Local author and educator Eric Goldstein in conversation with DC Public Library Executive Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan

TAUGHT is about education, protest, racism, and a teacher and student’s journey into America for answers. As protests flare across Washington, DC, veteran teacher Jerry Brown is running out of faith — in his classroom, his marriage, and himself. When a viral video surfaces showing police brutality against his former student, Malik Drummond, their uneasy reunion sparks an impulsive road trip through Appalachia. From the streets of Southeast DC to the civil rights landmarks of Harpers Ferry and the forests of the Appalachian Trail, their uneasy journey becomes a reckoning, each mile revealing new fault lines between past and present, teacher and student, guilt and grace in a provocative story about redemption within a divided nation.

The talk will be followed by Q+A and book-signing. Free copies while supplies last, with additional copies available for sale and signing by the author.

As a middle and high school teacher, Eric Goldstein founded the Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization One World Education. Through programs that teach writing skills through social justice, the organization has transformed more than 65,000 students into writers with voice, knowledge, and purpose. Eric's debut novel, Taught, was inspired by two decades of listening to students tell their stories.

Richard Reyes-Gavilan is the Executive Director of the DC Public Library with over twenty years of professional public library experience. Before coming to the District, he served as the Chief Librarian for the Brooklyn Public Library. The son of Cuban immigrants, he lives in D.C.’s diverse Mount Pleasant neighborhood with his family.