Don’t miss the long-awaited East Coast premier of our documentary! It is part of the:
Running Time: 87 min
A featured in-person screening of at Cinemapolis, Saturday, March 25, 7 p.m.
PSP filmmakers Ry Ferro and Deborah C. Hoard, and DCI Project Director Laura Branca will be present for Q & A, along with other special guests.
Ticketed event.
Dorothy Foreman Cotton was a bold and highly effective civil rights leader, who educated thousands in their citizenship rights and inspired generations of activists with her powerful freedom songs and her leadership. SCLC’s Education Director, and the only woman on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s executive staff, Dorothy was a charismatic, courageous and consistently overlooked key player in the Civil Rights Movement.
East Coast Premiere will be on 3/25, and Move when the Spirit Says Move with be at Cinemapolis through April 7, for a 14-day run. Tickets available to the public at Cinemapolis.
Dorothy Cotton was a bold, highly effective and important civil rights leader, the only woman on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Executive Staff. In celebration of Black Women’s History Month, The History Center and the Dorothy Cotton Institute are hosting a virtual screening of the award-winning short film THERE’S YOUR READY GIRL! which was produced during the pandemic with footage from the feature-length documentary currently in production, MOVE WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS MOVE, about Dorothy’s life and legacy. Screening of the 11-minute film will be followed by a panel discussion on the experience of working with Dorothy and the role of women in Civil Rights history, featuring excerpts from a newly recorded interview with Ambassador Andrew Young and appearances by filmmaker Deborah C. Hoard, Dorothy Cotton Institute Fellows Laura Branca and Margo Hittleman and special guests.
This event will take place over Zoom. Register to receive reminder emails about the event, and you’ll access the meeting information to join on April 14th. https://thehistorycenter.net/event-4222277/Registration
–See the Sisters of Change exhibit in the Atrium Tower, and The Voting Vanguards show in the Gallery
–Meet the student artists, their teacher, Ms. Ana Goldsmith, and Rejoice the Vote! activist, Jeff Furman
–Hear about the Voting Vanguards–the American sheroes and heroes who fought for our voting rights
–Hear about the Constitutional Amendments and Voting Rights Act: the foundation for our voting rights.
–Register to Vote on the spot if you haven’t already!
–Share your own answers: Why do you vote? Why will you vote? Why do you want your family to vote?
–Free & Open to all, especially students, educators and families.
–Enjoy refreshments and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream!
110 N. Tioga St., on the Ithaca Commons
We at DCI are committed to honoring the life and work of Dorothy Cotton. We recognize that this amazing woman has not been cataloged in our nation’s memory to the extent that she deserves. With this in mind, we know that a necessary component of sustaining her legacy is to counteract this erasure. We want to bring you the stories of other women whose crucial roles in Black liberation movements and campaigns ought to be highlighted and honored. These women gave their time, energy, and souls to this work so that we could be here today. Let us uplift their voices and be forever inspired by their power.
One side of the Atrium Tower exhibit is devoted to the life and legacy of Dorothy Foreman Cotton; on display are archival photos and portraits, printed material from the Citizenship Education Program (CEP) and the SCLC, her memoir, and the gold ensemble that she wore when she received the 2010 National Freedom Award at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN. Inside a touchscreen kiosk there is biographical content, an introduction to the CEP and three short videos about Dorothy, including a 5-minute teaser from the documentary we have in development, Move When the Spirit Says Move.
The opposite side of the Atrium Tower is devoted to twenty-five Sisters of Change, women of the movement for Civil Rights and women’s rights, whose tremendous contributions deserve a prominent place in American history. They each deserve their own tribute. The tower exhibit includes photos quotes from four of these leaders, some of the books written by them or about them, and a variety of memorabilia from the 60s and 70s. There are photos and short bios in the touchscreen digital kiosk about each of the Sisters of Change, describing the campaigns and actions they took for racial justice and social transformation. There are many others who are just as important and are not featured in our presentation. We focused on contemporaries and colleagues of Dorothy Cotton, but we hope to build a broader base of knowledge and recognition of people who embodied the change they wished to see for their people, and the best of humanity.
Doors open at 1:00 pm; ticket holders are asked to arrive by 1:45
With others from our community and around the US who knew and admired Dorothy Cotton and her life’s work including:
◊ International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Southern Poverty Law Center, Faith and Politics Institute, Highlander Research and Education Center, Tompkins County Legislature, and Dorothy Foreman Cotton’s family.
Dr. Dorothy Foreman Cotton passed peacefully on June 10th.While many of us mourn her passing, this event will be a celebration of her extraordinary life and a legacy that has truly changed not only our nation but the world.
◊ The event is Free and Open to the Public.
◊ Almost all tickets have been distributed. There may be a limited number of tickets available at the door. A wait-list for any tickets that become available will begin at 1:00 pm when doors open on Saturday, Aug. 11 at Bailey Hall, Cornell Campus.
◊ An overflow space is provided in Call Auditorium across the street in Kennedy Hall, where the program will be live-streamed.
Rabbi Brian Walt, Co-chair of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, will share his experiences in Hebron with Palestinian Youth Against Settlement leader Issa Amro and Israeli Breaking the Silence leader Yehuda Shaul and the reality of apartheid in the West Bank.
Ariel Gold, CODEPINK Campaign Director and Youth Against Settlements International Advocacy Coordinator, will provide an an update of the work CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, and others are doing with Joint List Knesset members, State Department officials, and members of the US Congress to support Issa Amro as he faces 18 charges in Israeli military court. She will provide an eye witness account of Youth Against Settlement’s annual “Open Shuhada Street” campaign that took place this past February in Hebron.
Kirby Edmonds, Senior Fellow and Program Coordinator of the Dorothy Cotton Institute (DCI), will discuss his experience in Hebron, when helping to lead the DCI’s delegation to East Jerusalem and the West Bank with leaders from the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, younger civil and human rights leaders, social justice activists, and peace builders. Kirby will share how the oppression in Hebron and the Palestinian grassroots nonviolent resistance movement relate to the US struggles for racial justice and human rights.
Undoing Racism, a signature workshop facilitated by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, will take place in Ithaca, NY April 6 – 8th and registration is now open to the public.
The Undoing Racism Workshop is 2 days + an evening; April 6 (5-9pm), 7 (9am – 5pm) and 8 (9am – 5pm). Registrants must be able to commit to attending the entire workshop. Location: announced when registration confirmed.
Cost is $350 per person, $175 for small non-profit organization staff and high school students.
The Ithaca Undoing Racism Workshop is being organized and hosted by The Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming, the Multicultural Resource Center, the Youth Farm Project and Tommy Miller, and can only accommodate a limited number of individuals.
While there are organizations in Ithaca providing anti-racism education, the objectives of bringing the People’s Institute to Ithaca are to:
–Cultivate a shared language around racism, white privilege, equity and diversity within an organization’s staff and board to inform recruitment, hiring and retention
–Establish a cohort of local graduates who identify actionable steps towards undoing racism in Ithaca and surrounding areas and commit to post workshop collaboration
–Enable local social justice leaders to participate in a workshop with peers, co-workers and community members
–Call-in people in decision making positions to understand why race is central to multiple sectors including food, education, policy, social services, foundations and private business
–Build our community’s capacity to undo racism and implement anti-racist strategies and policies
More about the Undoing Racism Workshops and the People Institute, can be found on their website, http://www.pisab.org/programs.
Contact Person:
Elizabeth Gabriel
CTA/Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming