Save the Date: Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round Screening, Reception, and Panel Discussion with Director Ilana Trachtman

On Tuesday evening, September 17th, Northwest Neighbors Village will kick off our 15th anniversary with a showing of Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, a documentary film that tells the previously untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history - which happened right here at Glen Echo Amusement Park.

The film’s title comes from a poem by Langston Hughes called "Colored Child at Carnival." It is the story of Howard University students who sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960 and whose arrests made headlines. When the White community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary history making partnership was born.

Their story is fascinating and awe inspiring. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressmen, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over the sweltering summer led to partying together. Union organizers mentored student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in a Supreme Court case.

With never-before-seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, interviews with four living protesters rescue this forgotten history.

Beginning at 6:30pm on Tuesday, September 17^th, NNV will host a pre-screening reception, film screening, and panel discussion moderated by Robert Siegel, former host of NPR’s All Things Considered. The event will take place at the DC Jewish Community Center (DC JCC) Movie Theatre, located at 1529 16^th Street, NW.

Ticket sales will support NNV's vital programming!

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