Angélique Kidjo and JP Saxe have thrown their talents behind a special invite-only concert in New York, part of an expanding United Nations initiative to highlight climate justice and rights-based climate action.

Kidjo, the five-time Grammy Award-winning Beninese-French singer-songwriter, and Saxe, the Grammy nominated Canadian singer and musician, both performed at a private industry event, hosted at the Recording Academy’s office with reps from UN Human Rights watching on.

The Recording Academy is the official music partner of Right Here, Right Now Music, supported by United Nations Human Rights, with both organizations coming together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, created in the wake of WWII to outline universal human rights.

Guests at the intimate show also learned “alarming new facts” about the escalating human rights crisis caused by climate change, according to a joint statement.

The music-led project is just getting started. Some of the “most popular arena acts” will be encouraged to use their considerable voice to elevate climate issue for the Right Here, Right Now Mini Global Climate Concert series. As-yet unannounced major artists will be tapped to perform in “small iconic concert venues” around the world, a statement explains, while shining a light on climate issues such as floods, droughts, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, clean water, ocean acidity, deforestation, as well as food insecurity, mental health, and more.

The first international activation is set for Dec. 9 with a show at the Atlantis in Dubai during COP28, the UN’s annual global climate change conference.

Grammy-nominated Lumineers’ frontman Wesley Schultz and British singer-songwriter YOLA performed at the first U.S. event, held April 13 in Boulder, Colorado, at which the performers delivered speeches “addressing the importance of utilizing music as a tool to combat climate change,” read a joint statement issued at the time.

Berlin, London, Kigali, Seoul, and Rio de Janeiro are among the cities being considered for Right Here, Right Now Mini Global Climate Concerts next year.

Through the climate concerts, says David Clark, founder and CEO of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, parent organization of Right Here, Right Now Music, “we seek to reframe the climate crisis as the fundamental human rights crisis that it is and thank the Recording Academy and UN Human Rights for being such dedicated partners in this worldwide effort.”

Adds Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, “I look forward to working alongside UN Human Rights to showcase how the power of music can raise awareness and help promote change surrounding human rights issues around the world.”

Proceeds from the concert series will go to United Nations Human Rights climate justice initiatives and music industry charity MusiCares.

The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance was presented at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland and has earned support from a growing list of artists, including Jack Black, Camila Cabello, Cher, Dead & Company, Celine Dion, Michael Franti, Quincy Jones, Kesha, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, LL Cool J, Pitbull, Joss Stone, Bob Weir, and more.

On Sept. 15, Billboard China and QQ Music, a subsidiary of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), launched the original music collection THE ONE Endless Dream.

Over the past six months, through a joint selection and recommendation process by QQ Music and Billboard China’s editorial team, 30 musical works were selected. Together, they create a collection that presents unlimited creativity in original Chinese music.

The original music collection THE ONE Endless Dream crosses dimensions and music genres, bringing together 30 groups of highly representative singers and musicians from various fields in the Chinese music industry, including angel-like vocalist Zhou Shen, Chinese soul singer-songwriter TIA RAY, versatile cross-genre singer Fiona Sit, Chinese rap star Ma SiWei , stylistic icon MIKA, young singer Pinlin Zhao, Tencent Music artist Nono Chen and more, as they convey the voice of China to the world.

In the collection, 30 high-quality original musical works are presented in three chapters: Dream Big, Dream Crazy, and Dream Wild. From big names to emerging original musicians, these music creators, with their boundless and wildly imaginative musical aspirations, not only bring fans great music, but also inspire them to set free their imaginations, dare to dream big, and courageously pursue their dreams. In this collection, Laure Shang’s “Follow Your Heart” is an inspiring declaration of bravery, Lala Hsu’s “Behind the Earth” conveys unwavering determination to venture into the unknown, Bonan Yao encapsulates love and creates a dream that never wakes with his “Dumbbell,” Chen Zhuoxuan’s “Skylight” signs “there are more dreams to pursue,” and Jiaqi Chen’s “Set Off” takes listeners on a fantasy journey of freedom with the rhythm of the music.

THE ONE Endless Dream is not only a collection for discovering amazing music, but also a platform for talented music creators to shine on a bigger stage, bringing “Chinese Treasures” paying attention to for music fans worldwide.

