As we put the finishing touches on this newsletter, the RFC is just days away from welcoming close to 50 parents and RFC beneficiary children from 12 families to a college campus in western MA for our fourth Family Gathering. RFC staff and Board of Directors, along with former beneficiaries acting as peer leaders, plus artists leading cultural workshops, will spend four days building community. In our next issue we’ll report on the Gathering, which is being made possible in part because of a generous grant from the Fineshriber Family Foundation.
In other event news, following well-received screenings in Berkeley, CA and at Left Forum in New York City, we’re also planning several more showings of CARRY IT FORWARD, our movie from the event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Rosenbergs’ executions. This 90-minute film features Angela Davis, Eve Ensler, and a stellar cast of other artists and activists. It dramatizes the Rosenbergs’ story and also those of families the RFC is helping today including that of political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz.
On September 23rd Jenn Meeropol will be in Philadelphia to show the film at 7:00 pm at The Rotunda located at 4014 Walnut St., in an evening co-sponsored by The Shoatz Family and Free Maroon Philly with support from Prison Radio and Decarcerate PA. No tickets required, suggested donation of $10. Details are at www.rfc.org/cifphilly.
RFC supporters in the Chicago area will have a chance to meet Jenn at a CARRY IT FORWARD screening on November 6th. (Time, location, and other details to be announced.) Jenn also will travel to Minneapolis in October to take part in the Students for a Democratic Society annual conference which the RFC is sponsoring. And wrapping up a busy year of programming around the country, RFC founder Robert Meeropol will speak about his parents’ case and the work of the RFC at Marshall University in West Virginia on November 11th.
Visit www.rfc.org/events for complete details of all upcoming RFC programs.