Banned books continue to be in the news and Beaverdale Books proudly presents our Second Annual Banned Books Fair!  Join us at this free event as we celebrate the Freedom to Read.  This is a great chance to join with like-minded folks who share their concerns on the subject of book bans, censorship, and the future.  And of course, we will have a great selection of books and merchandise for you to select from.

Here’s the schedule of events:

12:15 p.m.  – Children’s Storytime:  From Here to Queer, by Katie Swalwell.

1:00 p.m.  – Welcome and Reading of the Library Bill of Rights—Des Moines Public Library representative and Sara Parris, President of Annie’s Foundation.

1:15 – 1:30 p.m. – Banned Poetry Readings – presented by Poetry Palooza!  Wondering about poems that have been banned over the years?  Members of Poetry Palooza! will read selections from some of their favorite poets.

1:30 – 2:15 p.m. – Banned Books Discussion – Sara Parris, president and founder, Annie’s Foundation; Janet Peterson, District 18, Iowa State Senate; Christy Hickman, General Counsel, Iowa State Education Association; Julie Finch, president, Iowa Library Association.  Moderated by Daniel Gutmman, fourth grade teacher, educator plaintiff.

2:30 p.m. –  Join us for a Private Pre-Release Screening of the Award-Winning Film, Banned Together, featuring a diverse cast of visionary teenagers and intriguing characters, stirring public protests, private threats, criminal charges, and profanity-laced school board meetings.  This is the world of this explosive new feature documentary. The film pulls back the curtain on two of the most controversial issues in America today: book bans and curriculum censorship in public schools.

Banned Together follows three young women in Beaufort, SC during their senior year of high school as they fight hostile community members and school board officials to reinstate 97 books that were suddenly banned from their school libraries. We witness their evolution from local to national activists as they advocate at school board meetings, sit down with national politicians, bestselling and banned authors, constitutional scholars, PEN America, and ultimately, speak on stage at the Right to Read Rally during the American Library Association’s annual conference in Chicago, as the film’s scope widens to include the larger national picture.

The film is produced by Atomic Focus Entertainment, a full-service, female-owned production company creating exceptional original scripted and unscripted content for film, TV, livestream, and podcasts www.atomic-focus.com in association with Kanopy, the leading video streaming service providing films that matter through public libraries and colleges worldwide www.kanopy.com. Atomic Focus producers Jennifer Wiggin and Allyson Rice and director/producers Kate Way and Tom Wiggin were inspired by the activism of these young students and drawn to the breadth of this fast-moving national story. The producing team added award-winning documentary editor Cha Quallis as well as rock and roll phenomenon Kim Bullard to score the film.