In March, Billboard China teamed up with QQ Music to launch the global original music competition THE ONE, collaboratively working with TME’s Qimingxing Music Assistant, Tencent Musician Platform’s NEW FORCES PLAN and premium labels to set up three major competition units: Musical Work, Fresh Face and Label, aimed at discovering music “dream makers” with unlimited creativity and helping talented music creators in reaching a broader audience.

This original music collection also includes several high-quality original musical works uncovered through the three units of THE ONE. Among them, PinkWave from the Qimingxing Musical Work Unit, Jiayuan Dou from the Label Unit, and Slow-mo, Fuzi Zuo, and Duanpaoxiaoshuo from the Fresh Face Unit have all showed their outstanding creative prowess, and with their unique and fresh original compositions, they have demonstrated the thriving vitality of the Chinese original music.

To propel these talented music creators and their exceptional musical works into the international spotlight, Billboard China and TME will collaborate to integrate their internal resources. QQ Music and Tencent Musician Platform, subsidiaries of TME, will provide extensive promotional resources for the collection, while Billboard China will also continuously cover its official overseas websites and Chinese official social media channels. Furthermore, the collection will have a special collaboration with Billboard China Live to start a series of performances, providing selected musicians with more performance opportunities, and boosting them to step onto bigger stages, thus extending their dream of music boundlessly.

Tencent Music Entertainment Group has been consistently perfecting its service system and industry collaboration capabilities, integrating resources from various sectors in the industry, and continuously constructing a service system and support ecology for high-quality original content. Going forward, Tencent Music Entertainment Group aspires to continue leveraging its capabilities, discovering more exceptional original musicians and Chinese original musical works, continuously propelling high-quality development and worldwide propagation of Chinese music, and championing Chinese originality.

David Foster is set to host and perform at the 37th annual Carousel Ball on Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Hyatt Regency Denver. Counting Crows and Foster’s wife, singer Katharine McPhee, are also set to perform.

Foster is a 16-time Grammy winner, including three wins for producer of the year, non-classical. He also won a Primetime Emmy for The Concert for World Children’s Day (2003) and has received three Oscar nominations for best original song. Counting Crows are two-time Grammy nominees. McPhee was runner-up on American Idol in 2006.

Attendees are likely to hear many of Foster’s most famous songs, including hits for Earth, Wind & Fire, Boz Scaggs and Chicago; Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones”; and McPhee’s cover version of Judy Garland’s immortal “Over the Rainbow.”

The event, held every two years, is committed to increasing awareness for type 1 diabetes, raising funds for clinical care and research at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, and supporting programs run by the Children’s Diabetes Foundation. Funds are raised through sponsorships, dinner tickets, a live and silent auction, and contributions.

Dana Davis is event chairman. Barbara Davis is honorary event chairman.

This year’s event will honor Satish Garg, MD with the Founders Award, while Juli and Joe Smolen will receive the High Hopes Tribute Award.

The Children’s Diabetes Foundation is the fundraising arm of the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes. The foundation, located in Aurora, Colo., was established by Barbara and Marvin Davis in 1977 after their daughter, Dana, developed diabetes at the age of seven.

Kid Cudi is getting in the Halloween mood, thanks in part to his sleek new tattoo.

The star took to Instagram this week to show off his new ink done by Mr. Woo, marking the 10th piece he’s gotten done from the popular tattoo artist. “New ink by @_dr_woo_ Skeleton Hand Man My 10th Woo piece. What should I get next? Appreciate u Woo God,” he captioned the post showing off the tattoo, which features skeleton bones completely covering his hand.

See his post here.

In other Cudi news, the musician revealed that the release date for his long-awaited ninth studio has been pushed back to January 2024. “I have to push INSANO back until January. I want to make sure that everything lines up and I give y’all the best version of myself,” Cudi said on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday (Sept. 4). Despite the news, Cudi assured his fans that he would release a new single, and released two tracks on SoundCloud — “MOST AIN’T DENNIS” and “ILL WHAT I BLEED” — in the meantime.

“I still plan on releasing the next single soon so don’t even worry about that… Since I’m doing this and I know you all are fiending to get a listen of the album, I’m releasing two new jams from INSANO tonight on Soundcloud,” he said.

