June 8, 2024, from 3-5PM, The Umbrella Arts Center in historic Concord, MA hosts the world premiere screening of Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life, directed by Jennifer Burton and Ursula Burton and produced by Five Sisters Productions and Julie Dobrow, with the Tufts Production Team.

In 1835, 12-year-old Ellen Garrison marched in the Concord bicentennial parade, the only person of color to participate, launching her into a life of civil rights activism. The film highlights key moments in Garrison’s career, from the parade to her teaching in the South after the Civil War, to her challenging segregation in a Baltimore trail station waiting room in 1866, a century before Rosa Parks.

The film emerges as the town’s Concord 250 committee has sought to plan an expansive and inclusive commemoration of its history and role at the start of the American Revolution, and the semiquincentennial of “the shot heard round the world” coming up on April 19, 2025.

The short film will be followed by a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary and an interactive discussion with members of the filmmaking team, Concord 250, and The Robbins House.

This event is free, family friendly, and open to all, with RSVP at https://TheUmbrellaArts.org/Ellen

The Umbrella is ADA accessible, and provides free parking and free admission to its visual arts galleries.