UNBANNED: National Book Ban Conversation in DC Celebrates MLK Day 40th Anniversary

Award-Winning Documentary Screening, Expert Panel, and Community Bookstore Unite in DC for MLK Day 40th Anniversary

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, January 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Across the country, books are being challenged, restricted, and removed, but stories still deserve to be heard. In 2025, book censorship in the United States became rampant and increasingly normalized, with an unprecedented number of titles systematically removed from school libraries nationwide, a trend documented by PEN America in its 2025 report “The Normalization of Book Banning.” To mark the 40th anniversary celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day as a federal holiday, Social Art and Culture presents UNBANNED on January 18th at 2:30 pm at The Historic Miracle Theatre on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

UNBANNED is a three-part public experience: a live forum, an expert panel, and a screening of the 3x award-winning documentary Banned Together, focusing on book bans and curriculum censorship in American public schools. The public forum and expert panel will be moderated by Katea Stitt, Program Director at WPFW 89.3 FM. They will feature Banned Together filmmakers/producers, representatives from the National Education Association Read Across America, and PEN America, along with local partners including Mid-Atlantic Arts, WPFW 89.3 FM, We Act Radio, and Cozy Black Girl Book Club. The conversation will explore how book bans affect students, teachers, and communities, and what it means in this moment.

In addition, UNBANNED provides a pop-up bookstore hosted by Indie Bookseller, BOL Coop Bookstore Association in Washington, DC. Books purchased will be donated to The Artivism Library Collection, opening in 2026 on Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE in Historic Anacostia in Washington, DC. Designed by Social Art and Culture, The Artivism Library Collection is the future interactive literary space featuring banned and challenged books, along with a digital collection from different movements and moments.

Event Details:
Location: The Historic Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St, SE, Washington, DC 20003
Time: 2:30 pm - 5:30 PM
RSVP: unbannedevent.eventbrite.com

About Social Art and Culture
Social Art and Culture’s mission centers on the arts as a sustainable, viable, and vital component of the creative and general economies. We believe in using the power of the arts to educate and advance marginalized and underserved communities—a new, economically sustainable framework that invests in artisans and its culture. Social Art and Culture was founded in 2009 as a collective impact organization. Sustained, collective impact provides an approach to tackling these problems that enables systemic change and population-level outcomes through advocacy, outreach, and mobilization.

Karen Baker
Social Art and Culture
director@socialartandculture.info
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