Louis Tomlinson‘s documentary, Louis Tomlinson: All of Those Voices, received its theatrical release on March 22 — and now, fans will be able to watch it on Paramount+ starting next month. To preview the release, the streaming platform released the documentary’s official trailer on Tuesday (Sept. 19).

The short clip features archival footage of the English singer-songwriter in his early years, as a confident schoolboy to his ascent to stardom as one-fifth of chart-topping boy band One Direction, multiple years before his solo career would be conceived. Such stardom led to the 31-year-old experiencing self-doubt at his ability to make something of himself outside the comfort of performing alongside his groupmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik.

“I thought for me, it was the band or nothing. It was hard for me to imagine myself on my own. I didn’t see a way back, not even musically, just to do anything,” Tomlinson said in the trailer’s narration of the dark period in his life.

After a period of self-reflection, Tomlinson’s esteem improved, allowing him to get back into the studio again. “I started to feel, ‘Maybe I do have some individual worth. What about making some music on your own.’ I remember calling my mom, and she was like, ‘Well that’s obviously what you’re gonna do,'” he recalled. “It finally does feel like the stars might be aligning for me. I finally feel worthy of where I am and what I’m doing.”

The trailer concluded with several clips from Tomlinson’s life now as a soloist, from performing for packed crowds across the world to enjoying much needed time off and looking happier than ever.

Louis Tomlinson: All of Those Voices — which promises to show the star’s “highs of superstardom, to the lows of personal tragedy,” according the documentary’s official description — is scheduled to arrive on Paramount+ on Oct. 4.

Watch the trailer in the video above.

The famed Roxy nightclub in West Hollywood turns 50 this month, and it’s celebrating its place in history with a new exhibit at the Grammy Museum.

Much of the exhibit, titled Roxy: 50 and Still Rockin’, draws from the personal archive of Roxy co-founder Lou Adler, 89, who opened the 500-capacity club on the Sunset Strip with Elmer Valentine in 1973. Adler is known as a modern master of both film and song whose introductions are typically preceded by a long list of award-winner accolades, but it was his greatest accomplishment – fathering and raising seven successful sons – that gives the exhibit a unique appeal.

Included in the exhibit — which boasts photos and portraits of Hollywood stars and music legends who frequented the club, including Neil Young, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan — is a short documentary that offers a revealing glimpse inside the Roxy’s first family.

Directed by Ashley Stagg and produced by Grammy Museum chief curator/vp of curatorial affairs Jasen Emmons, the documentary focuses on Adler’s place atop the influential family, which includes Adler’s sons, ages 50 to 21: Nic, Cisco, Sonny, Pablo, Ike, Oscar and Manny.

Lou Adler’s two oldest sons, Nic Adler and Cisco Adler, came of age in The Roxy, the On the Rox private club upstairs and the kitchen of the neighboring Rainbow Bar & Grill, all of which their father co-owned along with most of the rest of the Sunset Strip, including other famous outposts including the Whiskey A-Go-Go, the Comedy Store and the Viper Room.

Nic Adler recalls in the film, “As I have my own kids and they say they want to go somewhere…I’m like, ‘That’s unsafe.’ And then I think back to my own childhood, having free reign between the Rainbow and The Roxy and riding my skateboard in the parking lot. And I think at that point I kind of realized that maybe the way I grew up was different.”

Cisco Adler described the venue as an after-school “rock and roll YMCA” with live music, food and a steady stream of Lakers televised games always available.

“I was a musician playing the club before I was actually in a role other than being an Adler, but I can tell you, I still felt that responsibility,” says Cisco Adler in the film, which notes he first performed on stage in 2000 with his band Whitestarr, and came of age around legendary Roxy locals like Slash and Tommy Lee and even joined Bret Michaels on stage to sing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

“When you step on that stage, it’s a big moment,” he explained. As for his other siblings involvement, “Ike has become involved in On The Rox and will become more involved as time goes,” Cisco Adler tells Billboard. “Oscar has started handling merchandise. It’s a true family business.”

In the film, Lou Adler says he never “thought about” making The Roxy part of his sons’ lives but that “it was automatic.”

