All Power to the People:
Dreaming and Scheming a Just World!
Dear Humanities Behind Bars members and supporters,
During this busy season of study and struggle, we want to take a moment to update you on some upcoming events! First, we want to extend an invitation to everyone currently involved with or interested in joining the HBB Teaching & Advocacy Team to our next meeting, which will be held on Friday, March 1st from 5 - 7 PM at the new downtown location of Café Stella (116 Granby St, Norfolk, VA 23510). Come learn more about the work we do, and how to get directly involved in everything from our forthcoming zine editorial process, to local grassroots campaigns against the school-to-prison pipeline, led by and in coalition with Virginia Organizing, to building our community-based reentry network, to planning our zine release party! We will also be providing updates on our programming at Norfolk City Jail, which is undergoing construction and changes in leadership. If you want to volunteer as a tutor or offer a course in the near future, please come out to learn about organizational shifts and new opportunities.
Directly following this meeting, we will head over to Hank's Filling Station (4301 Colley Ave, Norfolk, VA 23508) on Friday, March 1st from 7:30 - 9 PM to continue the conversation and catch up over good eats and drinks. This social is an open event, so all are welcome whether or not you can make the Teaching & Advocacy Team meeting! Please feel free to bring your friends and loved ones to meet and greet your friendly neighborhood abolitionists.
Also, our next Pen-Pal Program date at the Muse Writer's Center (2200 Colonial Ave, Suite #3, Norfolk, VA 23517) is Thursday, February 28th from 7 - 9 PM. Come build solidarity with HBB and our growing network of incarcerated comrades! Light refreshments will be provided, and everyone is welcome! If you need a ride, please contact us. We have also listed our solidarity letter-writing sessions at ODU on the flyer below, so check it out!
|
|
#RedefiningReentry
As a reminder, you are invited to a panel discussion (tonight!) on systematic barriers to "reentry," and what we can do locally to build networks of care! The event is free and open to the public, and will be held in Old Dominion University's Goode Theatre (4601 Monarch Way, Norfolk, VA 23529) on Friday, February 22nd from 6 - 7 PM.
Moderated by Barbara Hamm Lee, this panel will offer a diverse set of perspectives on "The Road Through Reentry." We are excited that Derek "DJ" James, HBB's Resident Artist and Poet, as well as Alison Reed, HBB's Director and Co-Founder, will be representing our vision.
We at Humanities Behind Bars recognize that since the carceral system is not just a built structure but the governing logic of society and its institutions, systematic discrimination, dispossession, and displacement face many folks—before, during, and after a period of imprisonment. When we discuss “reentry,” we must consider the structural conditions that lead to criminalization in the first place, and de facto criminalization as a structural condition of carceral culture. In other words, formerly incarcerated people most likely experienced structural dispossession and displacement prior to a period of caging.
This panel discussion is being held in conjunction with the ODU Theatre Department's production of Marsha Norman's reentry drama, Getting Out. You may access more info about purchasing tickets for the show here. Free parking is available in Garage D, 1070 West 45th St, Norfolk, VA 23529.
Our website is temporarily experiencing technical difficulties, but you can check out an informational pamphlet Dr. Reed was asked to write for the play's program on our Resources page. In the meantime, you may email Meghan Morris at humanitiesbehindbarsassistant@gmail.com with questions or for a copy of the pamphlet!
|
|
Finally, we want to thank everyone who joined us at Engage Norfolk on the 10th. We had a wonderful time sharing information about who we are and what we do as an organization. Abolitionists rock!
|
|
|
We look forward to seeing you at the reentry panel tonight, solidarity letter-writing hours on the 28th, and Teaching & Advocacy Team meeting/social on the 1st. Come dream and scheme a just world with us!
Toward abolition,
Alison Reed, Program Director & Co-Founder
Casey Guditus, HBB Treasurer & IWOC Liason
Danielle Goldstein, Student Justice Coordinator
Meghan Morris, Graduate Research Assistant
|
|
|
|
|
