27

TUESDAY

If I had the money to influence presidential pardons, I’d start with Assata Shakur. She was considered by many—including the New Jersey state police and the FBI’s anti-activist COINTEL program—to be the soul of the Black Liberation Army in the early ’70s. She had built quite a file by the time she was pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike for a “broken taillight.” The ensuing shootout claimed the lives of her Zayd Shakur (no relation) and State Trooper Werner Forester. Assata Shakur took two bullets—one of them in the back after surrendering—and served six years of a life sentence before escaping to political asylum in Cuba in 1984. Afro-Cuban director Gloria Rolando interviews the exile in Eyes of the Rainbow, likening Shakur to Yoruban Orisha Oya, goddess of the ancestors, war, cemeteries, and rainbows. The screening and related presentations begin at 6 p.m. at Martin Luther King Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW. Free. (202) 756-4100. (Colin Bane)