Voices of Banned Books.

The exhibition “Voices of Banned Books” will open in the Gallery on the M Floor of the National Library of Latvia. It will be on view until February 27, 2027.

The exhibition “Belarus. Voices of Banned Books” (Belarus. Voices of Banned Books), coordinated by the Latvian Belarusian Association “Supolka” and created by the human rights organization “Belarusian PEN Center,” tells the story of the complex political situation in Belarus.

Why are books banned in Belarus, what defines their “harmfulness,” and how does the censorship mechanism work as a whole? Books disappear from libraries, bookshops, and curricula, and with them important ideas about language, history, and freedom are lost. The message of the exhibition is to bring these “banned” books into the light and talk about them, because a word continues to live as long as there are people who want to read it. The exhibition presents several stories about authors and their works that Belarus has declared “extremist,” “harmful to the interests of the state,” or containing “undesirable information.”

The exhibition brings together several stories about authors and their works that the Belarusian regime has declared “extremist,” “harmful to the interests of the state,” or “undesirable information.”

“The books collected here are very different - in genre, theme, geography, and the depth of human experience they contain. Yet they share one common and defining feature: a refusal to accept the worldview of a totalitarian state. They show other ways of living, alternative versions of reality. Their authors place no limits on thought or emotion - and that is precisely what makes them dangerous.”

• •poet and head of the Belarusian PEN Center Tatsyana Niadbai (Taciana Niadbaj).

We invite you to the exhibition opening on October 21 at 5:00 p.m. in the Gallery on the M Floor!