Also featured in the film is promoter and Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett, who has been designated as an honorary Adler by the family for the years he spent at the venue as a fan, and later as a promoter bringing concerts to the venue. He’s now viewed as the keeper of the flame, managing the venue on behalf of the Adlers through his L.A. concert company, Goldenvoice.

In the film, Tollett recalls seeing Lou pull up to The Roxy in an Aston Martin Lagonda with one of his kids in the backseat — on a school night — and thinking to himself, “What a cool dad.”

The Roxy is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of anniversary shows, including two Neil Young concerts set for Wednesday (Sept. 20) and Thursday (Sept. 21) in honor of Young’s concerts that opened the venue in 1973. Additionally, Stephen Marley will perform on Monday (Sept. 25) in honor of Bob Marley and the Wailers‘ historic 1976 performance at The Roxy, which aired live on KMET radio and was released as a live album in 2023. More information can be found at theroxyturns50.com.

The City of West Hollywood is also hosting an exhibit on the history of the Roxy at the West Hollywood Library in conjunction with the Grammy Museum. Click here for more information.

*NSYNC set the internet ablaze when they reunited at the VMAs on Sept. 12 to present the best pop award to Taylor Swift, and sparked larger rumors of new music, touring and more, much to the delight of fans. But fellow boybanders 98 Degrees, who are making a comeback of their own, were a little less than thrilled at having the competition.

Speaking with Andy Cohen for the host’s SiriusXM live show on Tuesday (Sept. 19), the group — which consists of members Nick and Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre — shared their feelings about *NSYNC’s return to the scene. Cohen wondered “how annoyed” 98 Degrees felt when the “I Want You Back” singers appeared to make their return.

“Stole the thunder,” Nick jokingly replied, with Jeffre adding, “It’s a boy band universe.”

Drew then gave a serious response, saying that *NSYNC’s return can only benefit the entire boyband genre in the long run. “When one succeeds, we all succeed. Because we’re all kind of like us, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, we’re all clumped into the same, into the same kind of pile there. So, if one’s elevated, it elevates everybody,” he said.

Nick added, “But I mean, happy for those guys personally too, because we obviously know them well at this point. And excited for the fact that they’re hopefully gonna do this — they’ve held up for a long time, so [have it] be a big moment. Yeah. Fingers crossed.”

98 Degrees is currently on its 25-year anniversary tour, which will see the boyband making stops will make stops in Florida, New York and Pennsylvania and more before concluding with a show at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on Oct. 8.

Watch 98 Degrees talk about *NSYNC’s return — as well as their own — in the video below.

Stanley Tucci took some time while promoting his new cookware line on Hoda & Jenna this week to gush over his pal, Harry Styles.

“I look like his grandfather,” the beloved actor joked when a photo appeared on the screen behind him, in which he’s seen hugging the “Watermelon Sugar” singer after presenting him with best album at the 2023 BRITs. “He is the loveliest man,” Tucci added of Styles. “He’s very thoughtful, kind, soft spoken, funny, really funny and super smart. A voracious reader.”

Watch the full interview here.

Styles recently wrapped nearly two years of his massively successful Love on Tour. Following his emotional goodbye on stage in Reggio Emilia, Italy, back in July, the pop star shared a lengthy thank-you message on Instagram to the millions of fans who attended. “It’s been the greatest experience of my entire life,” he wrote in a note on his Story. “Thank you to my band, and all the crew who made the last few years so special. It’s been an absolute pleasure.”

“To everyone who came out to see us play, thank you,” Styles continued. “I feel so incredibly full and happy, it’s all because of you. You have given memories that will last a lifetime, more than I could have ever dreamed of.”

“Thank you for your time, your energy, and your love,” the “As It Was” singer added. “It’s been an honor to play for you, I hope you had as much fun as I did.”

Deemed one of the 10 best-selling tours of all time, Love On Tour kicked off in September 2021, with more than 4.5 million fans coming out to see the show, and the trek brought in nearly $600 million as of the summer.

On Sept. 7, RIKIMARU released his first full album, CLOWN OR CROWN. After serving as a member of boy band INTO1 through the WARPs PROJECT, it’s the first release from the solo project he launched this summer which also shares the same name. In this interview, Billboard Japan spoke to RIKIMARU in depth about the artistry his fans can expect from his solo project and album.

