DC LaborFest Today: Shakespeare in a Union Hall & The Mexican Revolution Comes to UMD
Saturday, May 10, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
ACTIVIST
ALERT: NALC Food Drive today! Also
today: Metro Council Labor to Labor
Walks & Mother's March for
Justice
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 pass along & post widely on
social media!
Fasanella
FamilyFest
Brother Hal
Sets Shakespeare in a Union Hall
The Mexican
Revolution Comes to
UMD
COMING
UP: AFL-CIO
Book Club: "So Much to Do: The Life of Business
and Politics"; Film: Note By Note: The Making
of Steinway
L1037
ONGOING: Art Exhibit: Ralph
Fasanella: Lest We Forget; Rivera's "Man At The
Crossroads"; Living Out
PARENTS! Check out
the Lest We Forget Mother's Day Family
Festival today at the
American Art Museum! Arts and crafts in the
spirit of labor artist Ralph Fasanella, plus
folk band the Knuckle Dusters and a puppet
performance by Wits End Puppets! 11:30a-3p
Saturday, May 10 at the American Art Museum
(8th & F
Streets NW, Kogod Courtyard);
FREE. Part of the ongoing Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget
exhibit.
Today/Tomorrow: Shakespeare
in a Union Hall: BROTHER HAL – today andtomorrow at 1
and 7 p.m. at the Round
House Theatre/Silver Spring -- recasts King
Henry V of England as Henry England, a union
organizer leading auto workers in revolt
against the France Motor Company of Flint
Michigan. As re-imagined by Lumina Studio
Theatre Executive and Artistic Director David
Minton and Maryland Senator Jamie Raskin,
Shakespeare’s Henry V is
transformed into a rollicking musical, with
songs by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete
Seeger, performed by a chorus of exuberant
young actors, who connect Henry’s underdog
English army with the United Auto Workers who
went on strike against General Motors in
1937. Brother
Hal brilliantly realizes Lumina’s
mission to give people of all ages access to
that something in Shakespeare that defies the
limits of time and place. Adapted from Mark Dewey’s review in DC Theatre Scene; photo:
Metro Council President Jos Williams joins the
young actors to rehearse for his guest
appearance in the May 9 performance of Brother
Hal; he was joined by Damon Silvers of the
AFL-CIO and MD Sen. Jamie Raskin; photo by
Chris Garlock. Final performances today
andtomorrow; click here for tickets.
SWEET JOAN OF THE TEXTILE
MILL -- today and tomorrow at 5p at the
Round House Theatre/Silver Spring -- examines
the plight of child labor, performed by Lumina
Studio Theatre's youngest actors (ages 8-10).
Inspired by ideas and
plot by Bertolt Brecht,
SWEET JOAN focuses on the early 1900's as Joan
stands up for the children and gets caught in
the middle of a power struggle between two
giants in the textile industry, but the
dangers, and abuse, are still relevant with
those most vulnerable
worldwide.
Tonight
at 6:30 is a
must-see multimedia program exploring themes of
human rights and cultural expression at the
Clarrisse Smith Performing Arts Center. MEXICAN
REVOLUTION features both music and film, with
Mexican popular songs performed by the
legendary singer Eugenia Leon and PostClassical
Ensemble, followed by the 1936 Mexican film
masterpiece Redes. Redes is a
60-minute black-and-white film with lush
cinematography by renowned photographer and
cinematographer Paul Strand, co-directed by
Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann, who
later directed HighNoon, From Here to
Eternity and A Man for All
Seasons. In telling the story of poor
fishermen victimized by monopoly control of
their market, Redes argues
for organized resistance as a necessary means
of political reform. Be sure to catch
the AFL-CIO LOBBY
DISPLAY at the Center, featuring
posters and selected items from the George
Meany AFL-CIO Archives recently transferred to
UMD and join PostClassical Ensemble’s
Artistic Director Joe Horowitz, Music Director
Angel Gil-Ordoñes and Mexico based Roberto
Kolb, the world’s leading Revueltas scholar,
for a pre-show discussion at 6:30PM. 3800 Clarice
Smith Performing Arts Center, University of
Maryland, College Park,
MD.
COMING
UP:Film: Note By Note: The Making of
Steinway L1037 (Mon, May
12 7:30p,
AFI) Can craftsmanship survive in an age of
mass-production and consumption? Riveting
documentary follows the creation of a Steinway
concert grand from forest floor to concert
hall. ONGOING:
Art Exhibit: Ralph Fasanella: Lest We
Forget: Union organizer Ralph Fasanella
celebrated the common man and tackled complex
issues of postwar America in
colorful,
socially-minded paintings. Daily, American Art
Museum (8th and F Streets, N.W.) 3rd floor
North. The AFL-CIO is also hosting
an exhibit of Fasanella’s work
in its lobby: 816 16th St NW. weekdays
8-5.
Rivera's "Man At The
Crossroads": The Mexican Cultural Institute
hosts a fascinating exhibit reconstructing the
history of Diego Rivera's famous “Man at the
Crossroads” mural at Rockefeller Center,
tracing 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. Through May
17.
Living
Out: Comedic
play by Lisa Loomer about working mothers,
race, class and immigration
status. Through May
18.
The DC
LaborFest is an expansion of the annual DC
Labor FilmFest; both are organized by the Metro
Washington Council,
AFL-CIO.
CLICK HERE for the complete DC
Labor Fest and Labor FilmFest
schedule!
* events are free unless
otherwise noted