‘Amazing Grace’ is heart of voter drive
The Aretha Franklin doc will be screened as part of the Poor People’s Campaign.
The critically acclaimed gospel music film “Amazing Grace” with Aretha Franklin is going on the road as part of a nationwide voter registration effort spearhead by the the 51-year-old Poor People’s Campaign.
A screening of the documentary Monday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., was set to help kick off the nondenominational, nonpartisan program, “A National Call for Moral Revival.” It was the first of nine scheduled multi-day programs in as many states aimed at registering people to vote and increasing citizen participation in the 2020 election.
The Rev. William J. Barber II and the Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chairpeople of the Poor People’s Campaign, are spearheading the effort, continuing the program launched in 1968 to address systemic racism, voter suppression, gerrymandering, income inequality and poverty.
Richard Smallwood, a gospel singer and multiple Grammy Award nominee, was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center event, hosted by MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid.
Barber has been an advocate for the Franklin concert film, having hosted
the premiere in the singer’s hometown of Detroit.
“Amazing Grace,” which finally reached movie theaters this year after being out of the public eye since it was shot in Los Angeles in 1972 during the recording of Franklin’s celebrated gospel album of the same name, ties in with the Poor People’s Campaign because of the late singer’s longstanding political and social activism.
“All along, when we brought out the film, we kept asking, ‘What would Aretha do?’ ” said Alan Elliott, the music industry veteran who shepherded the years-long effort to bring the movie to the public eye. It has grossed nearly $5.7 million globally since its premiere last winter in the U.S., according to IMDb.
“I know this is something she supported, something she was part of and that she would be very proud of,” he said by phone Sunday from Washington, D.C., where he was helping coordinate the rollout of the screenings as part of the campaign.
Franklin marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s during civil rights demonstrations, and she continued to support various efforts designed to promote equality and curtail racism.
“We want to register as many people to vote as we can and make as many allies as we can,” Elliott said. “We’re inviting Republicans to be part of this, as we would hope Republicans also want to register people to vote.”
Along with the film’s role in the voter drive, Elliott said an expanded edition of “Amazing Grace” is in the works for screenings in 2020, a cut that he said would include two additional numbers from the album that are not in the current version of the film.
He added that he is in talks with the Hollywood Bowl management and hopes to have the picture exhibited there next summer.
Additional dates for the Poor People’s Campaign include Sept. 15-18 in El Paso; Sept. 27-30 in Greenville, N.C.; Oct. 25-28 at a city in Kentucky still to be finalized; Jan. 10-13 in South Carolina; Feb. 28-March 2 in Alabama; March 6-9 in Arkansas; April 3-6 in Flint, Mich.; and May 15-18 in Memphis, Tenn.
Elliott said that schedule is expected to be expanded to other cities and states.