Akron business fights censorship with subscription book service

AKRON, Ohio – Akron resident Ariel Hakim is fighting book bans and censorship with a subscription service she founded called Banned Books Box.

The service ships recipients one or two recently banned or challenged books each month, according to Hakim. This service aims to combat censorship by providing access to books that have been removed from schools and libraries due to complaints about their content.

A former Wadsworth Public Library staff member, Hakim saw the harm of censorship firsthand.

“When I first started to hear about book bans in the fall of 2021, I wasn’t concerned. It seemed like a really niche thing that was happening, not a crisis like it does to me and a lot of people now. But at that time, I thought people might be really interested in learning about the books that ot