Tuesday, June 16: 13th
7p; FREE, online via Zoom; register here 

Hosted by Elise Bryant, Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and Director of the DC Labor Chorus
Introduction by Dyana Forester, newly-elected President of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO!

Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America.

This piercing, Oscar-nominated film won Best Documentary at the Emmys, the BAFTAs and the NAACP Image Awards.

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary 13TH refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.

"Ms. DuVernay — best known for “Selma,” and a filmmaker whose art has become increasingly inseparable from her activism — has made a movie that’s as timely as the latest Black Lives Matter protest and the approaching presidential election." The New York Times

2016; Director: Ava DuVernay; 100m; Cast: Melina Abdullah, Michelle Alexander, Cory Booker 

Friday/Saturday, June 19-20: 2020 Virtual Great Labor Arts Exchange

Register here for the 2020 Virtual Great Labor Arts Exchange
Friday, June 19 to Saturday, June 20, 2020
Start: 1:00 pm EST (Noon CST/10 am PST)
End: 10:00 pm EST (6:00 pm CST/7:00 pm PST)

In the words of Mother Jones, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!” And so we shall ~ with cultural expressions of solidarity to lift spirits and inspire action.

We’re ready to go where no GLAE has gone before! Enjoy 2 days of the Great Labor Arts Exchange, including workshops, and the Annual Song/Poetry/Spoken Word Contest!

This year we’re going digital, using Zoom video conferencing and live streaming. You’ll be able to listen, sing-a-long and most importantly, share the communal joy of being together in these difficult times. Just download the Zoom App, register and pay for the conference, and you’re in.

So, stay safe, stay well and stay tuned!

Tuesday, June 23: The Infiltrators
Free, online via Zoom; RSVP here

Guest host: Tom Zaniello, author "Working Stiffs: Union Maids, Red and RiffRaff (An Expanded Guide to Films About Labor)"

THE INFILTRATORS is a docu-thriller that tells the true story of young immigrants who are detained by Border Patrol and thrown into a shadowy for-profit detention center-on purpose. Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of radical DREAMers who are on a mission to stop unjust deportations. And the best place to stop deportations, they believe, is in detention. However, when Marco and Viri attempt a daring reverse 'prison break,' things don't go according to plan. By weaving together documentary footage of the real infiltrators with re-enactments of the events inside the detention center, THE INFILTRATORS tells an incredible and thrilling true story in a genre-defying new cinematic language.

2020, Directed by Cristina Ibarra & Alex Rivera; Running time 90m; cast: Marco Saavedra, Viridiana Martinez, Maynor Alvarado, Chelsea Rendon, Manuel Uriza, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Vik Sahay