PebbleCreek Dems support Harriet film fundraiser

Dozens of members of the PC Democratic Club join other Dems to hear Dr. Geraldine Peten, D-CD4, and to see the film Harriet prior to its release.

Dozens of members of the PC Democratic Club join other Dems to hear Dr. Geraldine Peten, D-CD4, and to see the film Harriet prior to its release.

Alisa Moore

One hundred local Democrats came out to see the not-yet released film Harriet and support Legislative District 13’s fundraising efforts to support election activities in 2020. Thanks to the PebbleCreek Democratic Club, Democrats of Festival, Democrats of Verrado, Democrats of Wickenburg, LD4 Democrats, and LD21 Democrats for supporting this very successful event and fundraiser lead by LD13 Democrats!

Attendees were honored by the words of Rep. Dr. Geraldine (Gerae) Peten and inspired by the courage, determination, and character of Harriet Tubman.

Geraldine Peten, an educator from Goodyear, is one of the newest members of the Arizona House of Representatives. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed her to the House seat vacated by former Rep. Jesus Rubalcava, D-Gila Bend. She represents Legislative District 4, which sprawls from parts of Goodyear and Buckeye to Tucson and Yuma.

Supervisor Steve Gallardo nominated Peten, noting her long career in education. She has been the superintendent of a rural Arizona school district, an administrator at several schools and has a doctoral degree in education. She runs an education consulting business today.

Harriet is a biographical film about slave-turned-abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Directed by Kasi Lemmons, who wrote the screenplay with Gregory Allen Howard, it stars Cynthia Erivo as Tubman, with Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe in supporting roles. The film depicts a young, fiery Tubman, who escaped slavery only to return to the South repeatedly as a conductor known as “Moses” on the Underground Railroad.

With thrillerlike pacing and daring plantation runs, the film charts Tubman’s evolution from an illiterate slave to an abolitionist who helped roughly 70 slaves reach freedom through a network of safe houses and Union spy during the Civil War.

Attendees even received a tasty piece of cake and a mock-up of the $20 bill featuring Tubman that was supposed to be produced by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving beginning in 2020 as part of the regular circulation of bills but which the GOP administration delayed for at least six years. For more information on that decision, please see: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/us/politics/harriet-tubman-bill.html.

For more information on the PC Dem Club, please visit pcdemclub.org and for information on LD13, the Democratic umbrella organization, visit https://www.azld13democrats.org/.