Across the country\, books are being chall enged and removed from shelves. This performance explores what those chall enges mean for readers\, libraries\, and our communities.
\nLiving T ext: Unbound | Challenging Books is an original devised-theatre work that uses movement\, spoken word\, and performance to examine intellectual free dom\, censorship\, and the right to read. The piece invites audiences to r eflect on how book challenges impact personal stories\, public institution s\, and democratic access to information.
\nFollowing the performanc
e\, attendees are invited to a facilitated community conversation featurin
g director and choreographer\, Nikkole Salter\, and
Featured Cast (in order from left to right):< /strong>
\n\;Jadah Clay\, Mahlet G ebreyesus\, Aysia Glenn\, Joshua Leggett\, Elyse Miller\, Kameron Outland\ , Yisrael Robinson\, and Quinn Taylor
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\nAbout the Director:< /strong>
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Nikkole Salter is an OBIE Award&ndash\;winnin g actress\, writer\, and educator whose career launched with the Pulitzer Prize&ndash\;nominated play In the Continuum\, co-written and performed wi th Danai Gurira. The production earned multiple honors\, including an OBIE Award\, the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award\, and international a cclaim\, with productions across the globe.
\nAs an actress\, Salter is known for originating roles in new works and has appeared in film\, te levision\, and major regional theaters. Her credits include Pride &\; G lory\, Rockstar Games&rsquo\; Midnight Club: Los Angeles\, Godfather of Ha rlem\, and New Amsterdam. She has starred in productions at Arena Stage\, Berkeley Rep\, the Shakespeare Theatre Company\, and on Broadway in The Gr eat Society. She will next appear in James Ijames&rsquo\; Wilderness Gener ation at Studio Theatre.
\nA celebrated dramatist\, Salter has writt en eight full-length plays produced nationally and internationally. Her wo rks have been published widely\, and her play Repairing a Nation aired on WNET&rsquo\;s Theatre Close-Up. Her first anthology\, Women\, Worlds and t he Right to Dignity\, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2027. She made he r directorial debut at Baltimore Center Stage in 2023.
\nSalter is a lso co-founder of The Continuum Project\, a nonprofit using arts education for community empowerment\, and she has served extensively in leadership roles across national arts organizations. A graduate of Howard University and NYU\, she is a Professor of Theatre Arts at Howard University&rsquo\;s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
\n\n\n\ nIn Conversation Wit h:
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She has p ublished on architectural iconography in African American art\, Black Arts Movement artists\, religious art of Black liberation theology and ecowoma nist art practices. Melanee was in residence as the Paul Mellon Guest Scho lar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Ga llery of Art during the 2020-2021 academic year. In 2023\, she was awarded the Genevieve Young Fellowship in Writing by the Gordon Parks Foundation. She is the curator of \;Wherever There is Light \;(Fall 2024\, TI LT: The Center for the Contemporary Image\, Philadelphia\, PA)\, \;Gor don Parks: Pastor E.F. Ledbetter and Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Churc h \;(Spring-Summer 2025\, The Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery\, Pleasa ntville\, NY) \;and \;Temples of Hope\, Rituals of Survival: Gordo n Parks and Black Religious Life \;(Fall 2025)\, Howard University Mus eum\, Dorothy Porter Room\, Washington\, DC). She is the author and editor of the accompanying exhibition catalogs for \;Wherever There is Light \;(2025) and \;Gordon Parks: Pastor E.F. Ledbetter and Metropolit an Missionary Baptist Church \;(Fall 2025). \;
\nMelanee is currently writing her first book entitled\, \;Patterns of Permanence: African Methodist Episcopal Architecture and Visual Culture. \;
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