Books After Dark: An Adult Banned Book Fair - Pride Edition!

Books After Dark: PRIDE EDITION!!! Join us after hours on Sunday, June 14 from 6PM-9PM for a night of queer joy.

This is a ticketed 21+ event right smack in the middle of Pride Month with an emphasis on banned LGBTQ+ books.

There will be onsite bartenders with a selection of signature themed cocktails!

Customers can come sip and shop in ambient atmosphere while we discuss the tea surrounding the current sociopolitical climate. Like cultured adults.

Did you know that 3,743 unique titles were banned during the 2024-2025 school year? Book bans are a bellwether of broader societal trends. Since 2021, book bans have reflected backlash, at times coordinated, against the mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, efforts to reckon with the country’s history of racism and inequality, and increased comfort with open discussion of sex and sexuality. For books banned in the 2024-2025 school year, a strain of anti-intellectualism, as illustrated in bans on nonfiction titles, also mirrors the broader political attack on facts and knowledge and the skepticism and devaluation of, and disdain for, experts and expertise—tactics long associated with the rise of authoritarian regimes and intended to sow distrust in democratic institutions. Let's learn more about how to fight against book bans in Utah!

We are featuring local vendors, artists/creatives as well as hosting a moderated book panel with local publishers, literary icons, and radical educators!

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**Tara Lipsyncki** is the founder and executive director of the United Drag Alliance and Drag Story Hour’s Intermountain West chapter. Having performed for over 20 years professionally in drag and as a performer with Disney on Ice, they are a born entertainer. They have also been recognized by the Senate of California for being part of a community effort to raise over $1 million dollars for HIV/AIDS resources and homeless LGBTQIA+ youth in San Francisco.

@taralipsyncki Executive Director:@united.drag.alliance & @mosaics.utah on Instagram

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**Madazon Can-Can, M.Ed** is a local performer, educator, activist, clown, and all around weirdo. They specialize in pursuing and teaching subjects that are taboo and often within the realm of the underground, the unseen and the under-appreciated. They have been reading Tarot professionally for 6 years and can be seen producing and performing and teaching all around the valley in subjects of art, dance, human relationships, self improvement and more. They are overjoyed to be working with Weller Book Works as a previous English Major and current radical educator specializing in their own programs and being a full-time self employed artist here in the valley of Sin and Salt.

www.madazoncancan.com and @madazon*can*can on Instagram.