Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round film screening and panel discussion:

Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round is a documentary about the nation's first organized interracial civil rights protest, which happened at Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960. The film will play at the JxJ Washington Jewish Film and Music Festivals, at the Cafritz Hall, Edlavitch DCJCC on 16th and Q Streets NW. General admission is $16/; students pay $13. Each night, the film will be followed by a panel and post-screening discussion. On September 16th, the post-screening panel will focus on Faith and Social Justice. Michelle Boorstein (Religion reporter for The Washington Post) is moderating, and Rabbi Jonah Pesner (Religious Action Center) and Reverend Thomas Bowen (Sr Advisor, White House Office of Public Engagement) will be panelists, along with the filmmaker Ilana Trachtman. Our own Esther Delaplaine and her daughter Rocky are featured in the film.

            When five Black college students sat on a segregated Maryland carousel in 1960, their arrests made headlines. When the Jewish community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the protest, a history-making interracial demonstration was born. The cause, and the collaboration, provoked counterprotests by the American Nazi party and brought Congressmen and national leaders to the picket line. Picketing together led to partying together, union bosses mentored student activists, and ten 1961 Freedom Riders emerged, including Stokely Carmichael. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. Featuring the voices of Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner, and Tracie Thoms.

            More information is available at the website (https://www.aintnoback.com/).