Pink gives away 2,0000 banned books at Florida concerts: NPR

Pink performs on NBC Today show on Tuesday September 18, 2012 in New York.

Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

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Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Pink performs on NBC Today show on Tuesday September 18, 2012 in New York.

Charles Sykes/Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Pink joins the fight against book banning.

In collaboration with PEN America and Florida bookseller Books & Books, the Grammy-winning pop musician is giving away 2,000 contested books during her concerts in Miami and Sunrise Florida this week.

Books, which have appeared in PEN America’s Banned Books Index, include Beloved by Toni Morrison, T by Amanda GormanThe Hill We Climb, Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani and Todd Parr The family book.

“It’s confusing, it’s infuriating, it’s censorship,” Pink said in an Instagram video announcing her action Monday.

The video, which also featured PEN America President Suzanne Nossel, was liked more than 33,000 times.

“Books have brought me special joy since I was a child, and that is why I do not want to stand idly by while books are banned by schools,” P!nk said in a PEN statement to about this gift. “It is particularly abhorrent to see authorities targeting books about race and racism and against LGBTQ authors and authors of color. We have made so much progress toward equality in this country and no one should want to “See this progress reversed. That’s why I support PEN America in their work and that’s why I agree with them: no more banned books.”

“We’re here to show that books aren’t scary,” PEN America program manager Sabrina Adams said in a YouTube post from one of the concert halls, as young people collected tote bags black ones containing books.

Florida surpassed Texas in the past school year: There are more books banned from public school classrooms and libraries in the Sunshine State than in any other state, according to the latest research from PEN America. The union. PEN America said it recorded 1,406 book ban cases in Florida, followed by 625 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 bans in Utah and 186 bans in Pennsylvania. » PEN also reported a 33% increase in book bans nationwide.

PEN America’s statement also urged Pink fans to visit pen.org/pink to learn more about how they can fight book bans.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called the book bans a “hoax.”

“It is important to expose the book ban hoax because it reveals that some are trying to use our schools for indoctrination,” DeSantis said in a press release issued by his office earlier this year . “In Florida, the pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been brought into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate state educational standards. Florida is the Education State and that means providing students a quality education free from sexualization and harmful material that is not age appropriate.”