What:  The documentary The Right to Read is bringing the film to the Memphis community, sharing stories of both challenges and successes from one of the families featured in the film and creating a space for parents and families to learn how to identify common flags for literacy instruction and gain access to public resources in Memphis-Shelby County Schools.This event will include a screening of the documentary The Right to Read followed by a Q&A with select community members and subjects from the film. 

Who: Kareem Weaver, The Adams-Staples Family (subjects from the documentary), Moderated by NAACP Memphis Branch President, Van D. Turner, Jr.

Where: Renesant Convention Center (255 N Main Street) 

When: Saturday, March 11 from 12-3pm PT CT 

Additional participating organizations include: Literacy Mid-South, State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), ALL Memphis, Literacy Mid-South, Reading 360, SCORE and guest Dr. Penny Schwinn (TN Commissioner of Education).

Literacy is one of the greatest Civil Rights issues of our time and the battle is being brought right to the heart of Memphis this weekend. Memphis residents Melinda Adams and Fred Adams (the Adams-Staples family) are subjects in a new documentary from actor and activist LeVar Burton, The Right to Read,  which was recently featured on CBS Mornings with Gayle King, The documentary follows the Adams-Staples family as they moved from Mississippi to Memphis and worked to ensure their son Fred Jr. learned to read. They utilized educational technology to develop foundational skills, and moved to Memphis in search of employment to better support their family.

The documentary will be shown this Saturday, March 11th at the Renesant Convention Center in Memphis. Following the special screening, the Adams-Staples family will be participating in a crucial conversation along with additional film subject and executive producer Kareem Weaver and NAACP Memphis Branch President, Van D. Turner, Jr.

The showing is in conjunction with Memphis Lift, a parents’ movement whose goal is to build widespread awareness of the criminal manner in which many Memphis school students are underserved; and to build widespread demand for high quality schools and radical changes in public education to disrupt systemic educational inequities through choice and healthy competition.