Join the DC Legacy Project, DC Preservation League, the Octagon Museum, and the Bertelsmann Foundation for a screening of Barry Farm: Community, Land & Justice in Washington DC.

Take a left off the Anacostia Freeway on to Firth Sterling Ave in Southwest DC–what do you see? You see empty fields. You see shiny new buildings just breaking ground. Construction equipment. Sweeping views of the capital. As one community member states in this film, if you are a developer, you see a gold mine. But these empty fields hold powerful memories. Enslaved people once worked this land. Later, during Reconstruction, formerly enslaved individuals purchased it, and built one of DC’s first thriving Black communities. Here, the city constructed a sprawling public housing complex in the 1940s, beloved by insiders, if notorious to outsiders. Here, the movement for Welfare Rights took shape. Here, the Junkyard Band honed its chops on homemade instruments before putting a turbocharge into the city’s Go-Go music. Here, residents lived in the Barry Farms Dwellings up until 2019, when the final community members were removed for the redevelopment.

This documentary film, a collaboration between the Bertelsmann Foundation and DC Legacy Project, tells a story of a journey for community, land, and for justice. It is a story of Barry Farm, but it is also a story of Washington, DC. And, in the cycles of place and displacement, it is a story of the United States of America.

Join us for a 51-minute screening and a talk-back with the team behind the film: Sabiyha Prince, Samuel George and Sarah Shoenfeld. This event will be held at the beautiful Octagon Museum, courtesy of The Architects Foundation.