Tomorrow we’re heading down to D.C. for a congressional briefing with Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. We’ll be showing a brief sneak preview of the forthcoming Not Working Project documentary and Mr. Conyers will be talking about the jobs bill he has put forward. Come join us if you can. Full press release below.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
H.R. 1000 & The Not Working Project in Washington, D.C.
On May 16 at 12pm, Penguin Books will host a congressional briefing featuring Rep John Conyers (D-MI) with author and filmmaker, DW Gibson, who will share excerpts from his recently completed documentary, Not Working. Over the summer and fall of 2011 Gibson drove across the country to collect the stories of the unemployed. He interviewed over 200 Americans and three of them will also speak at the briefing:
Roni Chambers (St. Louis, MO) worked in Human Resources and led a team that laid off 200 people in one day before she lost her own job. She currently volunteers full-time as director for the GO! Network in St. Louis, an organization that provides training workshops and networking events for the unemployed.
Bridgette Lacy (Raleigh, NC) lost her position as the Media Relations Manager for the North Carolina Arts Council when it was eliminated by the state. She channeled her frustrations looking for a new job into a blog, which has become a regular column about unemployment for the News & Observer.
Bob Bendig (Pittsburgh, PA) operated a security firm that provided immediate security escorts for corporations performing layoffs. After walking countless workers from their desks to their cars, Bob had to shut the doors to his own business and is now one of the unemployed. Bob also surrendered his home to his bank and now receives housing assistance through Veterans Affairs.
Chambers, Lacy, and Bendig will speak about their own experiences with unemployment. Rep. John Conyers will join the discussion to highlight the necessary role Congress must take in being an active participant to reduce unemployment. He will focus on how his recently submitted bill: H.R. 1000, the “Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act,” is the appropriate legislation to put America back to work.
The Not Working Project has, for two years now, sought to use oral history to breath life into the anonymous statistics of unemployment. Gibson traveled the country with a small team, listening to the unemployed tell the story of the day they lost their job, the factors that led up to that event, and the consequences that followed. A selection of the interviews are featured in Not Working, the documentary, as well as a book by the same title published by Penguin Books (July 2012.)