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The program will begin with a lunch-hour lecture by Emily Drabinski, Beyond Book Bans: Building Power for the World We Want. Drabinski will address the intensifying campaign of censorship in the United States:
"The U.S. has been in the grip of an organized censorship movement since 2021. Targeting queer and Black authors, stories, and histories, activists have taken over library boards, violently harassed library workers, and pushed legislation that guts funding for these crucial public institutions. As readers, thinkers, and writers fight for the right to read, we are also building the power necessary to win much more than that."
Following the lecture, attendees may choose between guided tours of the Trinity Library and a zine-making workshop with Booklyn, Inc. For a hands-on zine-making workshop, join educators from Booklyn, Inc. that explores creative expression in the context of “Beyond Book Bans.” Participants will experiment with collage, stamping, typewriting, and other tactile techniques while learning staple-binding and one-page zine structures. The workshop provides a relaxed yet critically engaged environment for participants to reflect on censorship, access, and representation through the DIY medium of zines. No prior experience is required, and all materials will be provided.
The day will conclude with a mixer and reception, providing space for attendees to connect informally with fellow BLC colleagues, members of Trinity’s library staff, and Emily Drabinski.
This program is being presented in partnership with the Boston Library Consortium, the Trinity College Library, Trinity’s chapter of the AAUP, and the Trinity Social Justice Institute.
Event Schedule
12:15 to 1:30 pm ET | Lecture with Emily Drabinski, Beyond Book Bans: Building Power for the World We Want2:00 to 4:00 pm ET | Zine-Making Workshop with Booklyn, Inc. and Library Tours
4:00 to 6:00 pm ET | Mixer and Reception
Attendance Information
This in-person event will be hosted at Trinity College Library. Once registered, you will receive all logistical information necessary to attend this event. Questions? Email Cate Harriman at charriman@blc.org.Please note pace is limited to 50 attendees. Lunch and complimentary parking will be provided to attendees.
Speaker
Emily Drabinski is Associate Professor and Chair of the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the City University of New York. She publishes and presents widely on topics related to knowledge organization, collective power, and critical perspectives in librarianship. Drabinski served as 2023-24 President of the American Library Association.
Workshop Instructors
Monica McKelvey Johnson (she/her) is an artist, educator, curator, and community organizer whose work engages comics, zines, and social justice movements. She holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from CUNY Hunter College, where she created The Adventures of Dorrit Little, a webcomic addressing student debt, and founded the EDU Debtors Union. Her scholarship and curatorial projects include co-organizing Our Comics, Ourselves: Identity, Expression, and Representation in Comic Art, Take Back the Fight: Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up, and Lil’ Radicals: Multicultural and Social Justice Publications for Kids in the 21st Century. As Executive Director of Booklyn, Inc., she has developed youth education programs such as Zine Camp and Zines After School, expanding access to book and zine-making for young people. She is also a co-founder of P.O.G.E.K. (Parents of Gender-Expansive Kids) at Brooklyn’s PS39 Elementary School and a strong advocate for public education and trans youth. Jan Descartes (she/her) is an artist, writer, educator, and curator, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of Syracuse University (BA), Carnegie Mellon University (MFA) and CUNY Graduate Center (MLS). She is the co-curator of Our Comics, Ourselves: Identity, Expression and Representation in Comic Art, co-creator of Heartland Comic, a collective member of Pop Gym, and a curator at Booklyn, Inc. Jan’s current art practice includes comics, zines, painting, and printing and is concerned with memory, empathy, personal subjectivity, and open accessibility. Jan facilitates comic/zine workshops and self-defense workshops. She created the online comics instructional resource Drawing Through the Walls, which support comics creation as a method to share experiences of incarceration and its damaging effects on community. Jan co-authored “Feminist Curating with Our Comics, Ourselves” in the text Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries.