First Thursday - "13th"

Ava Duvernay's "13th" is one of the most powerful and influential non-fiction films ever made. With breathtaking clarity and heartbreaking effect, "13th" demonstrates how five words in the text of the amendment utterly changed its meaning and impact. Instead of ending slavery, in fact the amendment extended it, changing the course of justice and race relations in this country in ways that are still painfully evident today. As Bryan Stevenson (Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative) observed, "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Ms. Duvernay's film proves that proposition in painstaking and undeniable detail.

From the Huffington Post:

13th is an exploration of the history of racial inequality in America, with a focus on the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution that outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime." The documentary examines how the 13th amendment criminal clause has resulted in a modern day form of slavery through mass incarceration that disproportionately impacts people of color, particularly African American men in America.

Winner of the Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody Awards, Academy award nominee Ava DuVernay is a writer, director, producer and film distributor. Her directorial work includes the historical drama SELMA, the criminal justice documentary 13TH, Disney’s A WRINKLE IN TIME, which made her the highest grossing black woman director in American box office history, and the Netflix series WHEN THEY SEE US, based on the infamous case of The Central Park Five.

Please join us on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 7:00pm for a discussion on the historic and contemporary pernicious effects of the 13th amendment and the role it plays in the Black Lives Matter era.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Premal Dharia is the Founder and Director of the Defender Impact Initiative, an organization dedicated to making structural changes in the criminal system by working with and empowering public defenders. She served as a public defender in Washington, DC, Baltimore and Guantanamo Bay and has spent 20 years seeking to transform the criminal system to make it more just.
• Jim Wyda was appointed the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland District in 1998. He grew up in East Baltimore and graduated from Loyola Blakefield before attending Trinity College and Yale Law School. Mr. Wyda clerked for the Honorable Frank Kaufman, US District Judge for the District of Maryland. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Law School.

The film can be viewed on Netflix, YouTube or at http://www.avaduvernay.com/#/13th/

Attendance at the panel discussion is free, but you must pre-register here.

We look forward to seeing you on August 6 at 7:00pm.

Thank you.