Please write to info@thejusticeartscoalition.org if you have an event for us to share!
Events can also be found on our Google calendar.
#PrisonersToo: Incarcerated Survivors Speak Out
Sept. 23, 2021
11am – 12pm PT; 2pm – 3pm EST
A Window Between Worlds invites you to participate in the free, virtual public unveiling of #PrisonersToo, Just Detention International’s new campaign to support incarcerated survivors’ participation in the #MeToo movement. Since going viral in 2017, the #MeToo campaign has helped countless sexual abuse survivors break their silence. Yet survivors inside prisons and jails have remained invisible, unable to use the social media platforms that made #MeToo a global phenomenon. JDI’s #PrisonersToo campaign gives incarcerated people a space to share their own #MeToo stories — and people like you the chance to support them. Register here.
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Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Sept 17 – Dec 11, 2021.
“Marking Time” features works that bear witness to artists’ experimentation with, and reimagining of the fundamentals of, living under punitive governance as they push the possibilities of these basic features of daily experience to create new visions of justice and healing. The resulting work is often laborious, time-consuming and immersive, as incarcerated artists manage penal time through their works and experiment with the material constraints that shape artmaking in prison.
Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham will host the major exhibition exploring the works of artists within prisons in the United States and the centrality of incarceration to contemporary art and culture. Featuring art made by people in prisons and works by nonincarcerated artists concerned with state repression, erasure and imprisonment, “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” highlights more than 30 artists. Including JAC network artists who were featured in Marking Time at MoMAPs1 last year and will be featured in this traveling exhibition: Conor Broderick, James Sepesi, Cedar Annenkovna, Will Livingston, Amber Daniel, Gary Harrell, Aimee Wissman, Rowan Renee, along with JAC network friends Russell Craig, Halim Flowers, and James Yaya Hough.
Associated Public Programs:
Sept. 17, 2021
AEIVA opening night panel discussion, “Marking Time”
6-8 pm CT
Join AEIVA for an opening night panel discussion with artists Tameca Cole, George Anthony Morton, Maria Gaspar and Dean Gillispie for “Marking Time,” a major exhibition exploring the works of artists within United States prisons and the centrality of incarceration to contemporary art and culture. Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Oct. 7, 2021
AEIVA’s “Outside the Lines: Tameca Cole”
7 – 8 pm CT
Birmingham visual artist and writer Tameca Cole will conduct a collage workshop at AEIVA. Cole’s work is featured in “Marking Time.” Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Oct. 12, 2021
“State of Alabama Prisons, Past and Present”
6 – 7 pm CT
Join AEIVA for a lively panel discussion with journalists, educators and advocates discussing the impact of the carceral state in Alabama. Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Oct. 21, 2021
“AEIVA Movie and a Tour Night”
6 pm CT
Join AEIVA staff for a tour of current exhibitions, followed by a film screening and discussion related to AEIVA’s current exhibition “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Tour starts at 6 p.m.
Oct. 28, 2021
“Chamber Music @ AEIVA: Marking Time”
5:30 pm CT
Free chamber music performed by some of Alabama’s top musicians and thoughtfully curated in response to artworks currently on display in AEIVA’s current exhibition, “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Presented by AEIVA and the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music. Organized by Laura Usiskin, cellist for the Alabama Symphony.
Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Nov. 10, 2021
“Mass Incarceration on Trial”
6 pm CT
UAB’s Mock Trial team and Brandon L. Blankenship, director of the Pre-Law Program in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Criminal Justice, is partnering with UAB advocacy students to bring the “Marking Time” exhibit to life in a showcase mock trial. The hybrid event will be held at AEIVA and virtually via Zoom. Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Nov. 11, 2021
“Spoken Word at AEIVA”
6 – 7 pm CT
Readings created by and read by UAB’s Department of English students with select readings from the Jefferson County Memorial Project blog by alumni of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Youth Legacy program. Registration is required to attend this event virtually. Register online.
Dec. 1, 2021
“Men’s Training, A Special Reading”
6 pm CT
“Theatre’s Call to Action,” a Birmingham Southern College course, will present a special reading of “Men’s Training” by Daoud Boone, a playwright who is incarcerated at Limestone Correctional Facility. Registration is required to attend this virtual event. Register online.
