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Steve Melvin

On June 26, 2020 By jelsawaf

Steve Melvin creates greeting cards for different occasions.

I just look at the paper and draw. It has been that way for a long time.

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

Steve Melvin

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PO Box 8261
Silver Spring, MD 20907

info@thejusticeartscoalition.org

the_justice_arts_coalition

Community, opportunities, and resources for artists working in & around carceral settings.
Based in Silver Spring, MD
Link in bio to donate!

A Voice from the Inside ... “All my life I’ve

A Voice from the Inside
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“All my life I’ve been a drug addict, at least since I was 13 years old. What caused me to come down this life road?
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IDOC # 101969 Inmate Daniel, I was supposed to be somebody special. Not some loser.
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What makes me a loser? Societies views, and harsh opinions do…
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In the eyes of the law I’m nothing more than a criminal. A bad person, with a history of lying to the police. I’ve only ever been who I am, but who am i?
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The best part about being human, is the ability to change.
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Maybe I was a loser once, a drug addict who lied to the police. I have committed crimes. I’ve done, bought, and sold, I’ve slammed, smoked, snorted, even ate all types of drugs.
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I’ve stolen, borrowed, and used, I’ve been stolen from, robbed, mugged, and raped, I’ve been molested in my youth.
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I’ve given and I’ve taken all types of abuse. I’ve hated, and I’ve loved, I’ve built and I’ve broken. I’ve hoped and I’ve hurt, had and I’ve lost.
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I’ve been dirty, and homeless, alone, and now found, I’ve been clean, and I’ve cried, I’ve lived, and i’ve died, I’ve tried and I’ve failed, I’ve been numb, and I’ve felt.
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I’ve been beaten, and I’ve won… I’ve come and I’ve gone, and damn it I’m back again.
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I can’t change the things that have already happened, but being human I can change who I am going to become.
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Faith is believing in what you can’t see. At this moment life isn’t easy for me but that doesn’t mean anything. I just have to keep believing, and continue to be me.”

🎨 and 📃 by Amber Daniel

#incarceration #prisonart #art #transformthesystem #incarceratedartists #prisonabolition

This Wednesday, join us for a workshop on virtual

This Wednesday, join us for a workshop on virtual Theatre-making with Raina Greifer! ⁣Link for info + tickets in our bio 🎭
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This workshop will explore how theatre makers can adapt and create work specially fitted for digital mediums. The fate of our theatres are largely uncertain, and performers and creators are being asked to produce online as an alternative. We will be looking at platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Social Media platforms, and Google Drive as potential ways to create experimental and innovative pieces that can thrive as we social distance.⁣
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Raina Greifer (she/her) is a theatre maker, spoken word performer, and visual artist. She is currently studying Drama and Philosophy at Bath Spa University in England. Her work explores sexual assault, queer identity, and teen heartthrobes. She is a co-founder of Purple Crayon Productions, a theatre group based in Silver Spring, MD and Dog Eat Dog theatre, based in Bath, UK. Creating vibrant, vulnerable and oftentimes humorous work, Raina engages her audience to consider their preconceived notions of femininity and female identity.

#theatre #theater #virtualtheatre #workshop #art

The Prison Policy Initiative highlights the educat

The Prison Policy Initiative highlights the educational exclusion and attainment among formerly incarcerated people. Throughout their lives, people who serve time in prison are held back from educational opportunities, making it nearly impossible to earn the credentials they need to succeed after release. Using data from the National Former Prisoner Survey, this report reveals that formerly incarcerated people are often relegated to the lowest rungs of the educational ladder; more than half hold only a high school diploma or GED, and a quarter hold no credential at all. While incarcerated, and even after release from prison, we find that people rarely get the chance to make up for the educational opportunities from which they’ve been excluded — opportunities that impact their chances of reentry success.
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Before going to prison, many formerly incarcerated people are subject to punitive practices in schools and neighborhoods that funnel them out of school and into juvenile and criminal justice system involvement; this process has been characterized as a “school-to-prison pipeline.” But the problem doesn’t end there. As our analysis shows, their educational exclusion persists during and after incarceration. At the same time that criminalized youth are pushed out of traditional schooling, high school (and increasingly college) credentials are becoming essential for employment
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It is nearly impossible for formerly incarcerated job seekers to compete in an economy that increasingly demands highly skilled, credentialed workers.The combination of educational exclusion, history of incarceration, race, and gender contributes to much higher rates of unemployment for formerly incarcerated people of color without high school credentials. Women of color face the highest unemployment rates: 60% of Black women who don’t have a high school diploma or GED, and nearly half of Hispanic women, are unemployed.

