Taking Back the Library w/ Mariame Kaba & Melissa Gira Grant (11/09/23)

Death Panel

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4.8 • 588 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2023

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Beatrice and Jules speak with Mariame Kaba and Melissa Gira Grant about the importance of understanding the library as a site of political contestation and a rare expression of the commons in contemporary US life, and how left organizers are fighting back against right wing attacks on public space. Transcript: https://www.deathpanel.net/transcripts/library-mariame-kaba-melissa-gira-grant Join up with For the People: A Leftist Library Project here: https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/ And find the latest updates here: https://librariesforthepeople.substack.com/p/library-solidarity-with-palestine Read Melissa’s piece, “Librarians Didn’t Sign Up to Be Queer Activists—but This Year, They Are” here: https://newrepublic.com/article/175567/librarians-new-queer-front-lines Referenced in this episode: “The Prison in Twelve Landscapes,” directed by Brett Story (2016) https://www.prisonlandscapes.com/ “The People and the Library: Reflections on Grass-Roots Efforts to Preserve and Expand the Library As a Commons” here: https://justseeds.org/the-people-and-the-library-reflections-on-grass-roots-efforts-to-preserve-and-expand-the-library-as-a-commons/ Find our book Health Communism here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism Pre-order Jules' new book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/733966/a-short-history-of-trans-misogyny-by-jules-gill-peterson/ Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	To just kind of shorthand this as book bans, I feel like leaves out that this is a very targeted effort about erasing certain people's stories or restricting young people's access to vital information about gender and sexuality, vital information supplementing what they're getting in the classroom, which might be very little when it comes to the history of white supremacy in this country and its present.
0:25.0	The library is, for me, the last of the public goods that exist that we don't have to ask people to dream about making.
0:35.3	It exists.
0:36.9	It is here.
0:38.8	And if we lose it, we will not get it back.
0:42.4	These are political institutions, and all of them are sites of contestation.
0:50.2	The nation. The Welcome to the Death Panel.
1:18.2	Patrons, thank you so much for supporting the show.
1:20.5	We couldn't do any of this without you.
1:22.6	To support the show, become a patron at patreon.com slash DevpanelPod.
1:27.2	The work we do is only possible because of the
1:29.3	support of our patrons. And as a thank you for your support, we give you 52 extra episodes a year
1:34.4	and access to our entire back catalog of bonus episodes. Anyways, if you'd like to help us out a little
1:40.0	bit more, you could share the show with your friends, post about your favorite episodes,
1:44.1	pick up a copy of Health Commun post about your favorite episodes, pick
1:44.2	up a copy of health communism at your local bookstore, pre-order a copy of Jules's new book coming
1:49.2	in January called A Short History of Trans-Basogony, or request them both at your local library
1:54.4	and follow us at Death Panel underscore. So today I am here with my co-host, Jules Gil Peterson.
2:00.5	Hi, everyone.
2:01.2	And the two of us are joined by two fantastic returning guests and friends of the panel
2:05.9	to talk about libraries as an intersecting site of struggle against fascism and eugenics
2:11.1	in the United States right now.
	...

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