NBCI Arts Initiative
Tickets Now Available: 2025 March On! Festival
Our annual festival returns with a bold and urgent theme: March On! Health: The Right to Be Well.
We are exploring critical topics including disability justice, gendered healthcare, the politics of rest, access, and survival. Because healthcare is not a privilege. It is a civil right.
With more ways than ever to experience the festival — including screenings, workshops, panels, and live events — now is the time to get involved.
Reserve your pass today and be part of a creative, justice-driven movement where art speaks truth and community comes together.
Festival Pass Options
Early Bird Pricing Available Through August 16
All Access Pass — $600
Includes all March On! Festival activities and the Opening Night Gala
Festival + Closing Event Pass — $160
Includes all March On! Festival activities and the Closing Event
(Opening Night Gala not included)
Festival Pass — $85
Includes access to all March On! Festival activities
Virtual Pass — $25
Includes access to on-demand films and select livestream events from home
To view the full festival schedule and purchase passes, visit marchonfest.org/festival.
Events You Won’t Want to Miss at This Year’s Festival
The 2025 March On! Festival features a bold lineup of films, conversations, performances, and panels that center civil rights, health equity, and creative expression blending bold truth with joy, culture, and the liberatory power of funk. Join us for these unforgettable events:
The Quiet Word: A Reading Salon
In-Person | Monday, September 15 | 6:00 - 8:00
PM ET
We're starting this year's festival with a relaxed community reading experience. Ease into the week with an afternoon of calm, connection, and quiet reflection. Bring a book you love, enjoy mellow music, sip herbal tea, and share space with fellow readers.
Browse featured picks from our 2025 March On! Reading List and discover your next great read.
Opening Night Awards Gala
In-Person | Tuesday, September 16 | Doors Open: 6:30 PM ET
Tickets: $500 | Included with Festival + Gala Pass
Celebrate visionary leaders shaping the civil rights narrative through art, policy, and activism. The evening includes award presentations and a funk-infused celebration.
Honorees:
- Senator Cory Booker, U.S. Senator, New Jersey
- Stanley Nelson, Filmmaker and Co-Founder, Firelight Media
- Marcia Smith, Writer/Producer and President, Firelight Media
Host: Jonathan Capehart, Pulitzer Prize–winning Journalist, MSNBC Anchor, and Washington Post Columnist
We Want the Funk! with Filmmaker Stanley Nelson
In-Person | Tuesday, September 16 | 5:00 – 6:30 PM ET
For Gala Attendees Only
Kick off the festival with an exclusive screening of We Want the Funk!, a high-energy exploration of the roots and cultural power of funk music. The evening sets the tone for a celebration rooted in sound, movement, and history.
Featuring:
Stanley Nelson, Emmy Award–winning Filmmaker and Co-Founder, Firelight Media
The Road Ahead: March On! Health — The Right to Be Well
Virtual | Wednesday, September 17 | 6:00 – 7:15 PM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Festival Pass
This timely discussion explores the intersection of race, power, and health equity in America. Leading medical experts will share insights on how to drive meaningful change in the healthcare system.
Featuring:
- Dr. Aletha Maybank, CEO and Co-Founder, Truthlight Studio; Former Chief Health Equity Officer, AMA
- Dr. Uché Blackstock, Founder and CEO, Advancing Health Equity; Author, Legacy
- Dr. Joel Bervell, Medical Educator and Content Creator, known as Instagram’s “Medical Mythbuster”
The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents into a Dollar)
In-Person | Wednesday, September 17 | 7:30 PM Doors | 8:00 PM Show
Location: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Not Included in Festival Pass
Tickets Purchased Directly From Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Use Code MARCH30 for Discount
Philadelphia’s African Baptist Church, 1832: a mother and daughter guard the grave of their husband and father to deter resurrectionists from pillaging it for science. Today, on the same grounds: another mother and daughter work as counselors at what is now a summer camp. Timelines collide, reminding us to find joy in our present even as we exhume buried past. The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) is a darkly comic play about our nation’s long practice of harming Black bodies in the name of scientific progress, our responsibility to time, and the role joy plays in living with a history we cannot change.
