Banned Books Week Read Out Features Special Guest

Rock Island Public Library and Midwest Writing Center Celebrate the Freedom to Read with a Special Guest, Intellectual Freedom Pioneer Steven Pico.

2 025 Banned Books Read-Out Is October 6

For more than a decade, the Rock Island Public Library and Midwest Writing Center have partnered during Banned Books Week to celebrate the freedom to read, while highlighting the dangers of censorship. Thanks to a partnership with Augustana College, the 2025 Banned Books Read Out will also feature a special guest, intellectual freedom pioneer, Steven Pico. Although Mr. Pico might not be immediately known by name, he and four other classmates were part of a landmark court ruling by the US Supreme Court in "Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District vs. Pico." The ruling in favor of the plaintiffs concluded that "School boards may not remove books from library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books."

Pico will join the 2025 Banned Books Read Out on Monday, October 6 at the Rock Island Public Library Watts-Midtown Branch auditorium, 2715 30^th Street. The event features brief readings by local volunteers from books challenged for their right to remain available to the public.

The Read-Out event starts with social time and networking at 5:30 pm, with a short student documentary screening at 5:45 pm. Steven Pico will then kick off public readings by community members from 6 pm to 8 pm. Attendees may come to read or just listen. The event also includes free drawings for Banned Books buttons and other items with this year's theme, "Censorship is So 1984, Read for Your Rights."

To sign up to read from your favorite banned or challenged book, contact Midwest Writing Center executive director, Ryan Collins, at the Midwest Writing Center, (309) 732-7330 or email [email protected].

Banned Books Week will take place October 5 - 11, 2025. In 1982, the American Library Association and a coalition of other organizations launched Banned Books Week in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores. From 2021 to 2024, those censorship efforts have redoubled. Last year, 2,452 unique titles were challenged, the third highest number ever documented by ALA and significantly exceeding the annual average of 273 unique titles over the period from 2001-2020.

"The 2025 theme of Banned Books Week serves as a reminder that censorship efforts persist to this day," ALA President Cindy Hohl said. "We must always come together to stand up for the right to read."

For more information about the event, contact [email protected], visit the Rock Island Library website or call the library at 309-732-READ. The event is free and open to the public. While the event is open to all, attendees should be aware that some readings will include mature content.

More about Steven Pico

In 1977, at age 17, Steven Pico became one of the founders of the freedom to read movement in the United States by serving as the plaintiff in the critically-important case Board of Education v. Pico -- the first lawsuit of its kind. When he announced his legal challenge to the removal and banning of 11 books from the public schools in Island Trees, New York, Steven Pico forewarned all Americans about the dangers posed by censorship. He emphasized that book banners seemed particularly motivated to silence the voices of authors from the African-American, Jewish, LGBTQ+, Native American, Hispanic, Asian and other communities.

Five months before his high school graduation and with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. by his side, Pico set in motion what would become the most consequential challenge to book banning in American history. Following its defeat at the Supreme Court, the Island Trees Board of Education voted to return all of the banned writings -- which included a 1729 essay by Jonathan Swift, popular titles such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Go Ask Alice, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Fixer and Laughing Boy, a short story by James Baldwin, an essay on Malcolm X, and works by Richard Wright, Alice Childress, and Langston Hughes -- to its school library shelves for unrestricted use by students, librarians and teachers.

A lifetime of fighting against censorship

For the past 50 years, Mr. Pico has spoken out nationwide, and organized at the community- and state-level, about the importance of defending our Constitutional liberties. At age 19, he served on the Board of Trustees of his local public library, and at age 20 he represented New York State as a delegate to the First White House Conference on Library and Information Services. After receiving his Bachelor's degree from Haverford College, Steven worked for three years at the non-profit National Coalition Against Censorship, during which time he worked to pass a law protecting the privacy rights of all library users in New York State. When he was 26, The New York Times described Steven Pico of "Pico v. Island Trees fame" as a "Hero to civil libertarians" and yet, interestingly, fame seemed to be one thing that held the least interest and value to Mr. Pico.

Having been recognized in the past by the Writers Guild of America, East, for "his valiant fight against censorship" and by the American Library Association for "strong commitment and defense of the principles of intellectual freedom and the freedom to read," Steven Pico was honored in November 2023 with the NEW PRESS Social Justice Award "for a lifetime of fighting against censorship." Established in 2010 to recognize "individuals whose creative contributions have had a lasting impact on our society," past honorees of the Social Justice Award have included Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, and Toni Morrison.

Mr. Pico's appearance at the Banned Books Week event is made possible by Augustana College, which has chosen him to present atthe college'sSymposium Day, October 8, 2025.