For Leland Seminary alumna Shauna King, the ability to read is about much more than education. It’s about opportunity, dignity, and justice. And now, through an award-winning documentary, she’s challenging communities to take a closer look at why illiteracy persists in America—and what they can do about it.
King, a 2024 graduate of Leland Seminary’s Graduate Certificate in Biblical Justice Formation program, is the executive producer of Forever Free and the Illiteracy Playbook, a 96-minute documentary that explores the history of literacy in America and the systemic factors that continue to prevent millions from learning to read proficiently.
Released in early 2026, the film debuted to sold-out audiences at the DC Independent Film Festival, where it earned the coveted “Best in Fest” award. It has also been selected for screening at the Cleveland and Maryland International Film Festivals.
A Passion for Education and Justice
King’s commitment to literacy began long before the documentary. The daughter of a librarian and a former teacher and principal, she has spent much of her career helping young people succeed. In 2017, she co-founded The Better Place, a nonprofit serving youth and families in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Among its initiatives are tutoring programs and a creative “Write a Book” program that helps teenagers become published authors.
Today, King also serves as an educational consultant and associate minister at Springdale Community Church. But it was her experience at Leland Seminary that helped her see how her work in education could also be a calling to pursue biblical justice.
“When I entered Leland, I knew God wanted me to do more, but I didn’t know what,” King recalled.
Through Leland’s Institute for Justice Formation (IJF), which she attended from 2021 to 2024, King encountered a broader understanding of Christian ministry.
“I met Dr. Feemster and learned how God’s call for justice is not just a church mandate, it’s an everybody mandate,” she said. “The program allowed me to see ministry through the work I was already doing in the field of education.”
That perspective helped shape the documentary, which also features fellow IJF cohort member Kathleen Arban. King graduated in June 2024 and now serves on the IJF Advisory Board.
Asking Hard Questions About Illiteracy
The documentary began with a relatively modest goal: King wanted to help children discover the joy of reading at an early age and raise awareness about persistently high illiteracy rates. In 2021, a grant from Prince George’s County enabled her nonprofit to produce a 15-minute film exploring the history of literacy in America, its champions, and ways communities could improve literacy rates.
But director Dion Johnson of JayMedia Films saw an opportunity to go deeper. The project grew into a feature-length documentary examining a troubling question: Why, after more than 50 years of national attention and promises from presidents of both political parties, does illiteracy remain such a significant problem—and why has it worsened in some communities?
Rather than assigning political blame, the film examines factors such as access to books, school conditions, and community resources. It also challenges the assumption that an inability to read is simply an individual failure.
For King, literacy has become inseparable from justice because it helps determine who has access to opportunity, economic advancement, and power. The documentary raises a provocative question: Could some of the conditions that perpetuate illiteracy be intentional, preserving power for some while denying it to others? The film doesn't attempt to answer that question definitively. Instead, it invites viewers to examine the systems surrounding literacy and consider what they can do to bring about change.
Inspiring Communities to Take Action
King hopes audiences leave the film with more than a new understanding of the problem. She wants them to feel empowered to become part of the solution. In fact, she says the most gratifying feedback has come from viewers who tell her, “I feel like I should do something.”
And she believes churches have an important role to play. Historically, faith communities have helped children and adults learn to read, provided books and educational resources, and reinforced the importance of literacy. King remembers that commitment in her own upbringing.
“From Sunday school to the Easter program, my church made sure we had opportunities to read,” she said.
The film encourages churches, schools, nonprofits, and individuals to think strategically about how they can help eliminate barriers to literacy in their own communities.
The conversation is already translating into action. The Greenbelt Black History Society is providing funding to support continued work in schools and promotion of the documentary.
For King, the project represents a powerful intersection of her lifelong passion for education and the understanding of biblical justice she developed at Leland.
“Illiteracy is more than an educational deficit. It is a lasting consequence of generations of injustice, in which access to reading was used to determine who could fully belong and participate in society,” said King.
See the Film and Join the Conversation
Leland's Institute for Justice Formation is helping bring this important conversation to a wider audience through two upcoming events:
In-person screening: Saturday, November 14, at 4 p.m. at Ox Hill Baptist Church in Chantilly, Virginia.
Virtual webinar: Saturday, November 21, from 9–11 a.m. via Zoom. Meeting ID: 849-7007-8271 | Passcode: 769127.
The documentary is also available for organizations and community groups to license for special screenings and events through Collective Eye.
Beginning in December, individuals will be able to view the film through participating library and university systems using Kanopy, an educational streaming platform.
Watch the film trailer: Forever Free and the Illiteracy Playbook
Learn more and follow the film's impact: Visit www.illiteracyplaybookfilm.com or follow King and her team on Instagram and Facebook at @IlliteracyPlaybookFilm.
Through her work, King is demonstrating how a calling to ministry can extend far beyond the walls of a church—and how one person's commitment to education can spark a much larger conversation about justice, opportunity, and the power of literacy.