Our Next Event: Welcome to Shelbyville

AETN and UALR Public Radio/KUAR FM 89.1 invite the public to a free screening of “Welcome to Shelbyville” as part of Community Cinema Tuesday, May 23, at 6 p.m. at Roosevelt Thompson Library in Little Rock.

"Welcome to Shelbyville" is a rare, inside look at America at a crossroads. In a small Tennessee town in the heart of the Bible Belt, a community grapples with rapidly changing demographics. Just a stone’s throw away from Pulaski, Tenn. (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan), Shelbyville’s longtime African-American and white residents are challenged with how best to integrate with a burgeoning Latino population and the more recent arrival of hundreds of Somali refugees of Muslim faith.

Set on the eve of the 2008 Presidential election, the film captures the interaction between Shelbyville’s old and new residents as they search for a way to live together during that tumultuous, history-changing year.

The economy was in crisis, factories were closing, and jobs were hard to find. The local Tyson chicken plant was hiring hundreds of new Somali refugees, and when a local reporter initiated a series of articles about these newcomers, a flurry of controversy and debate erupted within the town. Just as the town’s Latino population began to struggle with their own immigrant identity, African-American residents looked back at their segregated past, balancing perceived threats to their livelihood and security against the values that they learned through their own long struggle for civil rights.

While the newcomers, mostly of Muslim faith, attempt to make new lives for themselves and their children, leaders in this deeply religious community attempt to guide their congregations through this period of unprecedented change.

Through the vibrant and colorful characters of Shelbyville, the film explores immigrant integration and the interplay between race, religion and identity in a changing America, creating an intimate portrayal of a community’s struggle to understand what it means to be American.

The screening will be held at Roosevelt Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle off Chenal Parkway in Little Rock. A community discussion will be held following the screening. More information is available by calling AETN at 800-662-2386 or visiting www.aetn.org/engage.

"Welcome to Shelbyville" will air Wednesday, May 25, at 7 p.m. on AETN-3 PLUS/World and Sunday, May 29, at 11 p.m. on AETN-1.