As part of the closing activities for the exhibit Barry Farm: Uplifting a Living History\, Ensuring a Just Futur e\, join us for a 50-minute documentary screening as part of a day of celebration at the MLK Library.
\nAbout the exhibit:
\nSince September\, this traveling exhibit has visited t hree libraries: Anacostia Neighborhood Library\, Bellevue Neighborhood Lib rary\, and the MLK Library.The installation at the MLK Library features an expanded section featuring historical photographs of Barry Farm and excer pts from the \;Life in the Barry Farm Community Oral History Project. The exhibit is on view at the MLK Library\, Floor 1\, East\, through June 28. Learn more about the exhibit here.
\nAbout the film:
\nThe empty fields of Barry Fa rm hold powerful memories of enslaved people to one of D.C.&rsquo\;s first thriving Black communities\, until 2018\, when the final community member s were removed to make way for redevelopment. Told by the generations of r esidents\, as well as D.C.&rsquo\;s leading historians\, artists\, musicia ns and analysts\, this film tells of a community that risks being erased f rom the map.
\nTake a left off of the Anacostia Freeway on to Firth Sterling Ave &ndash\; what do you see? You see empty fields. You see shiny new buildings just breaking ground. Construction equipment. Sweeping view s of the capital. As one \;community \;member states in this film\ , if you are a developer\, you see a gold mine. But these empty fields hol d powerful memories. Enslaved people once worked this \;land. Later\, during Reconstruction\, formerly enslaved individuals purchased it\, and b uilt one of DC&rsquo\;s first thriving Black communities. Here\, the city constructed a sprawling public housing complex in the 1940s\, beloved by i nsiders\, if notorious to outsiders. Here\, the movement for Welfare Right s took shape. Here\, the Junkyard Band honed its chops on homemade instrum ents before putting a turbocharge into the city&rsquo\;s Go-Go music. Here \, residents lived in the Barry Farms Dwellings up until 2019\, when the f inal \;community \;members were removed for the redevelopment. Thi s documentary film\, a collaboration between the Bertelsmann Foundation an d the DC Legacy Project\, and directed by Sabiyha Prince and Samuel George \, tells a story of a journey for \;community\, \;land\, and for&n bsp\;justice. It is a story of Barry Farm\, but it is also a story of Wash ington\, D.C. And\, in the cycles of place and displacement\, it is a stor y of the United States of America.
\nThis screening is being held in conjunction with and the Library's 90's Block Party in celebrtion of Black Music Month a nd Father's Day.
\nCome sing\, dance and celebrate Black music\, D.C . culture and community all afternoon long.
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