No Book Bans

    No Book Bans Logo

    No Book Bans was founded in 2022 to support children’s access to work that rejoices at the exploration and understanding of one’s unique identity. We believe the banning of books and plays erases people's identities from our culture, and we value the library and the theatre as a repository of those stories and identities. These include all stories – that opens readers’ eyes to a place in a bigger world – that celebrates the joy of all people by including Black joy, the joy of Indigenous people and people of color, the joy of LGBTQIA+ people, Latine joy and Asian joy, Muslim joy and Jewish joy, disabled joy, and immigrant joy. We support everyone’s access to art that reminds them of their own power.


    Take action with us


    We are excited for our upcoming collaboration with "Call Me Izzy" starring Jean Smart! Stay tuned for more info.


    No Book Bans team outside John Proctor

    No Book Bans was proud to partner with JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN for their Spirit Week and their Spirit Week 2.0! In collaboration with our amazing publishing partners: Dramatists Play Service, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and Flamingo Rampant, No Book Bans giveaway banned plays and books to multiple audiences. Audience members went wild for the giveaway and have already asked for another one.

    In addition, each audience member received information about why banning books is bad and dangerous but happening all over the country and an opportunity to donate to Brooklyn Public Library Books Unbanned Initiative to protect libraries and everyone’s freedom to read, as well as a chance to sign up for their Digital Library Card, available to anyone across the country age 13-21 and providing access to BPL’s entire catalog.

    Social Media post with No Book Bans

    No Book Bans was proud to once again sponsor the TYA/USA National Festival and Conference which took place this year in Bethesda Maryland. Coalition members connected with atendees regarding the current attacks on arts organizations and their funding, and encouraged them to take action.


    Ayanna Pressley and Danya Taymor

    Left to right: Danya Taymor, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Nick Higgins. Photo Credit: Rebecca J Michelson

    The No Book Bans Coalition partnered with Broadway's The Outsiders in recognition of Banned Books Week, September 22-28 2024, to shine a light on the Books Save Lives Act.

    During the week, The Outsiders sponsored a book drive and encouraged audience members to contact their Congressional representatives regarding the Books Save Lives Act, unveiled by Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley in 2023. The week culminated in a post-performance talk back following the evening performance on Saturday, September 28, moderated by the show's Tony Award-winning director Danya Taymor, featuring Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Nick Higgins (Chief Librarian at Brooklyn Public Library), Dan Novack (Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Penguin Random House) and Youth Advisory Council members.

    The panelists onstage

    Photo Credit: Rebecca J Michelson

    Support the Book Save Lives Act


    Broadway Licensing Global is the first theatrical publisher to join No Book Bans with a strong statement against book and play bans, as well as offering resources to their artists and those who license their work.

    No Book Bans is proud to endorse Representative Ayanna Pressley’s Books Save Lives Act. Want your theatre or organization to join us in supporting this important legislation? Reach out so we can support you!

    Join us and sign our statement:

    As members of the Theatre for Young Audiences community, we make works about, with, and for young people – and we must actively oppose any effort to ban that art from young people.

    We hold a unique responsibility to our audience members and young artists because we are often their first exposure to live theatre. We know from experience the sparks of joy, creativity, and empowerment that are kindled when we see ourselves authentically reflected on stage.

    To pass that power and joy on to the next generation, we make art that both reflects children’s own experiences and art that engages them with experiences they hadn’t previously considered. And sometimes, we make art that helps children imagine paths and worlds they never have before, art that inspires them to take charge of the creation of such new possibilities.

    For the sake of young people and the new possibilities they create for our future, we cannot stand by as bans on books spread across the country. Frequently, the books being targeted were created by historically marginalized and oppressed people – sending a message that these stories are unworthy of being included in art AND that their very existence, and thus the existence of the people who tell them, is wrong. Erasing historically marginalized and oppressed people from being seen is an act of violence.

    We believe that making space for authentic, diverse stories sends a message of love, whether on the stage or the bookshelf.

    We support children’s access to work that rejoices at the exploration and understanding of one’s unique identity – that opens readers’ eyes to a place in a bigger world – that celebrates the joy of all people by including Black joy, the joy of Indigenous people and people of color, the joy of LGBTQIA+ people, Latine joy and Asian joy, Muslim joy and Jewish joy, disabled joy, and immigrant joy. We support children’s access to art that reminds them of their own power.

