More About Read With Love
Read With Love
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Whether you have been fighting censorship efforts in your area or you want to demonstrate that your community values the freedom to learn, to read, and to thrive, you can host a Read With Love event--a “Read With Love In," if you will.
Read With Love Events are peaceful gatherings of students, parents, grandparents and community leaders to raise awareness about how reading books about all kinds of topics and people are great ways to help kids learn about the world and thrive.
This resource was developed in partnership with Red, Wine and Blue.
LGBTQ+ history abounds with peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness about discrimination affecting our community, from “zaps” to marches to “die-ins.” A Read With Love event is yours to design. You might host a public reading rally with speakers who read from banned books. You might host a community gathering where every participant quietly reads from the same banned book or a selection of banned books. No matter what the action looks like, the key is to make your purpose known, so even passersby easily know why you’re doing it — and have chance to get involved, too.
Ideas include:
Location matters, and the options are endless. Some ideas include:
No matter what – take photos and post about your Read With Love Event on social media. The goal is to affirm that in this community, we support the freedom to learn, to read and to thrive!
Create language for social media posts and email invites framing the Read With Love Event as a positive celebration of books.
Create a cute graphic to use with your invite! Your chapter’s Canva toolbox has lots of options to make it easy. Then post on social media, send directly to your friends, and ask everyone in your network to spread the word.
Your invite should include the details of the Read With Love Event, a way to RSVP such as Sign Up Genius, and the request to bring the banned book, or one of them from a list of recently challenged books. Make it easy by linking to the book, or list.
When you’re just a few days out from your event, make sure you’ve got your bases covered:
On the day of, arrive early with a fully charged phone to communicate any last-minute needs to your networks. If the media does show up, be sure to introduce yourself and direct them to individuals for interviews or answer questions yourself.
Want to really raise awareness in your community? See if you can get local newspapers or news stations to cover your Read With Love Event.
Research the name of local reporters who cover education issues and email them the details. You can also write up a media advisory to send to all local media outlets. Don’t wait until the last minute – give them at least a week’s notice of your event.
Banned Books Week (Sept. 22-28, 2024) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
PFLAG National is a member of the Banned Books Week coalition to help ensure LGBTQ+ people and their families have the tools, resources, and support they need to fight censorship in their community.
Read With Love
PFLAG's Read With Love Bookshelf
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