The Current Landscape of Book Banning: Emmy® Award Winning Film Screening & Panel Discussion
Celebrate your freedom to read and explore the role librarians across the country play in defending First Amendment rights and ensuring access to information and resources.
Join us for a community screening of the Emmy® Award Winning documentary The Librarians, followed by a panel discussion featuring:
- Caroline Richmond, Executive Director of the national nonprofit We Need Diverse Books
- Andrea Boothby-Rice, Research & Instruction Librarian at Washington College’s Miller Library
- Natalie Hagan, Executive Director of Kent County Public Library
This timely discussion will thoughtfully explore the current landscape of book banning and intellectual freedom. Advocacy Packets with practical ways to fight censorship and swag to show support for the freedom to read will be available to attendees while supplies last.
This event will take place at:
Norman James Theatre
William Smith Hall
Washington College Main Campus
300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD
Adults (ages 18+)
Interested teens (ages 15-17) are also welcome.
Schedule of Events
- 5:30pm Hors d'oeuvres & welcome
- 6pm The Librarians screening
- 7:45pm Panel discussion
Presented in partnership by:
- Holstein Program in Ethics
- Kent County Public Library
- Miller Library
- The Needle's Eye Academy
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience
- Washington College Education Department
- Washington College Intercultural Center
- We Need Diverse Books
Film Synopsis:
The Librarians (2025 | 1 hour 32 minutes)
Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.
In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of a large-scale coordinated extremist movement fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
About We Need Diverse Books
We Need Diverse Books is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that takes a holistic approach in improving literacy and building compassion by affecting change across the entire reading pipeline — turning diverse manuscripts into published books and then donating diverse titles to readers nationwide.