Mother Jones Launches DC LaborFest
Thursday, May 1, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The DC LaborFest is a month-long
celebration of labor arts in the nation’s capital. Work, workers and their lives and issues are explored
through films, plays, poetry, music, art, literature and history throughout the
month of May. Events are free unless otherwise noted; click
here for the complete line-up. Please post widely on Facebook,
Twitter and other social media!
Mother Jones Launches DC
LaborFest
Spotlight on Immigrant
Rights
LaborFest Adds New Play to
Line-Up
COMING UP: Fasanella; Elizabeth
Warren; Happy Birthday Pete Seeger; Brother Hal and Sweet Joan of the Textile
Mills; Salt of the Earth; Rivera's "Man At The
Crossroads"
Mother Jones Launches DC
LaborFest: The first annual DC
LaborFest kicks off today, May 1 – celebrated around
the world as International Worker’s Day -- with a mid-day May Day
wreath-laying in honor of legendary labor
organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones’ 184th birthday. The 12:30 p.m. event will
take place at the Mother Jones marker at 2601 Powder Mill Rd,
Silver Spring, MD 20903 in front of the Hillandale Baptist
Church. In addition to the wreath-laying and songs in honor of the labor
icon, organizer Saul Schniderman will share rare Mother Jones memorabilia. Also
available will be hot-off-the-press copies of the LaborFest program guide. NOTE: in case of inclement
weather the event will be held inside the Hillandale Baptist
Church.
Spotlight on Immigrant Rights: At dusk tonight
(8p), the AFL-CIO will literally spotlight the struggles
of immigrant workers by projecting onto the AFL-CIO
building (815 16th Street, 16th & I NW) the names and faces of
some of the immigrant workers devastated by the deportation crisis. The
brief video “highlights the refusal of Congressional Republicans to allow a
vote on comprehensive immigration reform as well as the urgent need to end the
inhumane deportations tearing apart families across the United States,” says
the AFL-CIO.
LaborFest Adds New Play to Line-Up: Living
Out, a comedic play
by LisaLoomer about working
mothers, race, class and immigration status, has just been added to the
DC LaborFest line-up.Click here for
details about a special $15
ticket offer for the 8p show tonight at the GALA Theatre. The play focuses on Ana, a Salvadoran nanny
and a mother of two, and Nancy, a lawyer challenged by fulfilling both personal
and professional goals. Two working mothers who make difficult choices so they
can provide a better life for their children. “A funny and touching play that
explores the shared humanity between a nanny and her employer and the
differences wrought by race, class and immigration
status.”
COMING
UP:
Ralph
Fasanella: Free noontime screening
on Friday, May 2 of the
film Fasanella at the AFL-CIO, which is also hosting exhibits
of Fasanella paintings and drawings, as well as a collection of classic labor
film posters. A major exhibit of Ralph
Fasanella’s paintings also opens Friday at the American Art Museum, which will
host a 6:30p discussion Friday night with Fasanella exhibit curator
Leslie Umberger and Marc Fasanella, Ralph’s son.
Elizabeth Warren:
The senior United States Senator from Massachusettschronicles her inspiring life story in her new memoir, “A
Fighting Chance” at 5p Friday at the AFL-CIO (free but space is limited and RSVPs
required).
Happy Birthday
Pete Seeger: Joe Uehlein performs his Birthday Tribute to Pete
Seeger Saturday night at Zed’s in
Silver Spring and on Saturday & Sunday, around the corner at the Round House Theatre are the first
performances of Brother Hal and Sweet Joan of the
Textile Mills, two labor-themed plays performed by young
actors. Brother
Hal is a
contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V, performed by a cast of
local actors ages 13-18; Sweet
Joan examines the
plight of child labor, performed by Lumina Studio Theatre's youngest actors,
ages 8-12. Tickets required; click on the appropriate play for
details.
Salt of the
Earth: Originally banned by the U.S. government and now recognized by the
Smithsonian as among “the greatest 100 films ever made,” this classic 1954
film – which tells the story of Mexican-American workers who strike to attain
wage parity with Anglo workers and explores the pivotal role their wives play in
the strike -- celebrates its 60th anniversary 7:30p Monday night at the American Film
Institute in Silver Spring (tickets necessary).
Introduced by Tom Zaniello, author of “Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and
Riffraff: An Organized Guide to Films About Labor” and includes DC Labor
FilmFest t-shirt raffle!
Ongoing: Rivera's "Man At The
Crossroads": TheEmbassy of Mexico,
through its Cultural Institute, hosts an exhibit that reconstructs the history
of Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads mural. The exposition centers around the
mural Rivera painted in New York City, reconstructing its history with
reproductions of previously unpublished material, including letters, telegrams,
contracts, sketches, and documents, following Rivera's commission, subsequent
tension and conflict, and finally, the mural's destruction. Daily through May
17.