Join us for a night of commemoration and advocacy at the National Coalition Against Censorship’s 50th Anniversary Gala. As we mark this significant milestone, we honor free speech champions whose relentless commitment to protecting artistic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and the fundamental right to speak one’s mind has inspired our work.

Celebrate with us as we reflect on half a century dedicated to defending free expression and fighting censorship, inspiring change, and propelling our mission forward for another fifty years of defending the right to create, explore, and express.

50th Gala Honorary Chair: Nadine Strossen
50th Gala Co-Chairs: Dan Abrams, Karen Gantz Zahler, Susan Glancy, Sanyu Dillon

Hosted by Judy Gold, who also serves as a member of NCAC’s Board, is a comedian who has had stand-up specials on HBO, Comedy Central, and LOGO and appeared on Netflix’s Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration. She is the author of Yes I Can Say That: When They Come For The Comedians, We Are All In Trouble, a critically acclaimed book about free speech and cancel-culture which debuted as the number one comedy release on Amazon and was featured in the New York Times Book Review. The solo show, Yes I Can Say That! directed by BD Wong and starring Judy premiered in March 2023 at 59E59 Theaters and received rave reviews. The show is set to begin touring in 2024. Judy is also host of the hit podcast, Kill Me Now with Judy Gold.

2024 HONOREES

Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award

Lee C. Bollinger is the President Emeritus of Columbia University, having served from 2002 to 2023, the longest tenure of any contemporary Ivy League president. He is Columbia’s first Seth Low Professor of the University, a member of the Law School faculty, and one of the nation’s preeminent First Amendment scholars. His recent books on freedom of speech and press, co-edited with Geoffrey Stone, are Social Media, Freedom of Speech, and the Future of our Democracy (2022); National Security, Leaks and Freedom of the Press: The Pentagon Papers Fifty Years On (2021); and The Free Speech Century(2018).

First Amendment Attorney Award

Floyd Abrams is Senior Counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, has represented media clients and led litigation teams in some of the most impactful First Amendment court cases of the last fifty years. He has argued landmark First Amendment cases in courtrooms throughout the nation, including 13 arguments before the United States Supreme Court. Former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan even described Mr. Abrams as “the most significant First Amendment lawyer of our age.”

Robie Harris Author Award

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including By Any Other Name (to be published in August 2024), Mad Honey (co-authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan), Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. An Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films.

A native of Piedmont, West Virginia, Gates earned his B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1973, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Clare College at Cambridge in 1979, where he is also an Honorary Fellow.

Marvin and Evie Rich were a extraordinary team in every endeavor they participated in. For many decades, they championed protecting civil liberties and civil rights, playing vital roles in what is often referred to as the Civil Rights Movement. They were important links in the circle that struggled for justice, ultimately leading to major changes in our country.

Marvin was a founder of ADA’s St. Louis Chapter and was active in Students for Democratic Action (SDA). He also helped establish the St. Louis Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), advocating successfully for the desegregation of public places like restaurants, swimming pools, libraries, and department stores. In the 1970s, he founded the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and held various leadership positions.

Dr. Rich has devoted her entire adult life to advocating for civil rights and justice and seeking equal opportunity for all. One description she applied to herself was “troublemaker,” reminiscent of Congressman John Lewis’s often-cited term, “good trouble.”

As a college student at Bryn Mawr College, near Philadelphia—the first Black undergraduate student to live on campus all four years—Evie, like Marvin, joined Students for Democratic Action (SDA) and, by her actions, has embraced liberal/progressive principles ever since.

Since 2003, Noam Dworman has owned and operated the Comedy Cellar in New York City. He was raised playing classical guitar in 1976 and 1977 and was voted Honor Musician at the New England Music Camp. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School (class ’87) and took the bar exam, but never practiced law. In 1988, he opened the Cafe Wha in Greenwich Village, where he was musical director for 20 years. He has also opened other clubs – The Fat Black Pussycat and the Village Underground.

His Sirius XM show, Live From The Table (also available as a podcast), has been running for about eight years, but in the last few years, it has switched from Comedy to mostly political topics.

50th Anniversary Gala Committee

Jon Anderson
President and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Joanna Volpe (she/her)
Literary agent, founder and the president of New Leaf Literary & Media where she represents bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators across fiction, non-fiction, adult, YA, and children’s markets.

Susan Ginsburg
Literary agent, Writer’s House

Sherie Scott
Three time Tony Award-nominee, multi-award winning actor, writer, singer and producer.

Rachel Small
Entrepreneur, philanthropist

Ambika Kumar
Partner and Co-Chair of Media Law Practice, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Tony Lyons
CEO/Founder, Skyhorse Publishing

Suzanna Murphy Giatzis
former President and Publisher, HarperCollins Children’s

For information regarding tickets and sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch with NCAC’s Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Josh Corday, at [email protected].

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TORCHBEARER

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DEFENDER

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FRIEND

For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Joshua Corday at [email protected] .

For media and press inquiries, please contact Alex Finan at [email protected] 

For other inquiries, please email [email protected]