Speak out against book bans
This year, a core group of DiverseVerse members agreed to do a very simple project together for Poetry Month 2026. If you’re reading this and would like to join us, here’s the idea:
Despite - or perhaps because - of all that is going on, would you be willing to take a small but powerful action this month (Poetry Month) ?
We'd love for you to:
1. Donate a (new or gently used copy of a) banned or challenged verse novel or book of poetry to a Little Free Library near you
2. Share a photo/video / graphic of (you with) this book - AND please tag us @diverseverse on insta, Sunday 26 April 12:00 noon EST and after, and use hashtag #DiverseVerse, so we can boost your message.
Here's a link to find a nearby Little Free Library: https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/
Do feel free, if you like this idea, to share it with friends and any other group you're in touch with that might wish to raise the profile of a banned book of poetry together with us.
Please personalize the message as you wish, highlighting an aspect of the book, or information on an incident of censorship, or include a call to your rep to vote no on HR7661 or just send a positive message on why you love this challenged poetic work.
If you’re not sure what HR7661 is, here’s a blog post on YA Wednesday, written by DiverseVerse founder, Padma Venkatraman, about the prejudiced and hatred-fueled agenda behind the bill: https://www.drbickmoresyawednesday.com/wed-posts/those-who-want-to-stop-the-sexualization-of-children-should-stop-protecting-child-molesters-not-waste-time-banning-books
Unfortunately, as you probably know, way too many books have been banned or challenged, including titles by our guiding members (such as Becoming Billie Holiday, Brown Girl Dreaming, Drum Dream Girl, Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir to name just a few). Our current YPP Laureate, Carole Boston Weatherford, is doing a great deal of work to bring attention to this issue. She has given her blessing to this effort, as has YPP Laureate Emeritus, Margarita Engle.
Given the terrible violence ongoing in the Middle East, if you’d like to raise the profile of a Palestinian voice, we encourage you to read Mindy Yuksel’s list of 16 books on The Nerdy Book Club Blog.
We realize that with war and violence and food insecurity and people's livelihoods at risk, you might wonder why it's important to continue to speak up for our right to speak up. We believe that among other reasons, our freedom of expression should be protected because it is so basic; we need freedom to read and write and publish without censorship even just to be aware of all the other problems we're facing.
We hope you’ll join us in highlighting the issue of banned books by donating a banned book of poetry or verse novel to a LFL near you this final week of poetry month 2026, as we plan on doing.
