We're pulling out all the stops for the first annual Freedom to Read Day of Action on Saturday, October 19th! Hear from libraries in Los Angeles, San Diego, Hoboken, NJ and Austin, TX about what they're doing to promote the freedom to read. And, if you're in Brooklyn, meet us on the steps of Central Library this Saturday for a book rally!

You can read the transcript here. 

Further resources:

• Join Brooklyn Public Library on October 19th for our Freedom to Read Day of Action! Or check out events across the country.
• Visit San Diego Public Library and LA County Library online to learn about their Freedom to Read Day of Action events. And you can brush up on the California Freedom to Read Act. You can read the New York Times story about SDPL’s LGBTQ+ book displays
• Learn more about Hoboken Library and the book sanctuary movement. 
• Austin Public Library has events planned for October 19th, and a new podcast called Save the Books!

For Banned Books Week this year, we’re returning to our award-winning series, Borrowed and Banned. Because the fight isn’t over. In 2023, the American Library Association documented a 65% increase in the number of book titles challenged across the country.

Listen to the first episode of the series about what happened in one Oklahoma town when their freedom to read was challenged. And how one teacher’s response caught the nation’s attention.

Read the transcript here, and check out the following resources:

• Like what you hear? Listen to the rest of Borrowed and Banned, our award-winning podcast, series by visiting this page.
• We’ve got a week of programming around Banned Books Week this year. Check out our calendar and attend an event in Brooklyn!
• On October 19, 2024, libraries across the country are coming together for a Freedom to Read Day of Action. Learn more about how you can join!

Bedford-Stuyvesant is perhaps one of Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhoods. Its tree-lined streets and grand brownstones have been here for over 150 years. This episode, a re-broadcast from 2019, tells the story of Bed-Stuy through the lives of three women who set down roots here in different ways: activist Hattie Carthan, writer Paule Marshall, and novelist Naomi Jackson. 

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Check out our list of books curated for this episode.
• Learn more about Hattie Carthan on our Brooklynology blog, or check out the Magnolia Tree Earth Center archive at the Center for Brooklyn History.
• Visit Magnolia Tree Earth Center. You can also attend their new art exhibition opening on September 7th.
• Read Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, or her 1983 essay, "From the Poets in the Kitchen."

Splitting her time between Athens, Georgia and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Nicole A. Taylor is a food writer and author of several cookbooks. She sat down with BPL’s Bed-Stuy Tea podcast to discuss finding and preserving her Southern voice, the pleasures of restaurant research, and her favorite local spots to eat and drink.

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Listen to more episodes of Bed-Stuy Tea on our website, or subscribe to BKLYN Community Audio on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.
• Check out the cookbooks and books mentioned on this episode.

It's summer and school's out! No matter what age you are, you can spend your summer at the library with book lists and activities galore. We go over the facts and stats of BPL's popular Culture Pass program, which has helped thousands of New Yorkers visit museums and performance spaces in the city ... for free!

Read a transcript of the episode here.

More resources:

• Reserve free passes to museums and performance sites across NYC with Culture Pass (and your library card)!
• Is there a kid or teen in your life? They can spend their summer at the library with fun events, activities and book lists.
• Visit Brooklyn Botanic Garden or New-York Historical Society and 100 other cultural institutions and performing arts spaces this summer with Culture Pass.
• Summer is a great time to get out and visit our libraries! If you haven't started the challenge yet, read about our new prizes for Browse the Branches, the initiative inspiring New Yorkers to visit all 62 BPL branches by the end of the year. 
• Check out these "Explore Your City" summer reading lists for adults, teens and kids of all ages.

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.