Dec. 7, 2o21
Virtual AEIVA “Marking Time” Closing Event
6 – 7:30 pm CT
Join AEIVA for an engaging discussion with several artists featured in the “Marking Time” exhibition focusing on centering incarceration in their art. Moderated by curator Nicole Fleetwood, Ph.D. Registration is required to attend this virtual event. Register online.
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Free Your Mind: Art and Incarceration in Michigan
Aug. 28 – Dec. 12, 2021
Free Your Mind: Art and Incarceration in Michigan invites us to consider the transformative qualities of art, while also grappling with the carceral system and the many ways it affects the lives of all of us. The exhibition centers on four key topics of inquiry: Michigan’s length of sentencing and overcrowding in prisons; the impact of incarceration on women; youth incarceration; and the dangers of COVID-19. Free Your Mind features artists, poets, and storytellers of great achievement. The majority of these artists are either currently or formerly incarcerated. Their works on view invite us to consider the role art-making plays in prisons as a liberating force, and offer unique perspectives on the experience of incarceration. The works also invite us to approach the subject of incarceration with an open mind. Free Your Mind aims to cultivate a greater sense of empathy for those directly impacted by incarceration and an understanding that their growth as individuals is linked to the greater health of the society we all live in, together.
Associated Public Programs:
Sept. 26, 2021
Public Philosophy Journal: Respond to Incarceration in the US, Session I
3 – 5 pm EST
Modeled after a write-in-style campaign, this drop-in workshop will be an opportunity for community members to reflect on and respond to the incarceration-related exhibitions at the MSU Broad Art Museum. In a structured and supportive space, prompts, discussion, and guidance will be offered for participants to process their reactions, respond to each other, and develop a contribution for potential publication in the Public Philosophy Journal. Registration for this free event is required. Register here.
Oct. 16, 2021
Free Your Mind Curator Tour
2 – 3 pm EST
Behind every exhibition there are many people, stories, and histories to share. Janie Paul, co-curator of the Free Your Mind exhibition, is a thirty-plus year veteran of working with artists who have experienced incarceration—and many who still remain behind bars. Join Janie to learn about the exhibition, her work, and how art-making in prison can be a form of resistance and liberation. Registration for this free event is required. Register here.
Oct. 22, 2021
Broad Underground Film Series: Tracked and Traced
7 – 9 pm EST
Join MSU Film Studies Director Kaveh Askari and Antajuan Scott, Head of Programming at Science Gallery, for Broad Underground: Tracked and Traced, a screening featuring films exploring mass incarceration and surveillance in the United States. Registration for this free event is required. Register here.
Oct. 24, 2021
Public Philosophy Journal: Respond to Incarceration in the US, Session II
3 – 5 pm EST
Modeled after a write-in-style campaign, this drop-in workshop will be an opportunity for community members to reflect on and respond to the incarceration-related exhibitions at the MSU Broad Art Museum. In a structured and supportive space, prompts, discussion, and guidance will be offered for participants to process their reactions, respond to each other, and develop a contribution for potential publication in the Public Philosophy Journal. Registration for this free event is required. Register here.
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Steppin’ Into My Shoes
Sept. 11, 18, and 25 at 3pm
Broadcasting live on WRFI (88.1 Ithaca, 91.9FM Watkins Glen or www.wrfi.org).
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Speaking Volumes
Sept. 30, 2021
9:30 – 11:00 am EST
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. They primarily work with youth of color who have experienced trauma. They have 26 years of experience facilitating poetry writing with youth, as well as training educators on our uniquely effective trauma-informed teaching approach.
Speaking Volumes is their second annual fall celebration.
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Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration
“Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration” considers the foundational roots of confinement from an art historical perspective to better understand the fact that today’s mass incarceration crisis is centuries in the making. The exhibition explores how images throughout time contribute to entrenched cultural beliefs associated with today’s carceral system. The exhibition includes 12 never-before-seen, commissioned artworks from contemporary artists whose work combines history, research and storytelling in material form. Miki Garcia, director of the ASU Art Museum, says, “This exhibition was inspired by filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s strategy in her documentary “13th,” which uses history as a lens to understand present-day phenomena and as a way to trace how legacies of the past persist to this day.”
