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Cancelled Authors & Censored Stories: Lesley Williams, an Ex-Librarian's Battle for Palestinian Voices
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"How can our electorate be informed if we are blocking - intentionally blocking access to information about such a crucial issue?" - Lesley Williams
Just north of Chicago, in Evanston Illinois, 20-year veteran librarian Lesley Williams became the center of a controversy that involved an invitation to Palestinian author and scholar Ali Abunimeh to speak at a series at the Evanston Public Library. Lesley was then told to "postpone" the reading by her boss. What ensued was a series of public-facing PR gaffes and political maneuvers that eventually brought the author to the library for an engagement, but not before the damage had been done.
In the current world of censorship and job separations based on the genocide in Gaza and suppression of Palestinian voices, this might come across your feed as something as a sad "new normal," but the Evanston library incident happened in 2014, and culminated with Lesley's departure from the library three years later.
Ten years later, Lesley joins Arabs in Media to share not only the personal side and timeline of what happened at the Evanston Public Library, but exposes in a fascinating talk how the "innocent ol' library" - the original medium for accessing knowledge intellectual freedom - are not just hotspots for book banning the ways we may or may not understand it, but are places where open discussions and knowledge exchanges are also being essentially doxxed.
If you followed the story when it first happened, you'll get more depth and perspective on the details surrounding the controversy from that time.
As an active member of Jewish Voices for Peace and champion for justice, Leslie shares great insights on everything from the library ethos and Bill of Rights, to why it's so hard to find books about Palestine by Palestinian authors, to how big chain bookstores do a disservice on how they hide the few Palestinian stories they do carry.
How are your books placed? How are your community programs programmed? How does this relate to library censorship, the one place you expect information to be accessible? How can you re-think what free-thinking is in this world where people get fired for standing up against genocide?
Finally, if you are a book lover and/or someone interested in reading some recommended works, you can't miss this episode.
Here are some links from the podcast, as promised in the recording:
We Refuse : A Forceful History of Black Resistance, by Kellie Carter Jackson
https://www.kelliecarterjackson.com/we-refuse
A radical reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and vi
Hazem Jamal is a first-generation Iraqi-American who worked in as a programming exec in American radio for many years. After witnessing limited voices and shrinking consumption in linear media, Hazem founded Arabs in Media to offer a platform for fresh stories, information, and entertainment.
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