“Free People Read Freely™: Literacy, Inclusion, and Democracy” takes place Aug. 20-21 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This two-day event is open to the public for all UIS employees and students.

Symposium sessions feature discussions and presentations on freedom to read, education and access, cultures of inclusion and exclusion, and book banning and libraries. Additional events offer opportunities to share stories about reading as a child, a banned books photo booth, and theatrical readings from banned books.

You have until Aug. 12 to register for the entirety of this two-day free event organized by the University of Illinois Press and the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, also known as CARLI. Box lunches are available for purchase during online registration.

The event will open at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts with a keynote conversation moderated by Urbana poet laureate and UIUC faculty member Ruby Mendenhall. Registration for the opening keynote will be available until the morning of the Aug. 20 event or until registration reaches capacity.

Keynote participants are:

• Clint Smith, New York Times best-selling author and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and
• George M. Johnson, whose memoir about growing up black and queer has been widely banned.

The second day of the symposium will open at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center with a keynote address by writer, activist and professor Tony Diaz.