#transformthesystem #incarceration #justice #education #prisonart #prisonabolition

Help support the Justice Arts Coalition by donatin

Help support the Justice Arts Coalition by donating to our #GOFUNDME! JAC is building a nationwide collective of people who are committed to increasing opportunities for creative expression in carceral settings and shaping public dialogue around the intersection of the #arts and #justice.
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With your donation, we are better able to address challenges we mutually face, share insights and best practices, and develop strategies to increase arts engagement within the system as well as fund artists on the inside to send art or correspondence. Your donation will continue to support the Justice Arts Coalition in strengthening our infrastructure and providing services to our community both on the inside and within our network.
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Thank you for your support!

#prisonart #transformthesystem #incarceratedartists #prisonart #prisonabolition

“The pARTners Project has given me that one-on-o

“The pARTners Project has given me that one-on-one guidance, advice, encouragement, and even inspiration to not only continue in productive, positive activities, but to reach beyond any limitation or erroneous public perceptions held about inmates.” - Gary Farlow

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Connect with and support one of the incredible artists in our network by joining the pARTner Project today! Many artists like Gary are waiting to be paired with YOU to share, communicate, and grow together.

#art #incarceratedartists #partnerproject

Last week we had an incredible workshop conversati

Last week we had an incredible workshop conversation with Kenneth Reams. Check out this month's Artist Spotlight on Kenny for highlights from the event and some of Kenny's art! Link in bio.⁣
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🎨"Solitary" by Kenneth Reams⁣
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We were lucky to connect with Kenny through his work with the Prison Story Project. Kenny was one of the 11 men incarcerated on Arkansas Death Row who wrote PSP’s “On the Row,” a film that JAC screened with our Create+Connect series back in May. After getting to know Kenny and his work, we were honored to host a workshop with him on June 25. Kenny shared his story and thoughts on racism, the injustice of the ‘justice’ system, and capital punishment, and told us how he manages to be such a prolific and powerful creator from his solitary confinement cell, which he calls “the box.”

#art #incarceratedartists #deathpenalty #freekennethreams

Today we celebrate our newest addition to the Teac

Today we celebrate our newest addition to the Teaching Artist Spotlight series. Elia Cadilla has done research for the FILIUS Institute as well as a study about the effect of #theater in the rehabilitation process of women in prison. Cadilla teaches Acting for Film and TV at the University of Sacred Heart, and directs the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Theater Program since late 2001.
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When JAC asked the most rewarding part of working with incarcerated artist, Cadilla explained how there was “No contest there, to see how their lives change completely… I’ve seen people who came from being drug dealers, prostitutes, addicts, gunners for the punto (the drug dealing business), thieves, car hijackers, you name it, become actors, artisans, writers, preachers even… and so they can forgive themselves and start anew.”
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Click the link in our bio to read our blog and hear more about Elia’s experience as a #teachingartist ! #incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart

“After years of fighting to be included in syste

“After years of fighting to be included in systems of domination- the military and marriage, and promoting both of these as a panacea against homophobia/transphobia-we need to get back to our roots: liberation. Law enforcement has always targeted, persecuted, and erased us. It hasn’t stopped, but if you listen to mainstream gay organizations, you would think it has, because these organizations are absent from the fight against mass incarceration and struggle against police violence. Moreover, these organizations promote solutions thet all but ensure that poor queer/trans folk will be accosted by the police. I hope we get back to our roots.”
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🎨 by Edee A Davis

