The 21st Show

Examining the societal impact of book bans at upcoming symposium

 
Ruby Mendenhall is Urbana's current poet laureate and a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She will moderate the discussion next week.

Ruby Mendenhall is Urbana's current poet laureate and a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She will moderate the discussion next week. Reginald Hardwick / Illinois Public Media

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Bans on books featuring people of color and the LGBTQ+ community can have a profound effect on the groups represented in them. But what effect do those bans have on our society, and our ability to engage with our democracy?

Next week, the University of Illinois System will be holding a symposium on all of this on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. The event is called “Free People Read Freely: Literacy, Inclusion, and Democracy.”

We are joined by Urbana's current poet laureate, who will moderate next week's discussion, to talk about the event. 

GUEST:

Ruby Mendenhall 

Kathryn Lee Baynes Dallenbach Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences, Associate Professor in Sociology, African American Studies, Urban and Regional Planning, and Social Work, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Urbana Poet Laureate