“Undoing Time” opens at the ASU Art Museum Sept. 1.
Associated Public Programs:
All programming is free and open to the public. Please RSVP for each program you are interested in attending.
Sept. 10, 2021
Opening Celebration
10–11 am MST; 12-1 pm EST. ASU Art Museum
Join ASU Art Museum leadership, curators and exhibiting artists for the unveiling of “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration.” Meet and hear from those involved and get a behind-the-scenes tour of the exhibition to hear unique perspectives from the artists and curators.
Sponsored by La Bohemia
Sept. 10, 2021
“Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration”: Artist Panel
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. Mirabella. Or attend virtually.
A lively conversation with the artists and curators, this will be an opportunity to learn more about the artistic process, various themes and pertinent questions raised by this urgent exhibition.
Sept. 21, 2021
Abolition 101
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. Virtual.
A public conversation with Arizona-based grassroots organization Mass Liberation AZ, this workshop and discussion addresses the future of abolition, dream and practice. This event is free and open to the public and centers on student engagement and interaction.
This program is organized in collaboration with the ASU Art Museum, Performance in the Borderlands, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Social Transformation Lab.
Sept. 22, 2021
Journalists Reporting on Justice: Who Pays the Price for Righting Wrongs?
3 pm MST; 5 pm EST. Bateman Physical Science Building F-Wing Room 173.
Laura Gómez: Reporter, AZ Mirror
This “Seeking Justice” in Arizona program is organized by the ASU School of Social Transformation’s Fall Lecture Series. Further details here.
Sept. 30, 2021
Undoing Time Roundtable: The Curatorial Perspective
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. ASU Art Museum. Or attend virtually.
ASU Art Museum Director Miki Garcia, Senior Curator Julio Cesar Morales, Curator Emeritus Heather Sealy Lineberry and ASU/LACMA Fellow Matthew Villar Miranda
Join us for a guided tour of the exhibition by the curatorial team who organized this project. Afterward, participate in a roundtable discussion on the research and processes that brought this exhibition together and learn more about the artists and about the artwork on view.
Oct. 13, 2021
Building a Justice System Where NO One is Left Behind
3 pm MST; 5 pm EST. Bateman Physical Science Building F-Wing Room 173.
January Contreras: Founder, Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services (ALWAYS)
This “Seeking Justice” in Arizona program is organized by the ASU School of Social Transformation’s Fall Lecture Series. Further details here.
Oct. 19, 2021
Arts and Liberation
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. ASU Art Museum. Or attend virtually.
Participate in a public conversation about the unique contribution of artistic and cultural practice toward a vision for social change. Hear from grassroots organizers for Mass Liberation; artists Sandra de la Loza, Carolina Aranibar-Fernández and Xaviera Simmons; and faculty who explore the ways symbolic and creative interventions can shape imaginations for what is possible.
This program is organized in collaboration with the ASU Art Museum, Performance in the Borderlands, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Social Transformation Lab.
October 28, 2021
Undoing Time Roundtable: Mass Incarceration and Immigrant Policing in Arizona: Voices of Resistance
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. ASU Art Museum. Or attend virtually.
Dr. Leah Sarat, associate professor of religious studies in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, and local activist organizations
Dr. Leah Sarat will lead a discussion about the struggle for immigrant rights in Arizona and the ties between incarceration, immigrant detention, and police violence in the state, with attention to cross-movement organizing and strategies for community healing. She will be joined by representatives from local activist organizations, including Puente and others.
Nov. 13, 2021
We Occupy/We Dis-cover
1–4 pm MST; 3 – 7 pm EST. ASU Art Museum.
Gregory Sale, associate professor in the School of Art, and Julio César Morales, senior curator at ASU Art Museum
In response to and part of the exhibition, a group of community justice scholars, artists and ASU graduate students will take over the museum to unseat, dis-locate and de-center notions of safety, imprisonment and control. Visit us and participate in a day of interventions, conversations and performances. After engaging in this transformative community work focused on mass incarceration, participants will leave with full hearts and minds. Organizers of this event are enrolled in ASU School of Art’s Art and Justice course, (ARA 591) taught by Gregory Sale and Julio César Morales.
