Join Hera Gallery in a Banned Books Marathon Reading Event!
Hera Gallery has partnered with the University of Rhode Island’s 2025 Honors Colloquium, Education Behind the Curtains, featuring a semester long of guest speakers, events, workshops, and the National Juried Exhibition Curiosity Under Fire: Creativity in the Age of Censorship on view at Hera Gallery. As a part of the exhibition, Hera Gallery has transformed its BackSpace Gallery into a banned books reading room. The Banned Books Marathon will take place on October 11th, starting at 10 am, and will end on October 12th at 10 am. Please join us in person at Hera Gallery, or join us from home on Zoom to read in solidarity with one another in the fight for free, accessible, and uncensored curiosity and education!
The marathon will start at Hera Gallery at 10 am on October 11th with the opening of the National Juried Exhibition Curiosity Under Fire: Creativity in the Age of Censorship. Hera Gallery invites you to join in person, or in the LIVE Zoom Room, to read your favorite, or NEW favorite, Banned Book. There will be a selection of over 100 books available for you to read at Hera, or please bring your own to share with the community.
Hera Gallery has planned numerous events throughout the 24 hour challenge to keep you reading, speaking, and piquing your curiosity. Events include the opening reception of Curiosity Under Fire: Creativity in the Age of Censorship starting at 6pm with cheese, wine, and some of the exhibiting artists; a Drag Banned Books performance by Shameless Liaison at 8pm, late night pizza, and special guest readings!
We invite all of our participants to join us again at Hera Gallery on Sunday October 12th at 9am for a final morning celebration with coffee and baked goods. Join in one, all, or in solidarity on Zoom for 24 hours of creativity and education.
October 11th is also the final day of Banned Books Week, a national celebration of activism across all 50 states. You can read more about the current list of banned books in the United States on penamerica.org
We are currently looking for volunteers to perform live readings in the Book Nook OR on Zoom! Click here to sign up!
If you are an individual signing up you are not required to read for the full hour.
Banned Books Marathon LIVE Reading Schedule
Follow along at home, on Zoom, or at the gallery, or read your own favorite banned book in solidarity!
If you are interested in reading during one of the open time slots, please fill out the Google form but FRIDAY 10/10!
10am-11am - Kathie Florsheim and The Women Project reads The Great Gatsby and a selection of Children’s Stories
11am-12pm - Daphnee Rentfrow reads a selection of Children’s Stories
12pm-1pm - Kate Dunnigan, Josh Schurman, Maureen Dunnigan, and Ed Benson read On Tyranny
1pm-2pm - Jennifer Lima of TANK reads Other Boys
2pm-3pm - Jennifer Lima and Stephanie Griffin of TANK read Parable of the Sower
3pm-4pm - Nessa Richman, Mike Henry, Veronika, Rob Kot, Kristi Maresco, and Greg Crawford read Nickel Boys
4pm-5pm - Roberta Richman, Penny Hall, Jackie Kotkin, Karen Stein, and Sandra Enos read 1984
5pm-6pm - Jeanette Bradley presents Rhode Island’s Banned Books
6pm-7pm - Johnette Rodriguez reads The Hate U Give
7pm-8pm - Ellen Liberman reads All The President’s Men
8pm-9pm - Drag Performance by Shameless Liason
9pm-10pm - The Soup Group reads Where The Wild Things Are and A Wrinkle In Time
10pm-11pm - Kaitlan reads The Crucible and the DaVinci Code
11pm-12am - HERA READS There, There
12am-1am - HERA READS The Handmaids Tale
1am-2am - Marin Macro reads Our Work is Everywhere
2am-3am - Beth Riungu Reads Frankstein
3am-4am - The Vagina Monologues
4am-5am - Karl Aspelund reads 1984
5am-6am - Wendy Wahl reads poems by Shel Silverstein
6am-7am - Elizabeth Matteson and Michelle Lang read Mists of Avalon and The Red Tent
7am-8am - Mary Fulton reads Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret
8am-9am - Karl Aspelund reads 1984
9am-10am - Closing Remarks by Hera Gallery’s Curiosity Under Fire Committee
Current List of Banned Books to be Featured in The Banned Book Nook
The Twilight Saga (5 books) by Stephanie Meyer
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine Engle
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine Engle
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1984 by George Orwell
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Nickel Boys by Collins Whitehead
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Catcher and The Rye by JD Salinger
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
My Two Border Towns by Bowles + Meza (children’s)
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The House of the Spirits, Allende, Isabel
In the Midst of Winter, Allende, Isabel
Beartown, Backman, Fredrik
Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury, Ray
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer, Geoffrey
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
All the Light We Cannot See. Doerr, Anthony
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald, F. Scott
In Our Time, Hemingway, Ernest
The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway, Ernest
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway, Ernest
Siddhartha Hesse, Hermann
The Call of the Wild London, Jack
I Dissent, Levy, Debbie
Angela's Ashes McCourt, Frank
Large selection of Stephen King titels
Large selection of Jodi Piccoult
Large selection of Judy Blume
Large selection of Phillipa Gregory
The Time Traveler's Wife Niffenegger, Audrey
And Tango Makes Three Richardson, Justin
The Jungle Sinclair, Upton
Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare, William
Dracula, Stoker, Bram
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain, Mark
The Glass Castle Walls, Jeannette
All the President's Men Woodward, Bob
Go Ask Alice, Anonymous
Witch-Hunt, Aronson, Marc Kings
Queens, and In-Betweens Boteju, Tanya
Yolk, Choi, Mary H. K.
Little Bee, Cleave, Chris
Blended, Draper, Sharon M.
Forged by Fire Draper, Sharon M.
Friction, Frank, E. R.
Unicorns Are the Worst!, Willan, Alex
Fallout, Hopkins, Ellen
Burned, Hopkins, Ellen
It Ends with Us, Hoover, Colleen
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Klosterman, Chuck
Luckiest Girl Alive, Knoll, Jessica
The V-Word, Simon Pulse
The Summer I Turned Pretty, Han, Jenny
To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Han, Jenny
Big Wig, Hillman, Jonathan
I'm Glad My Mom Died, McCurdy, Jennette
Fade, McMann, Lisa
What Riley Wore By Elana K. Arnold
Uncle Jed's Barbershop By Margaree King Mitchell
Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights By Rob Sanders
Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan
Our Bodies, Ourselves By Boston Women's Health Book Collective and Judy Norsigian
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
