UNBANNED Campaign Launches to Highlight the Impact of Book Banning Policies on Access to Literature

100 Day Campaign Begins June 19th to help build the community library!

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, June 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Book banning and censorship continue to impact communities across the country. Every day, more books are challenged, restricted, or removed from shelves, limiting access to diverse perspectives and silencing voices. Books are being removed from schools and libraries, threatening the freedom to read and contributing to the rise of anti-intellectualism. According to PEN America, “In the 2024-2025 school year, 3,743 unique titles were banned in U.S. public schools”, illustrating how widespread these censorship efforts have become. The report also describes the rise in the banning of nonfiction books, noting that over 1,000 nonfiction titles were removed from library shelves during the previous school year. PEN America's report, Facts & Fiction, documents this nationwide trend and its increasing prevalence.

Authors deserve to have their books read and their voices heard. That’s why Social Art and Culture created UNBANNED. Through UNBANNED: 100 Days, Social Art and Culture is working to preserve these works through The Artivism Library Collection and raise awareness of book banning and its broader impact on literacy, learning, and access to knowledge.

UNBANNED returns not just a fundraiser but an act of artivism with two goals. First, preserving the information, culture, knowledge, creativity, and history that books provide. Second, raising $25,000 for the opening of The Artivism Library Collection in Washington, DC. Over these 100 days (June 19, 2026 - September 27, 2026), this community-driven campaign preserves access to banned, challenged, and rare books while educating the community and the public at large about legislative efforts that affect access to literature. State and federal bills have fueled conversations about censorship, education, and the freedom to read. According to the American Library Association’s 2026 State of America's Libraries report, public awareness and opposition to state and federal efforts to restrict access to books and information continued to grow throughout 2025.

In May 2025, UNBANNED raised awareness to challenge banned books through a social media campaign. It challenged the public each week to purchase books from a curated list via The Artivism Library Collections’ Bookshop page to support preservation and help build the library’s collection. Anyone can be an advocate and fight against book banning by purchasing from the list and filling the shelves. Each book purchased will be donated to the library and will help limit the silencing of Black and Brown voices. In addition, every contribution enters you into a drawing for a curated Banned Book Package. Stay connected with us and follow along for featured books, community highlights, and real-time progress.

Together, we are preserving stories that challenge and transform, ensuring that they remain accessible to the communities they come from.

About Social Art and Culture
Social Art and Culture’s mission centers on the arts as a sustainable, viable, and vital component of the creative and general economies. We believe in using the power of the arts to educate and advance marginalized and underserved communities—a new, economically sustainable framework that invests in artisans and its culture. Social Art and Culture was founded in 2009 as a collective impact organization. Sustained, collective impact provides an approach to tackling these problems that enables systemic change and population-level outcomes through advocacy, outreach, and mobilization.

JaMia Lawrence
Social Art and Culture
programs@socialartandculture.com
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