Screening of The Forgotten Occupation (June 2023)

Wilson House held a screening of a documentary that focuses on the legacy of occupation and invasion in Haiti. The film documents the film maker’s conversations between his grandfather and others of the occupation.  It gives voice and tells the story from the diaspora’s perspective. President Woodrow Wilson sanctioned the occupation of Haiti during his presidential tenure.

The Truth about the Anti-Woke Movement and the Fight for the Freedom to Learn: Prof. Khalil Muhammad (November 2023)

Part of our monthly speaker series, this talk explained the deep history behind the backlash against the rigorous teaching of American history, inclusive of the long traditions of anti-Black racism and resistance to it. Why are so many Americans ambivalent or accepting of the political movement to promote this country's denialism of the hard truths about slavery and structural racism? How does this movement promote fascist ideology and threaten multi-racial democracy? And what forms of resistance from the past and present must be marshalled to save the country from itself?

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at the Harvard University Kennedy School, where he directs the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project.

Poetry Night- Local Creatives Speak Truth to Power: Quique Aviles, Susan Strasser, and Marcia Cole (December 2023)

Quique Aviles is a poet, performer, teacher, and social provocateur. Originally from El Salvador, he has been performing and leading community arts projects in the Washington, D.C. area for close to 40 years. He published a book of poetry, The Immigrant Museum, an artbook printed in Mexico City.

The night also featured two other compelling voices, Susan Strasser and Marcia E. Cole performing “A Double Take on Lynching.” The two shared a series of poems and an illustrated lecture on lynching. Marcia Cole uses original poetry to personalize and humanize the lives that would be lost in statistics. Susan Strasser is an award-winning historian, Richards Professor Emerita of American History at the University of Delaware, and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.

Until We Vote: A Community Reading of the Musical by Andrea Trent (March 2024)

The museum held a reading of a play that tells the story of Anna, a young black woman, who is excited to move to Washington D.C. and settle down with her fiancé. She soon discovers her recently departed mother was once a suffragist. Upon Anna's arrival in Washington D.C., she witnesses Mary Church Terrell inspiring young girls to join the suffrage movement. From then on, she continues to learn more about suffrage and tries to inspire people, mentored by Mary Church Terrell. Anna is also influenced by other historical figures: Ida B. Wells, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Lucy Diggs Slowe.

Andrea Trent has lived in the Washington, D.C. area since the age of twelve. Growing up, she wrote skits for members of her church writing a series of black history plays in an effort to teach children about black history. She has performed with several community theater companies in the area and currently serves as the Artistic Director with 2nd Star Productions in Bowie, MD.

Juneteenth Freedom Saga: A Breath-Shop by Ayo Handi-Kendi (June 2024)

Juneteenth Freedom Sagas is a one-woman, in-person, story-performance and “breath-shop,” which re-enacts the ending of enslavement and liberation for American Blacks, during D.C.’s Emancipation Day, April 16, 1862, and Juneteenth 1865, but also brings awareness to modern-day injustices. The “story sagas” are intended for racial and diversity healing, but are presented through the lens of enslaved men, women, and those who held them in bondage, woven together by Negro Spirituals, with audience participation. The program was created by Ayo Handy-Kendi, internationally known as the “Breath Sekou and Storyteller.” Her performances have delighted and uplifted countless lives for over 30 years.