TICKETS $15

Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
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THE EXPERIENCE

[Description of event]

ON SCREEN: March Fourth

2026. Directed by Robe Imbriano and Valerie Hong. Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes. 

Reginald Dwayne Betts went to adult prison at 16 and survived to write about it. March Forth is an intimate exploration into the life and thoughts of this acclaimed poet, author, lawyer, activist, and MacArthur “Genius Award” winner. Betts served almost nine years for carjacking, and before becoming an adult bore witness to the cruelties of the American legal system. In prison he named himself, “Shahid,” meaning witness in Arabic. In solitary confinement, he became a poet.

After his release on March 4th, 2005, Betts was determined to march forth into the world and leave prison behind. He began teaching, publishing multiple award-winning collections of poetry, a memoir, and even graduating from Yale Law School. As an attorney, he’s secured the release of men he served time with. But instead of leaving prison behind, in 2020, he created Freedom Reads, a non-profit that places libraries he curates in prison cell blocks across America. The return has been complicated. Going back means remembering who is left behind and more painfully, those he’s failed to get free. 

March Forth offers an intimate look into how he carries the two realities he moves through; one of immeasurable success and contribution and accolades and one of guilt and persistent doubt of his own self-worth. Through live performance, animation, poetry, and memoir excerpts narrated by Brian Tyree Henry, March Forth explores the lasting impact of serving time in adult prison as a teenager.

ON STAGE: Reginald Dwayne Betts, Robe Imbriano, Thomas Curtis

Reginald Dwayne Betts (Subject + Writer)

Reginald Dwayne Betts received a BA (2009) from the University of Maryland, an MFA (2010) from Warren Wilson College, and a JD (2016) from Yale Law School. He is currently a PhD candidate in law at Yale Law School. Betts was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Coordinating Council of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 2012, and since 2018 he has served as a member of Connecticut’s Criminal Justice Commission, which appoints state prosecutors. His additional publications include the poetry collections Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015) and Shahid Reads His Own Palm (2010) and the memoir Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison (2009).

Robe Imbriano (Director + Executive Producer)

Robe Imbriano is an award-winning director and showrunner. His animated musical documentary about the injustice of cash bail, “Criminal,” animated by Thomas Curtis with music and lyrics by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald and published by The New Yorker, won Best Animated Short at the UrbanWorld Film Festival. He was the showrunner of the Hulu series, Killing County, with Colin Kaepernick.

Imbriano co-created and Executive Produced the Netflix documentary series Amend, starring Will Smith and featuring Mahershala Ali, Samuel L. Jackson, Sherrilyn Ifill, Bryan Stevenson to tell the story of the 14th Amendment and America’s struggle with equality.  He was a showrunner of the launch of Soul of a Nation, the very first major broadcast network series about Black life in America, nominated for 11 Emmy Awards in its very first season. Imbriano has written and produced for everyone from Diane Sawyer and Peter Jennings to Bill Moyers and Oprah Winfrey, winning numerous honors along the way. He currently runs the Documentary Specialization at the Columbia Journalism School.

Thomas Curtis (Production Designer + Animator)

Thomas Curtis won a Cinema Eye award for his work on Going to Mars: the Nikki Giovanni Project, seen on Max and shown at Sundance. He is a Motion Graphics artist and animator whose work ranges from the Annenberg Foundation’s Constitution Project films, Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution for A&E, CNN’s New Orleans: Soul of a City and Amend, for Netflix. Recent projects include creating the design and animation for Criminal, a New Yorker Documentary about the harrowing conditions in the Harris County Jail.