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A special documentary screening for Freedom to Read Day of Action
Join the Library, Atomic Focus Entertainment, and PEN America for a pre-release screening of the first feature-length documentary about fighting the spread of book bans in the U.S., Banned Together.
A diverse cast of visionary teenagers, stirring public protests, private threats, criminal charges, and drama-filled school board meetings: this is the explosive world of the new documentary feature, Banned Together. 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 teenage activists as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries, speak with national politicians, bestselling/banned authors, constitutional scholars, PEN America, and more. As they evolve from local to national activists the film reveals the forces behind the accelerating wave of book bans in the U.S.
Learn more about the Freedom to Read Day of Action here.
Matt Nosanchuk is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. He is an accomplished strategist, thinker, leader, lawyer, public speaker, and writer. Over the course of his career – working in the executive branch, the Senate and House, and in the non-profit and private sectors – Matt has developed breadth, depth, and expertise working on policy, strategy, advocacy, communications, and stakeholder engagement. Most recently, Matt co-founded and led the New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA), a startup non-profit organization focused on education and advocacy on priority issues for the pluralistic and diverse Jewish community in New York City and State. In 2020, Matt led Jewish and LGBTQ+ outreach efforts for the DNC and the Biden-Harris campaign. Matt served throughout the Obama-Biden Administration in senior roles in the White House, on the National Security Council Staff, and at the Departments of State, Justice (DOJ), and Homeland Security (DHS). These including serving as Senior Counselor to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ, where he led the Division's work to advance LGBTQ+ rights and established its Policy Section, and as White House liaison to American-Jewish community, where he played a key role in outreach, policy, and communications work relating to the U.S.-Israel relationship, combating antisemitism, and Vice President Biden's Holocaust Survivor Initiative. For his efforts to advance LGBTQ+ rights, Matt received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award and the American Bar Association's inaugural Stonewall Award. Matt is originally from Michigan and is a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School, where he was a Truman Scholar and Senior Note Editor on the Stanford Law Review.
Kasey Meehan is the Program Director for Freedom to Read at PEN America, leading PEN’s initiatives to protect the rights of students, individuals, and communities to freely access literature in schools and public libraries. Kasey oversees and supports research, advocacy and mobilization, education, and author engagement related to book bans and the overarching freedom to read. Previously, Kasey served as the Associate Director of Postsecondary Policy at a mission-driven education research organization in Philadelphia, Research for Action. Meehan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brian K. Bond is a former Obama Administration official with an extensive background in constituency outreach and coalition bridge-building. He most recently served as the Coalitions Director for the Climate Action Campaign in Washington D.C., and prior to that was the Deputy CEO for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
During the Obama Administration Bond served as Deputy Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement and primary liaison for the LGBTQ+ community, the first to serve in that role. After the successful re-election of President Obama in 2012, he moved to the Environmental Protection Agency as Associate Administrator for Public Engagement and Environmental Education. Prior to these roles, he served as the Executive Director of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, significantly expanding the success of the organization during his tenure, which began in 1997.
Brian is a Missouri native, has a degree in Public Administration from Missouri State University, and in 2024, was appointed by President Biden to the non-partisan President’s Commission on White House Fellows.
Elizabeth Foster is a sophomore at Georgetown University and a 2024 PEN America Campus Advocates Fellow. She was born and raised in Beaufort, SC, where she became involved in political activism in high school. Elizabeth is especially passionate about protecting intellectual freedom and gender affirming care for transgender youth in South Carolina. She intends to major in American Studies with a minor in statistics, and is interested in attending law school to advocate for others through work in policy.
After college, Josh Malkin spent an incredible five years teaching middle and high school math in New Orleans. He then went to Columbia Law School where he furthered his understanding of the engines driving educational inequity in our country. Today, Josh serves as the Advocacy Director for the ACLU of South Carolina where he spends most of his time fighting back against the attacks on public education.
Jennifer Wiggin is the Co-Founder, Owner and Executive Producer of Atomic Focus Entertainment, LLC. and as such, has overseen the creation, production and distribution of multiple film and streaming projects. She was previously the Executive Producer in charge of Production for The STAGE Network and produced all original content for the Network. She has produced talk shows, unscripted reality series, short films, documentary series and filmed theatrical events. Previous to her work in film and television, she worked as a theater producer and manager in NYC for more than a decade on Broadway, Off-Broadway and on European Tours. She also produced sold-out events at Carnegie Hall, Steiner Film Studios, Town Hall, and Symphony Space in NYC.
Tom Wiggin's work at Atomic Focus continues a professional show business career that has spanned five decades, four of which were as an actor, playing leads and supporting roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theaters; on Prime Time and daytime TV; and in several indie films. For Atomic Focus, Tom has created, produced and directed the celebrity talk show Crossovers Live!; a travel show World Class; a local PBS special From the Bloomsbury Group to the Lowcountry: Charleston Literary Festival; a six part docu-series, Thursday in the Park with The Broadway Show League; and now, the feature documentary Banned Together.
For Atomic Focus, Tom serves as a creator, developer, producer, story editor and director for a variety of projects such as Crossovers Live!, Always Authors, Thursday in the Park
Allyson Rice began as an actress for decades on stage, radio, primetime TV (Family Ties, 413 Hope Street, Time Cop) and daytime (As the World Turns). She was Assoc. Director of Creative Development and a Producer for The STAGE Network (streaming). She continued on as a Producer and Part-Owner of Atomic Focus Entertainment. Independently, she created and performed a multi-award-winning comedic rap music video (Fine, I’ll Write My Own Damn Song) that was featured in 25+ film festivals in the US and abroad. As a writer she has written two TV pilots, three screenplays and is an award-winning author and narrator for her novel The Key to Circus-Mom Highway (2023).
Kate Way is a longtime educator, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She holds a doctorate in critical media literacy and the politics of K-12 Education, and a M.F.A. in Photography. She is currently a Professor of Digital Media at UMass Lowell, and has taught graduate students in Education for many years. BANNED TOGETHER is Kate’s third documentary film project. Her first documentary film G is for Gun – about the arming of teachers in U.S. public schools – premiered nationally on PBS WORLD in 2018. Stop Time (2022) - about an undocumented immigrant who took sanctuary during the Trump administration - is in distribution with New Day Films. Kate’s still photography has been exhibited and collected widely, and has been published in the New York Times, Mother Jones magazine, and many other online platforms.
