Contact:
- Salma Garcia Nolasco, Abington Friends: AMM@abingtonfriends.net
- Lee Hall, Radnor Friends: climatelaw@me.com
- Chiyo Moriuchi, Newtown Friends: ncmoriuchi@yahoo.com
- Patricia Mervine, Middletown Friends: pmervine@aamuseumbucks.org
The Quaker community is excited to announce screenings of Becoming Benjamin Lay, a documentary, in the Philly suburbs. Benjamin Lay was the Quaker “prophet against slavery” who, in the 1700s, pressed Quakers to the forefront of the anti-slavery movement.
Screenings are free and open to everyone of all ages:
Mark Povinelli plays the role of Benjamin Lay
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- Abington Meetinghouse, 520 Meetinghouse Rd, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, at 7pm on Friday 29 May, followed by talkback and reception with historian/playwright Marcus Rediker and filmmaker Tony Buba.
- Radnor Friends Meetinghouse, 610 Conestoga Rd, Villanova, Pennsylvania, on Saturday 30 May at 2-3pm, followed by talkback and reception at 3-4pm with Marcus Rediker and Tony Buba.
- Newtown Friends Meetinghouse, 219 Court St, Newtown, at 9.45-11am on Sunday 31 May.
- Middletown Friends Meetinghouse, 453 W Maple Ave, Langhorne, on Monday 1 June at 7pm. In collaboration with the African American Museum of Bucks County, First Baptist Church of Langhorne, and Bethlehem A.M.E. Church, as part of Langhorne’s America250/Langhorne150 celebration.
These screenings follow the film’s debut in Pittsburgh, as well as showings in London, Bristol, and Cambridge, England.
Take a peek into this thought-provoking documentary that pays tribute to the Quaker sailor who confronted even Benjamin Franklin’s slaveholder status.
Becoming Benjamin Lay explores the making of the stage play about Benjamin’s life, written by Marcus Rediker and Naomi Wallace–and the way actor Mark Povinelli brought Benjamin, a little person, to life on stage.
“Little Benjamin,” as he called himself, was a revolutionary who brought activism into houses of worship, to challenge the Quaker and other enslavers. Ejected from membership at four Quaker congregations, Benjamin suffered for his truth-telling. His radically simple, eco-aware, anti-racist life, fully devoted to the cause of human transformation on the planet, has aged beautifully, we find, as the actor invites us into it.
For this is more than a true-to-life story. Mark Povinelli takes us on a journey into the life of one of the earliest Quaker abolitionists on either side of the Atlantic, and asks us to commit to continuing this journey.
Tony Buba is a Pittsburgh-based filmmaker dedicated to the art of reflecting the spirit of grassroots, worker-led action. Marcus Rediker, professor at University of Pittsburgh’s Department of History, focuses on “history from below” to revive the real movers and shakers behind our human story.
“Benjamin’s values live on,” says Marcus Rediker.
“They live on when we reject the use of race or migration to oppress. They live on in the groundswell of community-led resistance and the mutual-support work that’s countering the violence, social control, and systematic oppression we witness today.”
Benjamin’s story was nearly unknown just a decade ago. The work celebrated in this documentary changes that. Join us in experiencing this film, in the ongoing pursuit of restorative justice.
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