    Some of these stories deal with discrimination and racism – and that may make audience members feel discomfort at the actions of others, their own actions, or the state of the world. However, the acts of creating and experiencing art – as a writer, artist, reader, or audience member – provide a framework for bravely exploring new ideas and processing the discomfort inherent in challenge and growth.

    It is in this way that art serves its most noble function: to open our eyes and hearts to other people, other cultures, other perspectives, and to our own identities - and in doing so, lessen the distance between human beings. Inclusive art invites us to be better at caring for each other.

    We stand against the banning of art and invite you to join us in opposing these bans. We offer some ideas for how you can do so:

    • Sign on to this statement, share it with your networks, or create and share your own version
    • Consider your season selection; are members of all of your communities represented in your season? Do the people and stories targeted by book bans have places in your season? Bans target people and their stories; you don’t have to adapt a book that has been targeted by a ban to tell a story by and about people who are being targeted by those bans.
    • Consider representation in traditional stories. Can you keep stories from the canon and update them in partnership with the communities you serve, so that everyone is reflected?
    • Consider your community; are people from historically marginalized communities welcomed and celebrated in your spaces as leaders, artists, staff, audience members and students?
    • Does your community have the tools they need to advocate to their elected officials? Can you support their advocacy with templates, contact information, voting rights information, and information about legislation being drafted and voted on that impacts your community?
    • Connect your community with the local non-profits and mutual aid groups that are directly providing aid for people from marginalized backgrounds to care for their physical and mental health, safety, comfort, access to human rights, and advocacy needs.

    Signed,

    Individuals

    Nicole Amri, Artist, Teaching Artist & Co-Executive Director

    G. Armando Silva, Dancer, artist, educator

    Sandra Axelrad-Boccara, Teaching Artist, Actor, Director, Choreographer, Dancer

    Glenn Bailey, Jr.

    Jessica Baker

    Helayna Barber, Teaching Artist: Brave Little Company

    Giana Blazquez Bultman, Director, Choreographer, Teaching Artist

    Taylor Bogan

    Brendan Bourque-Sheil, Teaching Artist

    Cody R. Braudt, Director

    Danielle Bunch, Theatre Educator

    Emma Burns

    Brittny Bush, Actor, Teaching Artist, Theater collaborator, audience member

    Rameen Chaharbaghi, music educator

    Jade Chang, Freelance Designer and Artist

    Jeff Church, Producing Artistic Director

    Justin Cohen

    Shavonne Coleman

    Rutherford Cravens, Actor/Director

    Katie Cummings

    Austin Davis Ruiz, LGBTQ+ Activist

    Rachel H. Dickson, Teaching Artist, Parent, Arts Administrator, audience member

    Jody Drezner Alperin, Teaching Artist, Director, Playwright, Parent, audience member

    Vicky Finney Crouch, Actor, Teaching Artist, Director, Playwright

    Teresa A. Fisher

    Tim Fried-Fiori, Arts Professional

    Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD, LPC

    Laura Gallier

    Alexander P. Garza

    Jessica Gowell

    Rebecca Greene Udden, Artistic Director, Main Street Theater

    Krishnaveni Gundu, Educator & audience member

    Jeremy D Hawkins

    Gavin Healy

    Lupe Hernandez, Audience Member / Supporter to the Arts

    Beverly Houck, Theater Producer/ Director

    Lekei Jacobs, Artist

    Jaci Jeane, Actor/Director

    John Johnston

    Arthur M. Jolly, Playwright

    Marjorie Joseph, Executive Director HCAH

    Jess Kaufman, youth theater artist, producer, and educator

    Michelle Kozlak

    Alicia Lark Fuss, Theatre Artist & Educator

    Maya Lawrence

    Paula LeePoy

    Kristy Lozano, Teaching Artist

    Kristen Lynch

    Jocelyn Mackenzie

    Rachel Mackenzie Moran, Teaching Artist

    Crystal Elise Mata, Teaching Artist

    Carol Mayes

    Maryanne Mazzola

    Patrick McColery, Actor, Director, Teaching Artist

    John P. McEneny, Artistic Director, Piper Theatre Productions / Public School Teacher William Alexander Middle School 51 (D15)

