Libraries are places where difficult subjects are often tackled. There are books on all sorts of taboo subjects, and books that are often banned by one organization or another. Libraries often shed light in dark places.
Why, then, would they cave in to pressure to cancel a program on witchcraft?
That’s exactly what happened at the Newburgh Free Library last month. A scheduled program on witchcraft was canceled at the last minute, apparently after objections to the program were raised by members of a particular church.
The program, it should be noted, was billed as an introduction to modern witchcraft. There was no mention of any satanic rituals or of anything that might be viewed as a negative stereotype towards witches or witchcraft. And there was nothing planned that may be interpreted as the practice of religion in a public place. It was to be a somewhat lighthearted discussion of modern witchcraft led by Dana Cooper, owner of Ritualist, a New Paltz store described on its website as “part witch shop, part plant shop, all magic.”
On her shop’s website, Cooper writes: “I love learning about folk traditions, the history of witchcraft, and other people’s practices, but my own practice is rooted in the idea that whatever feels right is right (as long as it’s not steeped in appropriation or causing harm, of course.) I believe that anything done with intention and presence — no matter how simple — can be a ritual, and can help us come back home to ourselves.”
For what it’s worth, lectures like this are as much for the casually curious as the believer. You don’t need to be a devout Lutheran to attend a lecture on the Protestant Reformation, and you don’t need to be a Pagan or a witch to attend a program on modern witchcraft at your local library.
The Newburgh Free Library is one of only two public libraries in the state that fall under the auspices of a school district, meaning that the decision to cancel the program came from someone in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.
People who showed up to a recent school board meeting to ask how and why this happened went home that night without getting any answers. No one on the school board or among the administrators there provided any answers. Library Director Mary Lou Carolan declined to comment on the matter, leaving us to wonder just who pulled the plug.
We also have reason to wonder how a library that’s supposed to champion free speech can allow this to happen. Silence, and the ensuing darkness, is far more sinister than the topic of modern witchcraft.