Banned Books Week | Panel Discussion & Trivia

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation and NYC Book Club for Book Hoes are pleased to present a night in celebration of Banned Books. Join us for a panel discussion with speakers from the Brooklyn Public Library, PEN America, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. Following the panel, participate in banned books trivia. All attendees will receive a free copy of a banned book courtesy of Penguin Random House.

The night will begin with our panel of three speakers moderated by Mandy Salley, the Chief Operating Officer at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation. Trivia will be run by Zoë Mahler, creator of NYC Book Club for Book Hoes.

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about Your Hosts

Established in February 2003, The Woodhull Freedom Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization devoted to education and public advocacy in support of sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Our work builds on the affirmations of individual rights contained in the United States Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Woodhull carefully cultivates and works to engage allies from all social, economic, religious and cultural justice communities interested in affirming sexual freedom. We strive to harness the energy of and join with the LGBTQ, Sex Work, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, free speech, privacy, reproductive freedom, and related movements to bring existing energy to bear on sexual freedom as an additional opportunity for shared discourse and political, cultural and social change.

The Book Club for Book Hoes is an NYC book club organization started in 2022 bringing bookish people together for monthly book clubs and literary-themed events. Founded and run by Zoë Mahler, the goal is to bring hoes for a good book together to cultivate friendships and build community. They host six different book clubs a month which all focus on supporting debut authors and their novels. Literary events range from book exchanges, trivia nights, read-a-thons, bookish-themed bingo, literary happy hours, and much, much more. The Book Hoes meet for book club all throughout the city in bookstores, bars, and cafés. Venues currently include 66 GREENPOINT Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; Everything’s Jake NYC Bar & Lounge in Union Square; The Ripped Bodice Bookstore; P&T Knitwear Book & Podcasts; Shakespeare & Company on Broadway; and Lazy Suzy’s Café in Bushwick. For more information and for updates on upcoming events follow their Eventbrite or Instagram @nycbookhoes.

participants

Madison Markham is the Program Assistant for the Freedom to Read Program at PEN America. She received a BA in Sociology/Gender Studies from New College of Florida, where she received a Margaret Bates Award for her honors thesis on the role of queer student culture within higher education. Following politically motivated restrictions to academic freedom at New College, she helped lead student organizing efforts to protect free expression and inclusivity at the college, including co-hosting the [NEW] Commencement alternative graduation.

Christine Emeran is Director of the Youth Free Expression Program at the New York based non-profit, National Coalition Against Censorship (ncac.org). She writes on contemporary issues about young people, social media and social movements in the U.S. and Western/Eastern Europe. A Fulbright Research Fellow, international researcher as well as an academic, Dr. Emeran has taught political theory and sociology at Manhattan College, NY, St. John’s University, NY, and Sciences Po Paris, France. She received her PhD in sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Leigh Hurwitz is Collections Manager at Brooklyn Public Library, and part of the library’s Books Unbanned team. When not restoring young adult access to queer books, they can be found volunteering at Interference Archive, listening to WFMU, or watching body horror.