What's the Deal?

With Ali Velshi's Banned Book Club

MSBNC host Ali Velshi founded his #VelshiBannedBookClub in February 2022, in response to the increasingly widespread practice of schools and libraries prohibiting readers — especially young readers — from accessing books that adults believe would make these readers uncomfortable.

These books include such literary classics as William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, contemporary tomes such as Alex Gino’s Melissa and Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist, and illustrated children’s books, New Kid and I Am Rosa Parks. Sadly, the list is way too long to include.

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Velshi and Yaroslav Trofimov on history and Ukrainian literature

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Ali Velshi on Burying Ukrainian Manuscripts to Keep them from Russian Hands

The MSNBC host and Citizen board member sits down with author and Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov to discuss how Ukrainian literature is preserving the nation's history — and its future

Listen

Ali Velshi on Burying Ukrainian Manuscripts to Keep them from Russian Hands

The MSNBC host and Citizen board member sits down with author and Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov to discuss how Ukrainian literature is preserving the nation's history — and its future

BY Ali Velshi

Feb. 24, 2025

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This is the story of Volodymyr Vakulenko’s story. The Ukrainian children’s author, poet, and activist wrote a manuscript detailing the Russian invasion of his country and the occupation of his village, and fearing he would not live to see it published, buried it beneath a tree in his backyard. After his abduction and execution, it was found by author and war aid volunteer Victoria Amolina, who wrote the forward to the diary and worked to get I’m Turning Into… Occupation Diary. Selected Poems published nine months after it was found.  Amolina was later killed in an attack on a pizza parlor in Ukraine in June 2023. Ali Velshi shares these sad but important stories to, in the words of the late Amolina, “…uncover the truth, to ensure the survival of memory and give justice and lasting peace a chance.”

Ukrainian literature has never been more in demand among its people and the world. Russia’s invasion was preceded by an essay Vladimir Putin wrote declaring Ukrainians weren’t real people and that Russia had a claim to their land historically and culturally. Ukrainian literature is a vital tool preserving the nation and its people’s identity and, most importantly, its history in a time when an aggressor is attempting to erase it.

Ukrainian authors, journalists, and even the nation’s capacity to print books are being systematically destroyed, but Ukrainian literature is rising to the challenge of preserving history to secure its future.

On this week’s Banned Book Club, Velshi speaks with Ukrainian author and journalist Yaruslov Trofimov, who wrote No Country For Love, which explores Russia’s attempts to wipe out Ukrainian literature and history.

“The weight of history is really the motivating force for Ukrainians resisting today,” says  Trofimov. “They know that the alternative of surrender is actually worse than the tremendous casualties and destruction that occur today.”

 

Listen to Velshi and Trofimov talk about history and Ukrainian literature:

 

Watch Velshi and Trofimov:

 

Velshi on banned books on MSNBC:

 

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Ali Velshi and Yaroslav Trofimov discuss how Ukrainian literature preserves its history, and the Russian attempts to destroy it

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