Press Release: Local Group to Hold Benefit at Gallery 5 to help in Campaign to Keep Park Open

From Monroe Campaign press release: Richmond, VA—On Saturday, January 22, starting at 8 p.m., the Monroe Park Campaign will be screening the film Dark Days as well as a short documentary about Monroe Park at Gallery 5. Tickets will be $3 and can be purchased at the door. Since its inception four months ago, The […]

January 19, 2011; 12:57 PM • by Oregon Hill

From Monroe Campaign press release:

Richmond, VA—On Saturday, January 22, starting at 8 p.m., the Monroe Park Campaign will be screening the film Dark Days as well as a short documentary about Monroe Park at Gallery 5. Tickets will be $3 and can be purchased at the door.

Since its inception four months ago, The Monroe Park Campaign has steadily grown; businesses, organizations and news sources are finally getting interested and involved in the fate of Richmond’s oldest park. However, like all independently-run initiatives, the Campaign has accrued its fair share of expenses. To help raise funds, they’ve decided to throw a benefit at Gallery 5. The Campaign will screen the touching film, Dark Days, as well as a documentary about Monroe Park and the forthcoming renovations that are threatening the welfare of Richmond’s homeless population.

Dark Days was made by British filmmaker, Marc Singer. The film follows a group of homeless people living in an abandoned section of the New York City underground railway system. Hailed as an “an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness”, Dark Days is a film you will not likely soon forget. DD has received numerous film-festival nominations and awards, including: Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the Cinematography Award and the Audience Best Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Monroe Park Campaign is a coalition of churches, feeding groups, radical organizations, as well as concerned citizens that have come together upon hearing about the Monroe Park Advisory Council’s plans to shut down Monroe Park during renovations. For a period of 9-18 months, the council plans on fencing off all 8 acres of the park making it inaccessible for students, homeless people currently living and socializing there, weekly feeding programs as well as anyone else who may use the park. The Campaign is working to keep at least 25-50% of the park open during the entire duration of construction and to prevent the hiring of any private security task force to police the park after renovations, especially when the master plan calls for reducing the “apparently homeless population” as one of its goals. Ultimately, the Campaign hopes to influence the type of renovations that are being planned for the park, in the hopes of making it a friendlier place for everyone.

Gallery 5 is a community-oriented, socially-motivated art gallery and performing art center in Richmond’s Historic Jackson Ward.

DATE & TIME: Saturday, January 22 • 8 – 10 p.m.

LOCATION: Gallery 5
200 W. Marshall Street
Richmond, VA 23220

Note: I have received a request that an official clarification be included in this post that states that there are known discrepancies in the information presented as “factual”. “This is important because they are soliciting money for their cause in the press release”.

I am not interested in being buried by legal ‘ese’. I am also not interested in having comments with profanity and ad hominem attacks on this post.