    Tim McGregor

    Todd Molesky

    Anne Meek Montgomery, Teaching Artist

    Kassie Misiewicz, Artistic Director & Founder, Trike Theatre

    Christine Phares, Ed.D., Program Director, Young Audiences of Houston

    Indigo Rael, Teaching Artist

    Caroline Reck

    Mara Richards Bim

    Maried Rivera Nieves

    Keith Randolph Smith, Actor, Writer

    Julie Ritchey

    Ceil Roeger

    Troy Scheid, Director and Teaching Artist

    Fran Sillau, Artistic Associate

    Gricelda Silva, Glass Half Full Theatre

    Ashley Shaunte

    P. S. Shuller, Teaching Artist

    Susanna Stahlmann, Actor, Writer, Teaching Artist

    Cherry Steinwender

    Michael E. Stewart

    Chris Tennison, Associate Artistic Director, Trike Theatre

    Rachel Elizabeth Thuermer

    Wendy vanden Heuvel, Piece by Piece Productions

    Naren Weiss

    Molly Wetzel, Actor and teaching artist

    Emily Wallace

    James P. Walsh, Actor/Technical Director

    Tevyn Washington

    Kip Wilson, Author

    Amber- Nicole Wolfe

    Y York, Playwright

    Brad Alperin

    Sherree Drezner, NC, Clinical Social Worker

    Ebony Jackson

    Bill Rogers

    Suzan L. Zeder: President Board of Trustees, Childrens Theatre Foundation of America

    Marie Kiely, mom of 2 artistic kiddos.

    Dr. Patricia DiBenedetto Snyder

    Catherine Thomas, Actor, Theatre Educator, Teaching Artist, Producer, and Director

    Dr. Jo Beth Gonzalez, Theatre Teacher

    Moses Goldberg, Theatre Artist

    Anita Singer

    Ashley Narens

    Kassie Misiewicz

    Deborah Hope, Actor and Educator

    Gayle Sergel Brown

    Valerie Work, playwright/musical theater writer

    Kori Radloff, Omaha Theater Company at The Rose Theater

    Bonnie Duncan

    Kim Manning

    Bernardo Solano, Chair, Dept. of Theatre & New Dance, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

    Kia Brand

    Cathrin Yoder

    Rowan Mentzer

    Corisa R Saitta

    Sara Morgulis

    Sandra Fenichel Asher (Sandy Asher), playwright and author

    Brittny Bush - Actor and Teaching Artist

    Anthony Runfola, artisitc director

    Suzan Zeder, Playwright

    Justine Moser

    Theatre for Young Audiences/USA

    Danielle Lienau

    Kate Luhr, Theatre Teacher

    Deborah Templeton

    Eric Frost-Barnes, Writer / Director

    Mint Mullins

    Sue Par

    Sandy Mabery

    Anne Kelley Looney

    Cyndi Ellsom

    Kristy McInnis, drummer

    Cam Frierson, Freelance Unscripted Producer

    Jonathan P. Jones, PhD - Program Advisor & Faculty, Theatre Certification

    Malisa Holtzclaw

    Michael Avila

    Sage Hampton

    Amadou Bah

    Louise Schwarz, Playwright/Educator

    Trevor Nalepka

    Jon Royal, Theatre Artist & Educator

    Karen Bergen, actor, director, producer

    Heidi Carias, Library Program Specialist

    Jay Burton

    Theresa Evangelista, Art Director

    Elizabeth Brendel Horn, Associate professor of TYA

    Patrick Lord

    Organizations

    Beam Center, NY

    Brave Little Company, TX

    Center for the Healing of Racism, TX

    The Coterie Theatre, MO

    Cry Havoc Theater Company, TX

    Dare To Dream Theatre, WI

    Dominican Sisters of Houston, TX

    Express Children's Theatre, TX

    Filament Theatre (Chicago, IL)

    Fine Arts Forward, TX

    Flying Leap Productions, NY

    Friends, Allies, and Mentors of the LGBTQ+ Community (FAM)

    Glass Half Full Theatre, TX

    Houston Coalition Against Hate, TX

    Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, TX

    The Jung Center, TX

    Off The Page, NY

    Pink Umbrella Theater Company, WI

    Piper Theatre Productions, NY

    SAY Sí (TX)

    Texas Jail Project, TX

    Trike Theatre, AR

    Childrens Theatre Foundation of America

    The Gottabees

    Magik Theatre, TX

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