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.