Joined by Youth Honorary Chair Iris Mogul in Leading
Annual Event Spotlighting the Harms of Censorship
CHICAGO – Pioneering actor, author, and activist George Takei has been named honorary chair of Banned Books Week, which will take place October 5 – 11, 2025. Takei will be joined in leading the annual event by youth honorary chair Iris Mogul.
“Books are an essential foundation of democracy,” said Mr. Takei. “Our ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ depends on a public that is informed and empathetic, and books teach us both information and empathy. Yet the right to read is now under attack from school boards and politicians across America. I’m proud to serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week, because I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me. Now, as an author, I share my own stories so that new generations will be better informed about their history and themselves. Please stand with me in opposing censorship, so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.”
Mr. Takei is recognized as an award-winning actor, outspoken civil rights activist, social media icon, and New York Times–bestselling author. He has leveraged his popularity as a star of the Star Trek franchise and a social media influencer to advocate for several causes, including the rights of Japanese Americans and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
His award-winning New York Times bestseller "They Called Us Enemy" (Top Shelf Productions, 2019) uses both words and images to depict Mr. Takei's childhood as one of 125,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned in concentration camps by the U.S. government during World War II. This graphic memoir has been targeted by censors multiple times since publication, most recently in Monroe County School District in Tennessee, where it was among nearly 600 titles removed in an attempt to comply with the state's vaguely-worded Age-Appropriate Materials Act.
Mr. Takei’s latest acclaimed graphic memoir "It Rhymes With Takei" (Top Shelf Productions, 2025), which Publishers Weekly described in its starred review as challenging “Americans to look to how past humanitarian injustices speak to current political debates,” has not appeared on banned books lists yet. But the memoir’s depiction of Mr. Takei’s life as a closeted gay man and decision to come out at the age of 68 will likely meet resistance in places where state and local laws target the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ materials in schools and libraries.
In addition to Mr. Takei, youth honorary chair Iris Mogul will also raise awareness about censorship threats throughout Banned Books Week. Ms. Mogul is a Florida teen who started a banned books club in her community after the state implemented laws that resulted in the removal of hundreds of books about race, history, and sexuality from schools. Ms. Mogul continued her advocacy work as a student leader in the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Student Advocates for Speech and received an honorable mention from the Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards in May 2025..
Since 2021, the American Library Association and PEN America have tracked a sharp escalation in the attempts to ban books, with thousands of unique titles targeted annually. Books by or about LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of color make up nearly half of those titles. The majority of book censorship attempts now originate from organized movements. According to ALA, pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries in 2024.
Since it was founded in 1982, Banned Books Week has drawn attention to attempts to remove books and other materials from libraries, schools, and bookstores. Now in its 43rd year, the theme for Banned Books Week 2025 is “Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights.” George Orwell’s cautionary tale 1984 serves a prescient warning about the dangers of censorship, and this year’s theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.
Let Freedom Read Day, a day of action, will be observed on October 11. Everyone is encouraged to take at least one action to fight censorship — all you need is 5 minutes! For information about ways to participate and resources, visit bit.ly/LetFreedomReadDay.
Visit BannedBooksWeek.org for information about events, ways to participate, and promotional materials. Follow Banned Books Week on social media (@BannedBooksWeek on Bluesky, Facebook, and X, @banned_books_week on Instagram) for the latest updates.
About George Takei
George Takei is a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek. He has used his success as a platform to fight for justice on a wide range of issues, particularly those facing the Japanese American and LGBTQIA+ communities. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood unjustly imprisoned in United States incarceration camps along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans. He also spent the first 68 years of his life closeted, finally coming out as gay in 2005 to become a tireless advocate for marriage equality. His books include the autobiography To the Stars, the award-winning graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, and the children’s picture book My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story. In 2025, he reunited with the team behind They Called Us Enemy for a new graphic memoir reflecting on his life on both sides of the closet door, titled It Rhymes With Takei.
About Iris Mogul
Originally from Miami, Florida, Iris Mogul is determined to resist censorship from her state’s legislators and around the country. As a high schooler, Iris started a banned books club in her community after the state passed laws to remove hundreds of books about race, history, and sexuality from schools. She continued her advocacy work as a student leader in the National Coalition Against Censorship's Student Advocates for Speech where she spoke and wrote about topics like book banning, political censorship in AP US History curriculum, and the failing humanities education in Florida. Last Banned Books Week, she joined the Miami bookstore Books & Books for their musical Sing for Freadom event!
Now a freshman at the University of California Santa Cruz, Iris finds joy in music, reading, writing, and learning. She envisions a life of working towards collective liberation for all people through the vehicle of fighting mass incarceration and criminalization.
About Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. Typically (but not always) held during the last week of September, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
About the Banned Books Week Coalition
The Banned Books Week Coalition is an international alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read. The Coalition seeks to engage various communities and inspire participation in Banned Books Week through education, advocacy, and the creation of programming about the problem of book censorship.
The coalition includes American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, Amnesty International USA, Association of University Presses, Banned Books Week Sweden, Children’s Book Council, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Freedom to Read Foundation, Little Free Library, National Book Foundation, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, PEN America, People for the American Way Foundation, PFLAG National. Contributors include American Society of Journalists and Authors,Authors Guild, Index on Censorship, GLAAD, and Project Censored. Banned Books Week receives generous support from Penguin Random House.
About the American Library Association
The American Library Association is the largest non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to America’s libraries. The ALA mission is to empower and advocate for all libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all. For nearly 150 years, ALA has provided resources for information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more information, visit www.ala.org.
