Teachers and media specialists, along with union leaders, activists, and authors are holding a special summit to discuss literary censorship in Orlando Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13.
The goal of the Unified Voices Summit for Educational Freedom in Orlando is to celebrate school leaders and support them in their fight against book bans.
The roughly 200 participants will attend workshops on the history of censorship, hear from frequently censored authors like Jodi Picoult, and learn how to be advocates in their community.
The summit is hosted by PEN America, a group that advocates for First Amendment rights and against book bans. Florida Director Katie Blankenship said every teacher and school librarian has been offered a full-scholarship to make it easier to attend.
“We've invited these folks to come on full scholarship with their lodging paid, so that we can say, we know that you're under attack, we appreciate you, we are all parents and Floridians first and we celebrate and honor our teachers,” Blankenship said.
Along with the workshops, she hopes teachers walk away with a network of resources and support.
“Every participant gets, we call it their Bridgerton dance card, where they get to write down their three to five contacts that they're going to follow up on. We're asking people to do specific things in their community,” Blankenship said.
Both PEN America and the American Library Association have reported that Florida continues to lead the nation in book bans.
At the end of the summit, attendees and the public are encouraged to sign onto a letter calling on Governor Ron DeSantis to overturn laws and policies that make it easier to ban books in the state.
Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration said books are not being banned in Florida, but inappropriate materials are being kept out of the classroom.
