Borrowed & Returned

Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting Drag Story Hours since 2016. It's one of our most popular, colorful, and well-attended events for kids. In this episode, we explore why Drag Story Hour is important, and how it’s had to change in recent years in response to an increasingly tense political climate.

More resources:

• June is Pride Month! Celebrate at the Library with crafting, story times, film screenings and more!
• Learn more about Drag Story Hour and explore their resources for parents and caregivers.
• Have a kid? Attend a story time at a library branches across Brooklyn and check out out our recommendations for new LGBTQ+ books to read with your kid.

Outside of Brooklyn, Arthur Miller's name has largely faded from memory. On this episode, we tell the story of the Black community leader who was killed by NYPD chokehold in 1978, the movement pushed forward as a result of his death, and the ways that Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History helps to keep the story alive.

Further resources:

• Listen to the "Voices of Crown Heights Oral History Collection" or visit the Center for Brooklyn History in person. 
• Check out our list of books created specifically for this episode.
• Watch a recording of the June 2023 public program "Say His Name, Arthur Miller: A Death By Police Chokehold 45 Years Ago."
• Listen to the 2018 episode about Arthur Miller on Flatbush + Main,the podcast from the former Brooklyn Historical Society.
• Visit CBH's online exhibit, "Brooklyn Resists," to learn more about Brooklynites responding to systemic racial injustice over the years, and see photos of the 2020 protests in Brooklyn, contributed by community members.

Listen in on one of BPL's most popular art programs: a theater workshop where, once a week, budding thespians come together to read plays, talk about character motivations, and dig into some surprisingly emotional and political topics.

• Read a transcript of this episode on our website.
• Join fellow thespians at Central Library's theater workshop. Or, find a creative writing workshop at branches across BPL.
• Read along with the theater workshop by checking out the plays on our booklist.

The Library needs your help to protect our funding or risk losing over 16 million dollars. Send a letter to your elected officials. 

We revisit an episode from January 2021 in honor of National Library Workers Day, and ask: what do librarians do all day? When they're not planning programs or working the reference desk, these librarians are also obscure trivia players, birders and ... sword fighters! 

Read a transcript here.

• Have a minute? Vote for Borrowed and Banned in the Webby's! We were nominated for an award in the "Best Writing for Podcasts" category. 
• Celebrate National Library Workers Day by thanking your favorite library worker or attending one of BPL's National Library Week events.
• Listen to "On the Frontlines," an episode from our Borrowed and Banned series about library workers fighting for the freedom to read.
• Check out these lists of hobby books for adults and for kids.
• Read our blog posts about birding with kids and historical birding in Prospect Park.
• Not for the faint of heart: Learned League.

Teens and older adults are perhaps the two age groups you might think have the least in common. But a new program at BPL seeks to bring the two generations together ... by having them debate.

Read a transcript of this episode on our web page.

Resources mentioned on this episode:

• Learn more about services for older adults at BPL and programs for teens!
• Listen to "Bridging the Gap," a podcast series on our BKLYN Community Audio feed and check out these books about debate.
• Take this very short survey to let us know what you think about Bridging the Gap: Intergenerational Debate at BPL.

Brooklyn has 62 neighborhood libraries, each with a distinct architecture, culture, and soul. To kick off the new season and to celebrate our audio stories coming home to Brooklyn, we'll take a tour of the borough with the help of our neighborhood libraries and some of our stalwart patrons who visited all 62 of them ... in a matter of days!

• Read a transcript of this episode.
• Take our Browse the Branches challenge! Not in New York City? You can read your way through the branches with this book list.
• Help us keep our libraries open by fighting for our city funding. Write to your city leaders! Or, send a letter on behalf of Queens Public Library and New York Public Library.
• Did you miss our dedicated series about book bans? Never fear. You can binge every episode of Borrowed and Banned now. Start with our first episode.

Student activists in York, Pennsylvania organized a silent protest when hundreds of books were banned from their classrooms, paving the way for lasting change in their community. In this final episode of the series, we tackle the challenge head-on: from encouraging open dialogue about the books on our shelves to the ongoing work of protecting the freedom to read. 

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

How will you use the stories you’ve heard over the course of this series to protect the freedom to read? Send a voice message to podcasts [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org and tell us what you’re seeing in your community, or what you want to see. We might play your voice on an upcoming bonus episode, so be sure to introduce yourself with your name, your age, and your location. 

More resources:

• Watch Edha and Christina's TEDx Talk and follow their advocacy organization, EmpowerED. 
• Read about the new "Fight Book Bans Act" introduced in Congress. 
• Learn about PEN America's work to catalog book bans, including a recent report that identifies a culture of fear and intimidation and cumulative book ban data from 2021 to 2023.
• Writer George M. Johnson wrote about BPL's Chief Librarian Nick Higgins as a 2023 TIME100 Next Person of the Year.
• Check out every book mentioned on our Borrowed and Banned series! (Psst. You can check them out with a Books Unbanned library card.) And, listen to our 2022 episode about the launch of Books Unbanned and the history of book challenges at BPL.

Library workers often risk their livelihoods when they speak out against censorship, spurring community members to pick up the fight for intellectual freedom. We tell the story of how one Louisiana parish came together to defend their library amidst book challenges, tip lines, and even sign burning.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Find the people in your community who care about public libraries and get together with them.

More resources:

• EveryLibrary Institute is an organization that seeks to build voter support for libraries. Learn more about their support of St. Tammany Library Alliance here. 
• Book Riot and EveryLibrary teamed up to survey parents about their perceptions of public libraries and book bans. Read the full results of the survey here.
• Read Emily Drabinski's essay about St. Tammany Library and a report in the Louisiana Illuminator about the chaotic regularity of book challenges in the parish. 
• Most people oppose book bans, according to surveys from the American Library Association and CBS.
• Check out this list of challenged and banned children's books.

Maia Kobabe's debut memoir, Gender Queer, was the most frequently banned book in 2021 and 2022. We talked with em about what it's like to be on the recieving end of so many challenges, and the importance of public libraries.

Read the transcript here.

More resources:

• Check out Gender Queer.
• Find Maia's resources for defending Gender Queer, and eir recent comic about book bans and libraries.
• Read The Washington Post's article on book bans.

Despite being one of the most frequently banned authors, Toni Morrison’s work has inspired countless others to tell stories outside the mainstream. We take a closer look at Morisson's writing, her legacy, and her impact on the anti-censorship movement.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Learn how you can support and defend public libraries at Libraries for the People.

More resources:

• Read Toni Morrison's books. If you're a young person, you can apply for a Books Unbanned card to check out digital library books for free.
• Listen to Toni Morrison's full 2016 talk that was part of the BPL Presents series Brooklyn by the Book, co-curated by Community Books, BPL Presents & Congregation Beth Elohim.
• Watch Toni Morrison's speech when she accepted PEN America's PEN/Borders Literary Service Award in 2008.
• Learn more about the National Coalition Against Censorship's Student Advocates for Speech program.