Jan. 20, 2022
“Undoing Time” Roundtable
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. ASU Art Museum. Or attend virtually.
Natalie Diaz, Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Associate Professor
Stay tuned for more information.
Feb. 3, 2022
Undoing Time Roundtable: Critical Witnessing
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST. ASU Art Museum. Or attend virtually.
Vice Provost and Professor Tiffany Lopez
Join Vice Provost and Professor Tiffany Lopez in a roundtable discussion about “critical witnessing.” This is a term Dr. Lopez coined to describe the process of stepping into a space of personal and/or social transformation as the direct result of experiencing a work of art that clarifies that one is part of the continuum of the work. Critical witnessing is the experience of seeing a work of art and realizing you do not want to directly participate in or indirectly perpetuate the history of violence and trauma in an artwork. The experience of the work brings a shift from passive viewer to active witness with critical awareness, emerging toward a path of change.
Feb. 8, 2022
Dreaming Beyond the Carceral State
6 pm MST; 8 pm EST Virtual.
Ashley Hunt and Juan Brenner with organizers from Mass Liberation
What would it look like to live in a world without prisons? Join artists Ashley Hunt and Juan Brenner, with organizers from Mass Liberation, for a public conversation considering possibilities for justice and fairness that do not include a prison system.
This program is organized in collaboration with the ASU Art Museum, Performance in the Borderlands, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Social Transformation Lab.
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25th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners
The Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners is one of the largest exhibitions of art by incarcerated artists in the country. Each year, faculty, staff and students from the University of Michigan travel to correctional facilities across Michigan and select work for the exhibition while providing feedback and critique that strengthens artist’s work and builds community around art making inside prisons.
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Meet Us Quickly: Painting for Justice from Prison
A Digital Exhibition
Museum of the African Diaspora is proud to present Meet Us Quickly: Painting for Justice from Prison, an exhibition of the work of twelve artists incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. The twenty-one works in the exhibition include linocut prints, acrylic paintings, ink drawings on paper, and collage and are organized and curated by Prison Renaissance co-founder Rahsaan “New York” Thomas. Eclectic in influence, certain works in this exhibition nod to pointillism and neo-constructivism while others honor the importance of Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance. These artists maintain significant artistic practices spanning diverse techniques and subjects. The works are presented with accompanying statements written by each artist, allowing these incarcerated men to speak for themselves and share their vision and perspectives in their own words.
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
On September 17, join JAC in NYC to celebrate the opening of Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration at MoMA PS1! Eight artists in JAC’s national network will have works on display in this exhibition, which runs through April 4. More details on the opening event to come. For general info about the exhibit, click here.
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Chosen Family: Marking Time Artist Talks with Mary Baxter
Every other Thursday through April 1, 12 p.m. EST
2021 means something new. We invited artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter to host a series of online conversations with her fellow artists in Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. These lunchtime chats bring a wide range of voices into dialogue to consider how bonds are forged through and around creative practice in the face of state-imposed separation.
This Thursday, January 7, Baxter will be in discussion with artists Jesse Krimes, Jared Owens, and Gilberto Rivera, who formed a deep friendship centered by their art practice while incarcerated.
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Amplify Music’s weekly live-streamed concert – Amplify TV
AmplifyTV is a safe, inclusive space for live-streamed music in the face of a global pandemic and beyond. We emphasize booking musicians with prior justice involvement. Following each show, a video recording is sent to juvenile facilities around Virginia. Shows are publicly live-streamed each Thursday at 8pm. A donation of $10 is encouraged and all earnings from each show will be divided between Amplify Music and the performer(s).
Amplify Music is hosting weekly livestreamed concerts through Amplify TV and they are looking for performers, especially individuals who were formerly incarcerated. These are free events, and donations received during the concert are split between the performers and Amplify Music! Please sign-up through this form.
