Challenging Books: A Live Theatre Experience

Across the country, books are being challenged and removed from shelves. This performance explores what those challenges mean for readers, libraries, and our communities. Living Text: Unbound | Challenging Books is an original devised-theatre work that uses movement, spoken word, and performance to examine intellectual freedom, censorship, and the right to read. The piece invites audiences to reflect on how book challenges impact personal stories, public institutions, and democratic access to information. Following the performance, attendees are invited to a facilitated community conversation featuring director and choreographer, Nikkole Salter, and Dr. Melanee C. Harvey Fryar, an art historian and scholar of African American visual culture whose work examines representation, cultural memory, and the politics of storytelling. Together, they will explore First Amendment rights, current censorship trends, and the essential role libraries play in ensuring equitable access to ideas. Featured Cast (in order from left to right): Jadah Clay, Mahlet Gebreyesus, Aysia Glenn, Joshua Leggett, Elyse Miller, Kameron Outland, Yisrael Robinson, and Quinn Taylor About the Director: Nikkole Salter is an OBIE Award–winning actress, writer, and educator whose career launched with the Pulitzer Prize–nominated play In the Continuum, co-written and performed with Danai Gurira. The production earned multiple honors, including an OBIE Award, the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, and international acclaim, with productions across the globe. As an actress, Salter is known for originating roles in new works and has appeared in film, television, and major regional theaters. Her credits include Pride & Glory, Rockstar Games’ Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Godfather of Harlem, and New Amsterdam. She has starred in productions at Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and on Broadway in The Great Society. She will next appear in James Ijames’ Wilderness…