September 18- 24, 2022 is Banned (and Challenged) Book Week.  This annual awareness campaign is promoted by the American Library Association and also Amnesty International.  The above photo features Liz Seymour, who is hosting banned and challenged books in the Little Free Library box on Lexington Avenue in the Glenwood neighborhood of Greensboro. This little box, on the Florida Street side of Lexington, is filled exclusively with books that have been banned or challenged. Some of the titles may surprise you: The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald); The Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger); The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck); To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee); The Color Purple (Alice Walker); Beloved (Toni Morrison); Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) and the list goes on and on and on. Most of these just-mentioned classics are in the above box, to take for free (at least they were there at the time of our visit). Liz also has more contemporary selections like the graphic novel “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Koabe (2019).  All of the books in the Little Free Library are in terrific shape. Sharing banned and challenged books is a way to voice censorship concerns and celebrate free expression.

Liz Seymour has been an active community member throughout her decades in Greensboro. She is perhaps best known as the founding director of the Interactive Resource Center (IRC). The IRC is a day center in Greensboro for people who are experiencing homelessness. It opened in 2009 and Liz was at the helm until she retired in 2014. She retired to focus on writing full time. She is a compelling writer; one of her essays, “Inviting Anarchy Into My Home”, was published in the New York Times (March 9, 2006). The piece describes her transforming her home from a conventional married-couple household into an anarchist collective with multiple, non-related people learning to live and thrive together.*  Liz has been one to take a stance and take action for what she believes in. The IRC is still going strong today, thirteen years later. While Liz has also moved on from her anarchist collective, people still talk about what a meaningful experience it was to them. Ever willing to push the envelope, Liz is currently sharing banned and challenged books. Whether they house banned books or just a couple of shelves of someone’s mystery books they’ve finished, The Little Free Library is a great place to give and donate a book. There are many around Greensboro. May your weekend be filled with reading, fellowship with friends like Liz Seymour, and some good ole fall fun. 

*link to the original article.