By Tabassam Shah, Member, Poets Against Racism USA
Recently, school districts across the country have begun banning books on subjects such as religion, sexuality, gender equality, LGBTQ identity, police brutality, and racism. According to a PEN America report, 1,145 books were banned by school districts in the United States between July 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. Across the nation in political races, school board meetings, and social media, an aggressive cultural war of sorts is taking center stage. Some parents assert that they should have close control of school curricula, others feel that certain histories and narratives should not be taught in classrooms, and a good number discourage censorship of any form. Books facing the most challenges feature characters or authors from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and/or the LGBTQ community.
Sadly, books of poetry are often banned. Recently, as reported on the news site mySanAntonio.com, the book Milk and Honey by contemporary Canadian Indian writer Rupi Kaur was one of dozens of library books flagged for removal in Texas. The book is a collection of poetry and short stories about violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. An article in the online magazine Bustle discussed a statewide effort in 2010 to dismantle Mexican American Studies programming in Arizona’s school districts that resulted in the banning of eighty-four books. Carmen Tafolla, poet laureate of San Antonio, Texas, was among those authors whose books were banned. Sweatpants and Coffee blogger Julia Park Tracey noted that Tafolla’s poem “Voyage,” from the book Curandera, was banned in the Tucson Unified School District. The poem is a richly imagined origins tale about Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of America. Tafolla writes pointedly for children on identity formation and Hispanic heritage.
Banning books is not a new trend. The global education network World.edu has noted that back in 1986 Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends was banned in West Allis-West Milwaukee school libraries because it allegedly “promotes drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for authority, and rebellion against parents.” As reported on the Academy of American Poets’ site Poets.org, in the 1970s, school districts in Mississippi and West Virginia banned “We Real Cool,” a poem by African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks about teen boys at a pool hall. The Pulitzer Prize winner’s poem was banned for the line “We jazz June,” which was interpreted to be a metaphor for sex. “We Real Cool,” reprinted here, is a brief but rhythmically punchy poem that should be read by all high schoolers and young adults.
In the book Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks, edited by Gloria Wade Gayles, Brooks expresses that the interpretation of sexual innuendo is erroneous. Her poem explores the psyche of the rebellious teen challenging authority by feeling and thinking freely. She maintains that she wished to highlight the young men’s rebellion by playing with the idea of the month of June. By taking what is regarded as a wholesome summer month and turning this notion into a June that is jazzed up, or in her words “to derange it,” she draws attention to the pool players’ desire to put their mark on the world. Yet Brooks also is somewhat open to the sexual interpretation, stating in Gayles’s book, “Talking about different interpretations gives me a chance to say something I firmly believe—that poetry is for personal use. When you read a poem, you may not get out of it all that the poet put into it, but you are different from the poet. You’re different from everybody else who is going to read the poem, so you should take from it what you need. Use it personally.”
What Brooks emphasizes is the essence of literature: text open to a reader’s interpretation based on how they relate to the work and how skilled they are in analysis. Students stand to gain much by exposure to different worlds through a diversity of experiences in literature. They can read poems like Brooks’s “We Real Cool” and formulate their own interpretations anchored in their own experiences and perspectives. Banning books damages children and young adults, preventing them from becoming the well-rounded readers and engaged citizens we encourage them to be today. Learners of all ages who identify with traditionally marginalized groups benefit from having access to diverse stories and histories in literature because this diversity allows them to see themselves represented in the books they read. At the same time, other readers gain understanding of and empathy for those who may be different from them. School districts that ban books risk creating an environment of exclusion. Also, such schools do not educate young people to be informed citizens in a multicultural society. Book bans censor the voices of writers and the communities from which they come.
Discussions on how we teach literature and history or how our stories are told are discourses that are essential parts of a healthy democracy. However, resorting to banning books, silencing writers, and erasing stories and communities impinges on First Amendment freedoms fundamental to democracy. These threats endanger the freedom to write, as they could discourage authors from covering controversial topics or subjects targeted by school districts eager to censor. Furthermore, publishers may become less inclined to support such artistic works. Many recent newcomers in the publishing world are increasingly from marginalized communities, and the campaigns to ban books seek to threaten these gains. Book banning strangles freedom of expression, which is one of the founding principles of our inclusive democracy and a backbone of our public schools.
Let us allow our children to read poems like “We Real Cool.” How the text resonates with them is up to them. Imagining pool players skipping school gives them a chance to interact with the complexities and richness of life. This Banned Books Week, which begins September 18th, I resolve to read poetry that is provocative, pushes boundaries, and may even be banned. And I hope you are inspired to do so too.
Sources
Academy of American Poets: Poetry’s Place in the History of Banned Books
Bustle: 10 Banned Books From Arizona’s Mexican American Studies Program
Gayles, Gloria Wade, Ed.: Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks
mySanAntonio: “Dangerously terrifying”: Author Rupi Kaur opens up about her poetry book being flagged for removal in Texas
PEN America: Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights
Sweatpants and Coffee: 10 Banned Poets You Should Know
World.edu: Banned Books Awareness: Shel Silverstein