No More Book Bans! 

The American Alliance for Theatre & Education serves and inspires a growing collective of theatre artists, educators, and scholars committed to transforming young people and communities through the theatre arts. As such, we join the organizations supporting the No Book Bans Coalition (nobookbans.com) to actively oppose any effort to restrict that art.

AATE is committed to equity, justice, and inclusion for all. We know our work is made stronger by the many voices, perspectives, and experiences we bring to the organization and the field. In light of that, we extend our support to the communities directly targeted for erasure through the banning of artistic works. These include members of the Global Majority (Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Latine, and Asian populations), the LGBTQIA+ community,  religious minorities including the Jewish and Muslim communities, the disability community, and immigrant populations.  

In AATE, we actively welcome and include all people regardless of race, socioeconomic class, color, national origin, religion, diverse perspectives, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, neurological or physical ability, veteran status, legal status, or education level. To that end, we affirm the representation of all people in artistic works by, for, and about youth and believe that erasing historically marginalized and oppressed people from being seen is an act of violence.

The worth of a civilization is measured by its ability to meet the needs of its youth. Consequently, we are proud to highlight efforts to promote the safety of artists and educators who are committed to these aims. We applaud, among others:

We encourage members of the theatre education community to do more to support our colleagues working on the front lines of this censorship agenda, particularly those who have the privilege of living and/or working in locales not yet affected.

How you can help (adapted from nobookbans.com):

  • Share this statement with your networks, or create and share your own version

  • Consider your season selection; are members of all of your communities represented in your season? Do the people and stories targeted by book bans have places in your season? Bans target people and their stories; you don’t have to adapt a book that has been targeted by a ban to tell a story by and about people who are being targeted by those bans.

  • Consider representation in works from the theatre canon. Can you update them in partnership with the communities you serve, so that everyone is reflected?

  • Consider your community; are people from historically marginalized communities welcomed and celebrated in your spaces as leaders, artists, staff, audience members and students?

  • Does your community have the tools they need to advocate to their elected officials? Can you support their advocacy with templates, contact information, voting rights information, and information about legislation being drafted and voted on that impacts your community?

  • Connect your community with the local non-profits and mutual aid groups that are directly providing aid for people from marginalized backgrounds to care for their physical and mental health, safety, comfort, access to human rights, and advocacy needs.

And to our colleagues who need our support, we ask: 

  • What do you need?

  • How can we support you?

We celebrate the courage and creativity of theatre artists and educators everywhere and pledge to counter these attacks on free expression whenever and wherever they manifest.

Signed on Behalf of the AATE Board of Directors by

Joel Jason Rodriguez          Alexis Truitt
AATE Board Chair               Executive Director