Banned Books Back! / We Are All Sacrifice Zones

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In the first half of the show, Libertie Valance and Cindy Barukh Milstein join host Eleanor Goldfield to talk about how a small co-op bookshop in Asheville, NC came to be the keeper of more than 20,000 youth books banned in Florida, as well as the emergence of the Banned Books Back! initiative and how a growing connection of people across state lines are finding creative ways to circumvent the rise of book bans.

Next, professor, author, and organizer Nicole Fabricant joins the show to talk to us about Curtis Bay: a sacrifice zone microcosm, one that is mirrored all over the nation and indeed the world. Nicole highlights how primarily black and brown communities are overburdened not just by pollution and corporate malfeasance but by the need to become their own scientists, doctors, and advocates. She shares powerful stories of autonomous youth organizing, and how we are, in fact, all sacrificed to corporate greed.

GUESTS:

Libertie Valance and Cindy Barukh Milstein work at Firestorm, an anarchist co-op bookstore in Asheville, NC. Their bookstore accepted 22,500 copies of books banned from Duval County elementary schools, and are donating the books to families in Duval County. Many of the banned titles feature Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, or LGBT characters. More information is available at the bookstore’s web site.

Nicole Fabricant teaches at Towson University in the Baltimore area. She’s the author of Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity and the Rise of Youth Activism In Baltimore.

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