As the First Amendment faces growing challenges, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) welcomed American actor, author and activist George Takei for an unscripted conversation on censorship at the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza on Oct. 6, as part of Banned Books Week 2025.
A few hundred book lovers filled the library’s lobby, greeting Takei — who served as honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2025 — with thunderous applause.
His conversation with librarian and poet Adeeba Rana focused on how to take action against book bans, along with a discussion of his graphic memoir “They Called Us Enemy.” The book, which tells the story of his family’s years in Japanese American internment camps, was banned in Tennessee in July 2024 and in Pennsylvania in 2023.
Takei compared the people behind book bans to a toddler who has just discovered the power of the word “no,” rejecting everything including ice cream — unaware they are missing out on something positive or the chance to gain new experiences and knowledge.
Takei, who recently published his latest graphic novel, “It Rhymes with Takei,” about his journey as a gay man and coming out at age 68, shared an encounter with a woman who wanted to ban “They Called Us Enemy.”
He asked her why she wanted it banned, and she responded that it was “Un-American.” He recalled that she didn’t know the 442nd Infantry Regiment — a mostly Japanese American army combat unit — was the most decorated in U.S. military history. Nor did she know about the grieving mother of a fallen Japanese American soldier being presented with the American flag while living behind barbed wire in an internment camp.
“She can say no without knowing anything about what she’s talking about. That’s what book banning is. There are ignorant people, people that are uninformed, who have the potential of being informed if they learn to say yes,” Takei said.
Takei’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese Americans — about 70% of them U.S. citizens — who were placed in federal internment camps during World War II because of their ethnicity.
Takei was 5 when his family was forced from their home at gunpoint and taken to the Santa Anita racetrack, where they lived in a horse stable.
“Insects skittering around on the ground, flies buzzing in the air, and our baby sister promptly got sick, and a few days later, I got sick too, and my mother, with sheer determination, nursed us back to health,” Takei recalled.
After about four months, his family was sent to an internment camp in the swamps of Arkansas.
“We were put on a crowded train, and we weren’t told where we were going,” Takei said. “I asked my father where we were going. He thought for a while, and he said, ‘We’re going on a long vacation to the country.’ I was really excited; I had never had a train ride before that.”
After Arkansas, the family was sent to the Tule Lake detention center in Northern California, where they remained until 1945.
Despite the human rights violations Japanese Americans faced in the camps, Takei’s father, who immigrated to the U.S. in his teens, emphasized the importance of participatory democracy.
“He said democracy is a noble form of government, but it involves citizen participation,” Takei said.
Before Takei took the stage, advocates for free speech discussed the transformative power of books and the growing threat of censorship. Actors Kate Hamill and Carla Hargrove read excerpts from “The Story of Jane” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” respectively.
BPL Chief Librarian Edward Maxwell highlighted the success of the library’s Books Unbanned initiative, launched in 2022. The program combats censorship by issuing BPL digital library cards to young people across the country. Since its launch, more than 10,000 readers ages 13 to 21 have taken advantage of the program, gaining access to the library’s entire digital collection.
“We stand firmly for the principles of intellectual freedom and against censorship, supporting the right of every individual to seek information from all points of view without restrictions,” Maxwell said.
The American Library Association, which has tracked book challenges since 1990, has noted a sharp rise in censorship attempts since 2021 — the same year Moms for Liberty was founded. The group, along with Citizens Defending Freedom and Parents’ Rights in Education, has been a major force behind book bans.
PEN America, an organization that advocates for free expression, has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021. Many target books about race and racism or works featuring people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. In the 2024–2025 school year alone, PEN America recorded 6,870 book bans across 23 states and 87 school districts, affecting nearly 4,000 titles. Florida led the nation with 2,304 bans, followed by Texas with 1,781 and Tennessee with 1,622.
The group also found that 81% of school districts where books were banned between July 2022 and June 2023 were in or near counties with an active Moms for Liberty chapter.
PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman called the surge in book bans “not normal” and a violation of First Amendment rights.
“It will take a commitment from all of us who care about reading, who care about young people, who care about education, to fight for this fundamental freedom for all of us if we are going to defeat this scourge on American democracy,” Friedman said.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who read excerpts from “The New Jim Crow,” warned that censorship has long been used to usher in authoritarianism and fascism.
“We cannot censor at a time where we have to be pushing back and making sure that all voices are heard,” Williams said.
Crown Heights resident Vincent Bowen attended the event as both a fan of books and of Takei. His solution to book bans was simple.
“I don’t believe any book should ever be banned. If you don’t like a book, you just don’t have to read it,” Bowen told Brooklyn Paper. “The whole thing of freedom of speech in this country is that we have the right to have the opportunity to read things or say what we want to. And as soon as you ban one thing, it opens the door to everything.”
After the event, Maxwell said Takei’s story resonated deeply with the audience.
“To have him talk about his experiences, and especially in the climate that we’re in now, I think it shares a message for us all in the future,” Maxwell said.
