ROME — In recognition of Banned Books Week, Keaton & Lloyd Bookshop, 236 W. Dominick St., is organizing Speak Your Peace: A Spoken Word Celebration of Banned Books Week at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23.

Banned Books Week — Sept. 18 to 24 —  is an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International. It celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. At the event, writers from the community are invited to express themselves through short poetry or prose.

“We’re very excited to be celebrating our first Banned Books Week in business,” said Keaton & Lloyd owner Julie Whittemore. “There are many people across the nation and in our own community who wish to make some literature inaccessible. This might take place in schools, prisons, libraries, or bookstores like mine. It is a serious threat to social progress and we need to ensure that marginalized communities can voice their experiences and needs.”