Written by: Nia Akilah Robinson
Join us for March On! Health: The Great Privation, a post-show panel discussion about the play’s themes and their connection to contemporary health issues.
We are excited to partner on these events with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, which produces courageous and invigorating new work to radically redefine theatre as a catalyst for an equitable, creative, and engaged society.
The Well: Talking Hands — An Intro to ASL Workshop
In-Person and Virtual | Friday, September 19 | 12:15 – 12:45 PM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Student Pass
Learn foundational American Sign Language while exploring its cultural significance and role in healthcare accessibility.
Featuring: Interpret This!
The Well: Disability, Health, and Justice
In-Person and Virtual | Friday, September 19 | 1:00 – 2:30 PM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Festival Pass
Explore how disability law, reproductive access, and structural barriers intersect. This panel highlights current challenges and solutions in disability health equity.
Featuring:
- Dara Baldwin, Author, To Be a Problem: A Black Woman's Survival in the Racist Disability Rights Movement; Disability Rights Advocate
The Well: Grown Folk Talk — Issues in Women’s Health
In-Person and Virtual | Friday, September 19 | 3:00 – 3:50 PM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Festival Pass
A candid panel on women’s health that centers lived experiences and clinical insights across the reproductive lifespan.
Featuring:
- Dr. Sharon Malone, Chief Medical Officer, Alloy Women’s Health
- Linda Goler Blount, President and CEO, Community Catalyst
The Well: Grown Folk Talk — Issues in Men’s Health
In-Person and Virtual | Friday, September 19 | 4:00 – 4:50 PM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Festival Pass
This session addresses health issues disproportionately impacting Black men, including chronic illness, stigma, and access to care.
Featuring:
- Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Albany Road Film Screening and Panel
In-Person | Friday, September 19 | Start: 6:30 PM ET
Tickets: Free
Albany Road follows a woman on an unexpected journey toward healing. A post-screening discussion unpacks themes of grief, aging, and transformation.
Featuring:
- Lisa Arrindell, Actress
- Christine Swanson, Director
Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competition
In-Person | Saturday, September 20 | 10:00 AM ET
Tickets: $10 | Included with Festival Pass
Celebrate new voices in film as student and emerging creators share short documentaries exploring civil rights, equity, and justice.
Hosted by: Opal Hope Bennett
Nap Ministry Presents: Napping as Resistance: Rest as a Tool for Collective Liberation
In-Person | Saturday, September 20 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM ET
Tickets: $25
This immersive experience challenges toxic productivity and affirms rest as a tool for liberation and healing.
Featuring: Tricia Hersey, Founder, The Nap Ministry; Author, Rest is Resistance and her most recent book, We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape
Vivian Malone Courage Award Ceremony
In-Person and Virtual | Saturday, September 20 | 7:00 PM ET
Tickets: $65
This biennial award honors those who lead with truth, courage, and justice in the spirit of Vivian Malone Jones.
Honoree: Joy-Ann Reid, journalist, author, and host of The Joy Reid Show
In Conversation With: The Honorable Eric Holder, 82nd U.S. Attorney General
Presented by: Dr. Sharon Malone, OB/GYN and Chief Medical Officer, Alloy Women’s Health
Closing Event: Dark Tower Day Party — A Harlem Renaissance Experience
In-Person | Sunday, September 21 | 1:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Tickets: $80
Celebrate the festival’s close with music, spoken word, and dance inspired by A’Lelia Walker’s legendary salons. Pop-up performances along with heavy hors d'oeuvres and libations will transport you to a place where storied personalities once exchanged ideas and challenged the status quo.
Featuring:
- A’Lelia Bundles, Author, Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance
- Dr. Msia Kibona Clark, Associate Professor of African Studies, Howard University
Support the 2025 March On!™ Festival
March On! is a year-round platform using film,
music, and art to amplify civil rights and inspire action. To keep this work going, we need your support.
Whether through sponsorship, a donation, or volunteering, your involvement helps power this transformational experience and strengthens the movement.
Our Contact Information
March On!
525 9th St NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20004
202-841-9249
