Fighting Injustice with the Harry Potter Alliance

Through the Harry Potter Alliance (yes, such a magical thing exists!), Harry Potter fans can do more than read and re-read the books; they can turn fiction into reality through social activism. Executive director and co-founder Andrew Slack tells us how NaNoWriMo and HPA are working together for good through their Accio Books! campaign: 

According to the HPA website, “The Harry Potter Alliance fights the Dark Arts in the real world.” Tell us more about how HPA accomplishes this.

If Harry Potter were in our world, he’d do more than talk about Harry Potter. He’d fight for justice in our world the way he fought for justice in his. In the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), we aspire to be the heroes we read about. Time and again, we see Dumbledore advocate for fair and equal treatment of all wizards, muggles and magical creatures and since our inception, we’ve worked very hard on a number of equality issues.

After all, Lupin has to hide in the closet for being a werewolf, Hagrid has to hide in the closet for being a half-giant, and Harry Potter is literally forced to live in a closet because of his identity as a wizard. We want a world where no one has to live in the closet because of their identity whether due to their sexual orientation, gender identification, or their immigration status. In the HPA, we work for LGBTQ equality and immigration reform.

Tell us more about the Accio Books! campaign and how our Wrimos can help!

Wrimos and HPA members believe in the power of story. We recognize that books have changed our lives and we believe that sharing our love of books can change the lives of people we’ve never met. That’s why we’re working with Read Indeed to help Maria Keller—a book-loving 7th grader—achieve her dream of putting a million books in the hands of young people across the world. Read Indeed is glad to accept new or gently-used books for babies through teens. We’ve just extended the campaign through June 1!

The best way for Wrimos to get involved would be for them to find and work with their local Harry Potter Alliance chapter. We’ve also put together a few pointers for organizing your own book drive, as well as some guidelines that might help you identify a suitable recipient in your own community. However, anyone with small numbers of books to donate can mail those books directly to:

Read Indeed
155 Jackson Ave. N., Ste 20
Hopkins, MN 55343

How did the Harry Potter Alliance start? Any magic involved?

As a professional comedian trying to make ends meet, I started working with kids and they helped me fall completely in love with Harry Potter. Looking at the books from the perspective of an experienced social organizer, I saw many parallels between Harry’s world and our own.

I drew a map of all the different real world issues that I saw connected to the Harry Potter novels. With the story’s strong stance for human rights, equality, and against torture in prison, it was no surprise that J.K. Rowling used to work for Amnesty International.

Most people found my idea for a real world Dumbledore’s Army crazy. But then I met Harry and the Potters, two brothers and indie rock musicians who sing punk songs from Harry’s perspective. They loved my idea for a Dumbledore’s Army for our world, and together we began using social media to organize. From there, the movement grew and spread throughout the Harry Potter fan community.

What are some of your success stories?

We’ve raised enough money to send five cargo planes to Haiti. Through Accio Books!, our members have donated over 86,000 books and have helped build libraries across the world. We’ve worked for years on marriage equality and have recently contributed to successes on that issue in Maine.

We’ve also helped pass the Maryland Dream Act; we’ve protected thousands of civilians in Darfur; we’ve worked for media reform; and we are currently working to make all Harry Potter chocolate Fair Trade in an effort to help end child slavery and its connection to the cocoa trade.

What is it about Harry Potter fans that has translated so well to social activism?

I think as Harry Potter fans, we share a sense of responsibility to these stories: they have impacted us in profound ways. So we’re doing our part to make some of that magic real. Just as Dumbledore gave Hermione Granger a children’s storybook to arm her with the knowledge required to defeat Voldemort’s horcruxes, I think the Harry Potter Generation looks to the story of Harry Potter as a weapon in fighting our real-world horcruxes.

The world that Harry Potter inhabits is not perfect, but Harry and his friends continue to fight to make their world better. There’s no reason that Harry Potter fans can’t do the same in our own world.

What has been J.K. Rowling’s response to this daring endeavor?

J.K. Rowling has been wonderful. In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, she donated seven signed Harry Potter books to be auctioned off. She’s been nothing but incredible and supportive throughout our existence.

She said in Time Magazine: “I am honoured and humbled that Harry’s name has been given to such an extraordinary campaign, which really does exemplify the values for which Dumbledore’s Army fought in the books. To Andrew and all the others who work on this most inspirational website: the world needs more people like you.”

We know the world is full of amazing people like the folks at the Harry Potter Alliance; in fact, you’re one of them. We hope you’ll join them, and NaNoWriMo in this year’s book drive!

If you have questions about the campaign, please email them to: acciobooks@thehpalliance.org.