You’ve said that your newly launched solo project would be a “mutual sharing of philosophies between you and listeners as well as an embodiment of the reasons you create as an artist and a way to pursue your goals.” What led you to attempt this?

In the past, the images associated with my music were “freshness” and “youth.” That was fun, in its own way, but looking at myself as a person, it felt like that image didn’t truly connect to the real me. I felt like an image of “craziness” would be a closer fit. That’s why I decided to make an album whose image is more along those lines. Through my songs, I wanted to examine societal issues and interpersonal relationships, not romance. I wanted to make songs whose themes would resonate with listeners, which is why I launched the project.

You’ve released your first full album, CLOWN OR CROWN. Why did you choose that name for the album?

I had this mental image of a deaf clown and a blind king. The deaf clown is a symbol of freedom and craziness. He is totally immersed in his own world, which is why he can’t hear others. The king lives in a dark castle, and he doesn’t know what kinds of lives people outside his castle are living. The album’s themes revolves around these two people, whose outlooks on life and whose perspectives on the world are so totally different from each other. Based on that foundation, I wrote songs as stories of what I myself have seen and felt, and what I’ve heard from others.

So it’s something of a social satire.

Right. But it’s not just a deep, heavy album — it has a lot that will also resonate with listeners. The stories could be interpreted differently if taken in different ways. CLOWN OR CROWN has this deaf clown and this blind king sharing information and their own sensibilities, so I want listeners to also share their own ideas and impressions.

I’m getting the feeling that album is encouraging people to broaden their perspectives.

Right. For example, I think about 80% of what I read online is fake (laughs). The majority opinion isn’t always the truth. Sometimes the minority view is correct. And not everything you see is real. It’s up to you to determine what to accept and what to reject, and if you change your perspective, you can get insights into all kinds of different worlds. That’s one of the things I want to convey through the album.

I know exactly what you mean.

And the difference between “CLOWN” and “CROWN” is just the difference between an “L” and an “R.” In China, I’m known as “Liwan,” and in Japanese my name is “RIKIMARU.” I often hear that “When you’re just chatting, you’re ‘Liwan,’ but when you dance you’re “RIKIMARU’.” Looking at the first letters of the names I go by, it’s an “L” and an “R.” I only noticed that afterwards, but it’s an interesting coincidence.

It sounds like an album that provides people with insights into various aspects of your character. You released “TALKIN’BOUT,” a single from CLOWN OR CROWN, on July 27, before the album was released. What is the meaning behind the song?

Recently there have been a lot of people struggling with bullying or violence online. It’s also common for the people making these abusive comments to be faceless. You often don’t know who they are. Even if the people around you are saying positive, uplifting things, sometimes it just doesn’t get through. The theme of this song is that you need to turn your attention to the positive. If people want to criticize, let them criticize.

That’s a problem that’s become particularly prominent as of late. So on the album, you’re focusing on that issue.

Some of the people who criticize others online are doing it because they’re stressed. If you get in their crosshairs, it’s almost like an accident. I realize it’s easier said than done, but I think the most important thing is to not let it get to you. If you let yourself get affected by negativity, you lose sight of yourself, right? That’s what I wanted to communicate. I want listeners to make their highest priority being true to themselves.

It feels like this is a theme song for your entire solo project.

That’s true. I wanted to make it kind of a table of contents, a declaration that “I’m going to talk about things that are going on today.” That’s why I made it the first song on the album.

I heard that you’ve made numerous revisions to the song, refining it into its final form.

Until I started working on the album, my voice sounded…childish, I guess? Lacking in artistry. It felt like I was just singing. When I played it to people I knew in the music industry, they said “Your singing technique has improved, but there’s no emotion in your voice.” I didn’t feel that my voice was artistic, either, so during the recording of the song, I recorded each line, line by line, over and over again. In the past, it took me about three hours to record an entire song, including the chorus, but this time it took me five hours just to record the melody line alone.

You were really a perfectionist.

We only had ten days to record the whole album. So there were times when I’d go in to the studio a little after lunch, record all night until 10:00 the next morning, get four hours of sleep, and then go back into the studio again. I did the recording in the US, and the producer said “I’ve never had a recording session continue through the entire night before” (laughs). But everyone pulled together and contributed, making the recording a success.