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Drama Therapy Group
Thursdays ongoing: February 18, March 18, April 15, May 20
9:30 AM-10:30 AM, Zoom, Free of Charge
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Artists Dismantling Capitalism
Donations of $5-100 are encouraged to help cover the costs of the conference and to pay artists (prioritizing BIPOC artists)
This free/donation based Symposium offers 17 sessions facilitated by artists, community members and scholars. Sessions will focus on a wide range of topics including theater, music cooperatives, decolonizing the body, Hip Hop, Solidarity Economics, spirituality and more. Each session offers a glimpse into the use of artistic and creative practice in re-imaging and creating a new society based on a Solidarity Economy. In addition to local community members and artists, the conference will feature visiting facilitators including Kwame Braxton and Shambe Jones of Cooperation Jackson, MS., Nati Linares of New Economy Network, David Ferris of the Highlander Center and more. This year’s symposium will also mark the virtual launch of “Just Imagine,” a public art show featuring pieces imagining a just transition to tomorrow’s world (Info to submit a piece below). Since our symposium will be online this year, we will continue the tradition of feeding folks by gathering non-perishable food through a food drive that will be distributed through our Little Free Pantry network.
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Stun & Run: Women’s Self Defense
Sun, Apr 25 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Want to remove the word VICTIM from your vocabulary? Then sign up for STUN & RUN- a workshop designed exclusively for women who want to learn what they can do to protect themselves on an everyday basis. Created by Master Dora King, one of the highest ranking women martial artists in the country, this workshop will give you the tools to make self defense a way of life. The workshop will include both practice of blocks and defensive techniques as well as discussion of vital spots and striking points.
This workshop is open to girls and women of all ages. Wear comfortable clothing.
Meet the Instructor:
Master Dora King is a 7th degree Black Belt with King Karate and has trained in the martial arts for 35 years. She is the Director of Youth Karate-Ka Association; a non-profit which provides at risk youth an opportunity to train in the martial arts and healthy life choices. She also Co-Founded the Harvesting Earth Educational Farm designed to introduce local, organic food as a part of our healthy life choices. Dora founded the Stun & Run Self Defense system in an effort to offer females an opportunity to train with other females in a safe and supportive atmosphere.
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Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
September 17, 2020 – April 04, 2021
MoMA PS1
As its first exhibition upon reopening to the public, MoMA PS1 will present a major exhibition exploring the work of artists within US prisons and the centrality of incarceration to contemporary art and culture, on view from September 17, 2020 through April 4, 2021. Featuring art made by people in prisons and work by nonincarcerated artists concerned with state repression, erasure, and imprisonment, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration highlights more than 35 artists, including American Artist, Tameca Cole, Russell Craig, Maria Gaspar, James “Yaya” Hough, Jesse Krimes, Mark Loughney, Gilberto Rivera, and Sable Elyse Smith. The exhibition has been updated to reflect the growing COVID-19 crisis in US prisons, featuring new works by exhibition artists made in response to this ongoing emergency. Alongside the exhibition, a series of public programs, education initiatives, and ongoing projects at MoMA PS1 will explore the social and cultural impact of mass incarceration.
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INCCIP’s 3rd Biennial Virtual Conference
September 29, 2021 through October 01, 2021. Early Registration information will be posted soon.
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Cosmic Cowboy
Spring 2022
Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage Boston
You are the lone cowboy Silhouetted against your comet’s fiery tail Riding the endless cosmos Into the deepest darkness.
Inspired by the historic landing of the space probe Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Cosmic Cowboy explores the origins of the universe beginning at the Big Bang when the universe is formed by the mating of the Sumerian gods, Tiamat and Apsu. It traverses the mystery of time and space, through wormholes, black holes and alternate universes, until it comes full circle into the ultimate mystery – the human heart. Tia, Tiamat’s daughter, befriends the robotic probe and together, they confront the Astronaut from the spaceship Mayflower sent to retrieve the robot and to capture Tia, the first extra-terrestial known to us.
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Monkey: A Kung Fu Parable
2022
Boston
A new look at old Monkey, the greatest quest hero from ancient times
With his comrades-in-arms, Zhu, a heavenly Marshall reincarnated into a Pig for his evil, gluttonous ways, and Sha, once a princess, now a sand monster who devours unwary travellers, this unlikely trio journeys west. They become disciples and protectors of the Monk sent by Buddha to retrieve the holy Sutras in the hopes that this journey will bring each of them their own personal salvation. An ancient Wizard of Oz tale for our times.