Help Fight Book Bans and Enjoy Some of Redwood City’s Finest Pub Fare

One of the best ways to spend a Fall evening in Redwood City and to show support for your Redwood City libraries is coming up in October! Save the date – Oct. 9 – for the Redwood City Library’s third annual Upscale Pub Crawl celebrating Banned Books Week. A host of Redwood City establishments will offer discounted drinks, with some small bite snacks available. Foundation representatives will be at each of the participating pubs or restaurants with examples of two banned books and will be available to answer questions about the Foundation, Banned Books Week and/or the two books they’ll have with them.

We’ve all seen news accounts of book bans in the past, but this is one stubborn issue that can’t be ignored. In 2023, the American Library Association (ALA) reported that challenges of unique titles jumped 65% in 2023 compared to 2022 numbers, reaching the highest level ever documented by the ALA. As bad as these attempts are what’s possibly worse is that this increase in censorship has a chilling effect on authors and publishers as noted in this San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece (subscription may be required).

The Library Foundation funds initiatives including the Makerspace in the Downtown Library, Bridging the Digital Divide, Career Online High School, Traveling Storytime and more.

So join us for an afternoon of fun while patronizing local businesses, learning about threats to the freedom to read, and supporting our library. Early bird tickets are $40, with an optional t-shirt only $5 more. Tickets after Sept. 13 will be $50.

Defend the right to read!