You’ve also uploaded a music video for “TALKIN’BOUT” to YouTube. What are the highlights of the video?

The dancers are blindfolded, which represents the faceless people I talked about earlier. There are scenes where the dancers are approaching me from behind, or in which it looks like they’re looking at me, but they don’t truly see me. They’re just haunting me. It’s interesting seeing the reactions of people who watch the music video, reading their novel interpretations.

One of the appeals of the song is how much depth there is to explore its meaning. The choreography was done by YUMEKI, right?

YUMEKI’s been doing a lot of great work lately, and his dancing is really cool, so I asked him to choreograph the song. I want people to pay especially close attention to the dancing in the chorus and in the dance break that follows. This was a new experience for me — it was the first time I had one of my former students do my choreography. I thought it would be perfect for giving my dancing a different feel and showing a new side of me.

The lead song is “I am Riki.”

This song is in a totally different genre than my past songs. In the past, I’d danced straight through all my videos, but this music video has zero dancing. Instead, it’s like a short film of a story I created, and I did a lot of acting.

What was your story about?

When I get stressed out, I sometimes think “What am I? Who am I?” I don’t truly understand myself. When that happens, it’s like the world goes dark. I get disoriented. “Why am I here, doing what I’m doing?” My story depicted that feeling.

I’m sure that before writing the story, you’d thought about just who you were. What kind of conclusions did you arrive at?

I didn’t arrive at any conclusions (laughs). I never arrived at an understanding of who I was, or what my own ideal self would be like. But I did realize that a darker approach, like CLOWN OR CROWN, was a good fit for me. Also, I’m really fickle. Who knows, maybe when I listen to the album again later it’ll feel like a comedy (laughs). But I want to concentrate on myself as I am here and now, and I want to enjoy the moment, without thinking about the future.

All of your songs, including the two that we’ve discussed, have clearly defined themes. I’m sure there were a lot of things that you paid special attention to, and you faced a lot of challenges.

I really focused on the themes. Even if an album has an overall theme, it’s rare for each individual song to have a sense of story and to match the overall album theme. I spent about half a year thinking about that.

 As far as challenges go, the English was a challenge. With this album, I wanted for people around the world to discover me, so most of the lyrics are in English. When you sing, if your accent’s off, the emotion doesn’t come across. The nuance might change, as well. So I sang with an American, who provided input like “If you sing it this way, the singing matches the story” or “The emotion doesn’t really communicate well if you do it that way.” Making all those adjustments was difficult.

You really put your all into the album. In closing, do you have any message you’d like to share with your album listeners?

This album is like a fairytale. Each song tells a story, so I’d love it if you listened to it in the same way you’d read a storybook.

—This interview by Azusa Takahashi first appeared on Billboard Japan

Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, and Gabrielle Union are among nearly 200 entertainers who have signed an open letter calling on creatives in Hollywood and beyond to use their platform to challenge book bans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Idina Menzel, Ava Max, Natasha Lyonne, Judd Apatow, Zooey Deschanel, Mark Ruffalo, Padma Lakshmi, Billy Porter, Roxane Gay, Sandra Cisneros, Amanda Gorman, Margaret Cho, Sharon Stone and Ron Perlman are also among the list of signees on the letter launched by Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton published on advocacy organization MoveOn Political Action’s website.

The letter reads that the “restrictive behavior” of banning certain books in U.S. school districts “is not just antithetical to free speech and expression but has a chilling effect on the broader creative field. The government cannot and should not create any interference or dictate what people can produce, write, generate, read, listen to or consume.”

Book bans have become a hot political topic in recent years as various state and local governments seek to censor books that deal with marginalized identities and histories. “We cannot stress enough how these censorious efforts will not end with book bans,” the letter continues. “It’s only a matter of time before regressive, suppressive ideologues will shift their focus toward other forms of art and entertainment, to further their attacks and efforts to scapegoat marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks.”

“We are calling on everyone to join us in raising their voices to uphold artistic freedom, embrace multicultural history and put a stop once and for all to book bans,” the message concludes.

See the full open letter, which you can also sign, here.