PRESS RELEASE
April 6, 2026
Nashville, TN
The Unbannable Library Comes to Union Square and Washington Square Park as Part of PEN America’s World Voices Festival (April 30 and May 2)
A grassroots library of monumental, interactive books will arrive in New York City this spring, transforming public space into a site of collective reading and resistance. Created in 2024 by Nashville educator and artist Paul Collins, The Unbannable Library brings together teams of artists, writers, students, teachers, and librarians to produce human-scaled books inspired by banned texts, personal memory, and original writing.
Hand-painted and built from accessible materials, each book expands the intimate act of reading into a shared, public experience. These books become both monument and literature, engaging vast audiences while reclaiming stories that have been targeted for erasure. At a time of escalating censorship and intimidation in libraries across the United States, the project repositions these narratives as part of a living, collective culture.
Originally presented in libraries across Tennessee, the works have also appeared at the Southern Festival of Books, Elephant Gallery in Nashville, the New York City Poetry Festival, and the Brooklyn Book Festival.
The New York presentation will feature a dozen works from the project’s 45-book collection to date, ranging from international collaborations to pieces created by Tennessee teens. Together, they span honorific poetry, reinterpretations of banned texts, and deeply personal narratives.
Presented by PEN America as part of the PEN World Voices Festival:
Union Square
Thursday, April 30, 10am–5pm
Washington Square Park
Saturday, May 2, noon–6pm
Website: https://worldvoices.pen.org/
The Unbannable LIbrary 
Leave a comment