Mural unveiled to kick off Banned Books Week at Lewes library
A new mural that mixes local landmarks with banned books now hangs in the Lewes Public Library’s teen wing.
Library and community leaders attended an unveiling ceremony for the mural Oct. 2, to kick off the library’s We Love Banned Books Week.
“We like to say that every public library has something to offend everyone,” said Library Director Jill DiPaolo.
The artwork features 66 books; 90% have been banned or challenged in some places around the country, said Teen Services Librarian Emily Ellinger.
Local landmarks such as a fire control tower and the Lightship Overfalls are depicted in the mural. The once-missing cannonball is even in there, along with a parody book called “The Traveling Cannonball from Pilottown Road.”
“It’s all about community and free speech and free access to ideas and information,” said DiPaolo. “Hanging it in our teen room is a perfect combination of all that, because they are the future,” she said.
The mural was created by library patrons and local artist John Donato at a community workshop in February. Local teenagers and their families did a lot of the painting.
“The inspiration was a lot of the books the teens read, [and] banned books happen to be some of those,” said Donato. “They put in a lot of the ground work, the base colors. They got started on the ship and the Zwaanendael Museum. They inspired me to see which direction we wanted to go with it.”
Donato finished the mural in his studio over the last seven months.
“Some of it is hidden; some of it is quite literal. Fifty years from now, somebody’s going to be looking at the mural and be like, ‘Oh, I never saw that before,’” Donato said.
“It’s definitely a conversation piece. People will be wandering [into the teen wing] a lot more,” said Ellinger.
The mural was made possible through a grant from the National Library of Medicine.
We Love Banned Books Week is sponsored by ACLU Delaware, Browseabout Books, the Lewes Public Library and Groome Church in Lewes.
“I think this will inspire people to stand up and say, ‘enough is enough,’” said the Rev. Dr. S. Willard Crossan, pastor of Groome Church. “[The church] is trying to develop the arts as a way to speak to people, touch people’s lives, so they’re more educated about the moral imperatives of life.”
For more on We Love Banned Books Week events, go to Lewes.lib.de.us.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
