The Evening Brach of the Women’s Alliance (EBWA) October program is: Banned Books: Not In My Backyard, presented by Charity Thorne, Executive Director of the Schenectady County Public Library.

Intellectual freedom is one of the core values of librarianship, and the current surge in challenges to the valuable access libraries provide is unprecedented in the time the American Library Association has tracked censorship attempts (20+ years). In recent years, these challenges are primarily focused on resources concerning LGBTQ+ people and People of Color. Challenges are also not limited to physical materials such as books, movies and magazines – they have also been aimed at programs and events libraries offer their communities. Charity Thorne will speak to us about the importance of the freedom to read, the state of intellectual freedom nationally, and advocating against book bans. — All who identify as women are invited to join us for this timely program.

We will serve coffee, tea, and dessert before the program. We urge you to arrive by 6:45 pm (or 6:30, if you’d like to have more time to socialize). Use the back door to the church, off the parking lot. We want everyone to have time to greet each other and settle in before Charity’s talk begins shortly after 7 pm. Following the presentation, there will be time for questions.  Networking (when each woman may share something of interest with the group) will begin around 8:15, and the meeting will end no later than 9 pm.

While reservations are not required, in order to have some idea of how many people to expect, it would be helpful if you would email Gabrielle Reals at ellegr3@gmail.com by Tuesday, October 24, to let her know you are coming. (If you forget to do this, we urge you to come anyway!) As a reminder, in order for us to be able to pay our speakers an honorarium, we need your help. Please consider subscribing by bringing a $30 check made out to EBWA to the October meeting (or contacting Carol Furman at cfurm13@gmail.com to learn where to send your check). Those who have subscribed may attend the in-person meetings this year for free. All others will be asked to contribute $5 toward our costs, at the door.

Looking ahead: Our November 16 program will feature Wendy Roberts, Professor of English, University at Albany. She will speak about “Phillis Wheatley, One of America’s First Black Poets.”  To see the full calendar of EBWA programs for 2023-2024, click here.