Press Release: Ahead of Election, Five People Share Stories About Why Voting Matters

News Release: DC Public Library

For Immediate Release

October 19, 2020

Media Contacts:

George Williams

(Washington, DC) – As the United States celebrates 100 years of women voting and 55 years since the Voting Rights Act enfranchised African Americans, five storytellers will share personal stories about voting. 

On Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m., “I, Too, Sing America: An Evening of Storytelling Celebrating Democracy” will be streamed on the DC Public Library’s YouTube and Facebook pages. The storytellers are:

• Carolyn Veiga is from Selma, AL and was a teen during the Civil Rights Movement. She will talk about how she and her friends got their entire high school in Montgomery, AL to walk out and meet the marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge at what would later be known as Bloody Sunday.
• Victor Benitez was doing political campaigning in a low-income area in PA. A woman said, “this neighborhood doesn’t have anything – no community center, no library.” The experience led him to go to library school. He will talk about his role as a librarian, providing information to people, upholding democracy, bringing different customers together for conversations and building community.
• Eric Weaver is a returning citizen and the Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Returned Citizens. While Weaver was incarcerated, Marion Barry visited the jail and encouraged them to tell their family and friends to vote for him. This piqued Weaver’s interest in voting. When Weaver was released, he discovered that he could vote. He talks about his first time voting in 2012 and the work he does educating returning citizens about the importance of voting.
• Gabrielle Martinez’s first election after turning 18 was in 2008. She was excited and hopeful for change and worked in politics. But soon, Martinez felt Black women’s voices and issues were ignored. She founded a non-profit, Tribe Inc., and does empowering programming for teen girls in the Washington, DC area. One of the teens in her program spoke on the National Mall at a recent march. Martinez will talk about that experience and how she’s preparing her girls to be civically engaged.
• Paloma Ibanez has worked for political non-profits both in DC and Arizona. She will talk about her experience, the work she’s done, and how she keeps going despite obstacles. She will also include her being half Mexican and her grandmother in Mexico, having never voted.

Each storyteller has been coached by Story District, an organization named the “gold standard” in storytelling by the Washington Post. The event will be broadcast on the Library’s YouTube and Facebook pages. For more information visit https://www.dclibrary.org/node/67443  

Before You Vote: Use Your Library Card to Hone Your Understanding of Political Issues

With election day right around the corner, are you ready? Have you looked into the issues but aren’t sure if the information you’re getting is accurate? Consider using DC Public Library’s books and online to ensure you understand the issues in this year’s election.

Opposing viewpoints is a database that brings together all the information needed to fully understand topics like voting laws, the Supreme Court and Black Lives Matter. It combines pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles, magazines, academic journals, newspapers, primary source documents, statistics, and multimedia Websites. Readers can use the information to draw their conclusions about an issue. To learn more, visit Opposing Viewpoints at https://www.dclibrary.org/opposingviewpoints 

Readers looking to dive deeper into topics can borrow books. Titles available in physical copies and ebooks include Erin Geiger Smith’s “Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” or John McCain’s “The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations.” To see more titles, visit the Library’s catalog at https://catalog.dclibrary.org/client/en_US/dcpl 

To learn more about the LIbrary’s voter education efforts, visit https://www.dclibrary.org/vote

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