#pridemonth #pride #endmassincarceration #lgbtq🌈 #prisonartwork #prisonartist

Please join us on Wednesday, June 10th, for a Crea

Please join us on Wednesday, June 10th, for a Create + Connect virtual workshop series event— Reify Remote Learning with Jessica Barkl from 4:00 - 5:30 pm EST.
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Reify Remote Learning: Make What is Abstract, More Concrete and Real
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This workshop is for all artists and artist-teachers, who are questioning and desiring to sharpen up the tools they can use in the remote environment. During this 90- minute interactive workshop participants find modalities and “tricks” to use in the classroom that may be on paper, voice-only, on-camera asynchronously, or two- dimensionally synchronously. The workshop will focus on the first questions in this description; discussion; collaboration; and “tricks” discovered by the facilitator since March 13, 2020. The hope is that participants will leave this workshop having found their “voice” as a teacher in this new/abstract world.
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This workshop’s goal is to help our community hit the reset button on what has worked in the past and to find teaching tools that mirror our understanding of our principles of teaching, learning, and art.
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Jessica López-Barkl received her MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College and her BFA in Acting with a Performing Arts Emphasis from Cornish College of the Arts. She is currently an Associate Professor of Theater and Speech as well as the Theater Program Director at SUNY Sullivan. She has taught in the prison system as a professor and as an artist in Albuquerque, NM; Walla Walla, WA; and Sullivan County, NY. She is currently researching and writing about the effects of generational poverty on education and the arts. She is a theater generalist who has worked in Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York. She is the mother of a 2-year-old daughter and a wife. She currently spends her days isolated with her two loves and attempting to cook, work out, teach, and keep everyone happy.
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Please register at https://bit.ly/3cAW8iV #artconnectus #artforliberation #empathy #community #mdartscouncil #teachingartist @teachingartistsguild @teachingartistsmidatlantic @ohprisonartsconnection @cla_arts_law @williamjamesassociation @red_dirt_studio @artejustice @neaarts @mdartscouncil

The Prison Policy Initiative highlights how as pub

The Prison Policy Initiative highlights how as public support for criminal justice reform continues to build, it’s more important than ever that we get the facts straight and understand the big picture. This report offers some much needed clarity by piecing together this country’s disparate systems of confinement.
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This big-picture view allows us to focus on the most important drivers of mass incarceration and identify important, but often ignored, systems of confinement.
While this pie chart provides a comprehensive snapshot of our correctional system, the graphic does not capture the enormous churn in and out of our correctional facilities, nor the far larger universe of people whose lives are affected by the criminal justice system. Every year, over 600,000 people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year. Additionally, at least 1 in 4 people who go to jail will be arrested again within the same year — often those dealing with poverty, mental illness, and substance use disorders, whose problems only worsen with incarceration.
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Focusing on the policy changes that can end mass incarceration, and not just put a dent in it, requires the public to put these issues into perspective.

#incarceration #transformthesystem #prisonart #justice #endmassincarceration

✨“Evenings of Immortality”✨ by Rachel Pete

✨“Evenings of Immortality”✨ by Rachel Peterson.
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“Pain is relieved through the breathe of the trees and the stars dance in glitter and gold”

#art #incarceratedartists #prisonart

✨Can't wait for this Saturday! Come through at 1

✨Can't wait for this Saturday! Come through at 1:30 pm EST for an incredible conversation with Kamisha Thomas, a writer and director who co-founded the Returning Artist's Guild and Ray Palmore, a visual artist (work featured on our blog!) moderated by Khalid Thompson, an abstract artist.⁣
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We are so excited to be collaborating with @Refuelingforjustice for this event and hope you'll stay tuned throughout the day to catch their other amazing offerings! #art #music #blacklivesmatter⁣ #panel #refueling4justice

TOMORROW!! Do not miss this this amazing conversat

TOMORROW!! Do not miss this this amazing conversation with Kenneth Reams, an artist, poet, speaker, and nonprofit founder who has been incarcerated on death row for 27 years. As national attention turns to our carceral systems, listen to Kenny talk about making art while inside, his experience in the system and capital punishment. Check out more on Kenny’s story and register for tickets at the link in our bio! Donations and will help support Kenny’s art and his freedom campaign. 🎨”Kenneth ‘Artist 927’ Reams” by Kenneth Reams
#art #artinprison #workshop #deathrow #endmassincarceration #abolishthedeathpenalty @mdartscouncil @abolitionistlc @the_digital_abolitionist @abolishdeathpenalty @forgiveeveryoneco @730dc

🎨"American Dream" by Gary Harrell, Linocut, Ac

🎨"American Dream" by Gary Harrell,
Linocut, Acrylic
#art #incarceratedartists #linocut

We are extremely troubled by the recent news of th

We are extremely troubled by the recent news of the outbreak of COVID-19 at San Quentin State Prison. As numbers of cases continue to rise we want to bump the call to #stopsanquentinoutbreak and have included some action steps from the organizers of the campaign, created around the demands of folks incarcerated at SQ. More information on the demands, graphics, and ways to share in their toolkit, linked on slides 5-6. #covid19 #freethemall4publichealth #endmassincarceration

TODAY!! At 4 pm EST, Anima Duo will be musically i

TODAY!! At 4 pm EST, Anima Duo will be musically interpreting artwork, featuring work by artists in JAC's network Harry Ellis @harry.ellis.creations.llc and Greg Bolden @bold_n_art_llc ! Streaming on Facebook, their website, and on Youtube. Don't miss it! https://animavoxduo.com/ #art #music #blacklivesmatter

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