Through its longtime focus of highlighting films focused on civil rights, March On! Festival works to combat challenges and offer hope for the future. This year, under the theme “March On! Health: The Right to Be Well” — meshing the arts and wellness — the festival presented filmmakers, creatives, lawmakers and special speakers, working toward social equity for all.
“The thing about festivals like this is that it connects with a range of people [and] different generations, different racial backgrounds, but the ability to connect with people through the arts,” said Joanne Irby at the festival’s final day party on Sunday, Sept. 21. “Rather than talking at people we are talking with people.”
From the March On! Annual Opening Night Gala on Sept. 16, and the final day party on Sunday, Sept. 21, the festival honored ancestors and current leaders working toward justice.
“At The March On! Festival, the civil rights movement stays alive through our actions and our artistry,” Isisara Bey, artistic director of March On!, told The Informer in mid-September, before the festival’s kickoff. “We’re fueling conversations, sparking action, and inspiring the next generation of activists around the world in the freedom-loving tradition of their forebearers, fighting for justice and human dignity together.”
Gala Honors Documentarians, Booker: ‘Tell the Story of Our Pain and Purpose‘
Combining changemaking and filmmaking, this year’s opening night gala honored documentarians Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith, co-founders of Firelight Media, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
Jonathan Capehart — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, MSNBC anchor, Washington Post opinion columnist, and New York Times bestselling author — served as the gala host for the seventh year in a row, where he not only celebrated the honorees, but uplifted all freedom fighters and encouraged audience members to join in the work.
“This feels like a family reunion. It’s a space built with friends, with elders whose shoulders we stand on, and with the next generation, who are carrying the torch forward,” said Capehart in his opening remarks. “It’s also a call to action. A reminder that the march never ended, the march continues, and so must we.”
House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) presented Booker with the John Roberts Lewis Lifetime Legacy Award. As he introduced the honoree, Jeffries recalled his first day before being sworn into Congress when he was summoned to Lewis’ office.
“Heard some good things about you and some of the new members of Congress who are joining us,” Lewis told Jeffries. “But Washington, D.C. can be a tough place, so I don’t want you to get into any trouble unless it’s good trouble.”
Sharing ideals instilled by Lewis, Jefferies welcomed Booker to the podium. The senator shared struggles in Congress that he and Jeffries worked on together.
Booker also encouraged the crowd to continue championing democracy in America through storytelling.
“The most important thing right now is that we tell the story of our pain and our purpose,” said Booker to a room filled with creative artists and supporters. “Tell the story of how we made a way out of no way. Tell the story about how we beat impossible odds and accomplished impossible things.”
People like husband-and-wife duo Nelson and Smith have long used storytelling to inspire change.
Twenty-five years ago, Lifetime Achievement Award honorees Nelson and Smith co-founded Firelight Media, chronicling African American history and culture with films about HBCUs, the Freedom Riders, the murder of Emmett Till, the Black Panthers, and many more.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) presented the couple with the March On! Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith are so important. Stanley Nelson is an Emmy award-winning and MacArthur Genius Fellow documentary filmmaker,” said Frost. “Marcia is president of Firelight Media. She is a producer and writer for documentaries and steers mentorship, funding and artistic development for Firelight.”
Before Nelson, director of “We Want the Funk” (2025), and Smith came to the podium, Frost emphasized that many of the Firelight documentaries received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which recently had their funding cut by Congress.
Screened before the gala at Angelika Pop Up at Union Market, Nelson’s “We Want the Funk” is his latest documentary about the evolution of funk music with interviews from George Clinton, Christian McBride, and Marcus Miller.
The title of the movie is from the Parliament/Funkadelic hit and was used to bring Nelson and Smith to the stage as the audience clapped, swayed, and sang to the beat.
“It was a real honor to be able to make these films,” said Nelson about Firelight’s catalog of documentaries. “This is a festival with a purpose.”
Considering the challenges Black and marginalized communities are facing, Smith noted “these are not the easiest times,” but emphasized the power of pushing toward love, justice and joy through art in effecting change.
“We are trying to do our part,” she said.
March On! Festival Day Party Celebrates Unity
After the week of screenings, discussions, honors and other programming, March On! Concluded with a day party on Sept. 21, celebrating art and creativity in the Black community and its influence on greater society.
Attendees, dressed in the Harlem Renaissance-themed attire, networked and danced, and shared stories of Black artists who changed culture.
During the celebration, Bey, March On’s artistic director, honored generations across the African diaspora.
“To the cycle of life of African-ancestored people, to those who have gone on before, to those living and those yet to be born,” she said. “Because they were, we are. Because we are, they will be.”
The day was about more than just partying, but taking in art, having inspiring conversations, and making meaningful connections. The event featured two aerial performances by Chi Akano and a sit-down conversation with author A’Lelia Bundles, Madame C.J. Walker’s great-great-granddaughter.
After, attendees engaged in conversations centered around the artistic development of the Black community and how to use it going forward.
Spoken word artist and arts educator Patrick Washington said the arts are essential in bolstering the Black community.
“Particularly, as Black people, we have gone through so much and [the arts have] been the thing to maintain our sanity,” Washington said during the discussion. “It’s been the thing to maintain and connect our communities— from the drum to the grio— all of these things created a sense of community when it was ripped from us.”
For Irby, the day and weeklong festival was a means of empowering people with information about things they did not know and promoting change.
“To me,” Irby said, “it’s a powerful thing.”