago Public Library, which launched its book sanctuary initiative last September, during Banned Books Week. Each of its 81 library branches in 77 neighborhoods will increase access to banned or challenged books by committing to keeping these books accessible and in the public eye. Additionally, the library is hosting talks and events around diverse characters and stories, banned books, and the history of book banning and burning. 

“It’s really a public declaration that ensures Chicagoans are aware of the access that they have, just [by] being a resident of the city, to all these different kinds of stories, especially from marginalized or underrepresented populations,” Julie Koslowsky, director of teen services at the Chicago Public Library tells Teen Vogue. 

In January, the city of Stamford, Connecticut, also launched a book sanctuary initiative. Like Chicago, the city’s program increases access to banned or challenged books through “book talks, events, and conversations about diverse characters and stories, and educating others on the history of book banning and burning,” according to the press release. Toronto similarly created a book sanctuary collection in February, which includes 50 banned, challenged, or censored books that can be found in branches and online. 

These programs are a direct response to censorship around the country. Pelayo-Lozada told Teen Vogue that, although the ALA hasn’t finalized its data, 2022 is expected to have a record-breaking number of book ban attempts. According to a recent report from The New Republic, Moms for Liberty, the national conservative group behind many prominent book banning and censorship efforts in schools, is now targeting libraries. 

Kennedy Turner, a 14-year-old intern with the Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books program, explains that book bans are particularly detrimental to young people who are in their formative years. “That’s when you really start learning your identity and learning about new things, and that’s the best time to branch out,” she explains. “Seeing bans on things like LGBTQIA books and books about race can really limit somebody to the scope of the real world and can give them a real shock when they grow up and have to start doing things independently.” 

Cameron Samuels, a freshman at Brandeis University and the Youth Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week, is a passionate campaigner against book bans. In 2021, Samuels attended a school board meeting alone to speak out against censorship in their Texas school district, including proposed book bans. Within a few months, Samuels not only packed the school board meeting with like-minded students and LGBTQ community members, but also distributed hundreds of banned books to students and pressured the school district to keep books on library shelves. 

“Book bans target our most vulnerable identities of our social humanity, and they attempt to erase our identities and bar us from coming to terms with them,” Samuels explains. “Books can offer a lifeline for young people to navigate their traumas, to navigate their struggles with themselves and with the world. And when certain people attempt to remove these stories and bar students from accessing them in their schools — an educational institution dedicated to supporting their well being — then it could be a matter of life or death.”

Indeed, a report released last year from PEN America found that book bans disproportionately target “books by or about people whose identities and stories have traditionally been underrepresented in children’s and young adult literature, such as people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, or persons with disabilities.”

Book sanctuaries, on the other hand, can ensure these books are readily accessible. And after a year of record-high bans and challenges, the creation of book sanctuaries is a helpful symbol of communities valuing intellectual freedom, Samuels explains. 

For Samuels, a book sanctuary’s aim isn’t to dispel critiques of books, but to encourage them. “Criticism is an influential part in examining literature and, with this recent wave of book banning, it has been extremely politicized. It’s no longer examining literature from a humanities’ perspective and therefore has simply become a way to fearmonger, to take advantage of voters, and gain political power,” they explain. Book sanctuaries create space to continue critiquing and analyzing literature — a safe space to form individual opinions. 

Koslowsky similarly said that it’s important to remember that not every book is for every reader: “Just because it isn’t a book that you enjoy, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t speak to somebody else. It’s important for us to have a diverse collection that’s reflective.”

In places like Texas where book bans are becoming more frequent, book sanctuaries could prove especially effective, Samuels says. “These students, these young people need access to books where they are most endangered, and establishing a book sanctuary in a local community bookstore could offer an outlet when a Texas public school would not.” 

Looking forward, both Turner and Koslowsky agree that increased awareness could help address book bans and challenges on a national level. Before taking part in the Chicago Public Library’s program, Turner didn’t know bans occurred. “I recently read Fahrenheit 451 for class, and I thought that book banning was just a practice used way back then and in fiction, but hearing that it’s still going on today in some places that I’ve even visited was really shocking to me,” she says. She thinks drawing attention to book bans can encourage people to read more. 

Koslowsky says Turner’s experience isn’t unique. “I think, especially living in such a large, diverse city, a lot of our youth are not aware of the kind of national landscape around book challenges or book banning.”

Young people hoping to combat censorship can also access the Chicago Public Library’s toolkit on the topic and commit to protecting endangered books themselves. Samuels encourages people to talk to libraries and bookstores to see if they can be turned into book sanctuaries. Beyond that, they also suggest speaking at city council meetings, school board meetings, or delivering testimony to state legislatures. And, of course, they encourage everyone to read. 

“Because of the politicization, people have taken for granted what political leaders are saying about such books,” Samuels says, “and if you read them on your own, you’ll see that it is nothing like what these leaders are accusing them of.”

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