Category Archives: Events

Illinois Humanities, in partnership with Land and Sea Dept. and Free Write Arts & Literacy, presents the next installation of the Elective Studies Supper Club.  This free program will include presentations by formerly incarcerated artists Dr. Randall Horton and Angel Pantoja, a conversation moderated by Tracie D. Hall of the Joyce Foundation, a meal by Chef Q Ibraheem, a Letherbee Distillers cocktail by Land and Sea Dept. Beverage Director Paul McGee, beer from Lagunitas Brewing Co., and the great company of some of Chicago’s criminal justice reform leaders.

Elective Studies Supper Club

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Land and Sea Dept. Headquarters

3124 W. Carroll Ave., Chicago

6pm – 9:30pm; FREE

Lecture: “You Can’t Go Home Again: Navigating The Return From Prison To Treacherous Material Realities”

Dinner to follow.

This event converges the Elective Studies series with Envisioning Justice, which is an initiative created and facilitated by Illinois Humanities using the arts and humanities to engage Chicagoans in a citywide conversation about the impact of incarceration and jails with the goal of imagining a new criminal justice system.

More on the lecture:

“You Can’t Go Home Again: Navigating The Return From Prison To Treacherous Material Realities”

Dr. Randall Horton, University of New Haven

Angel Pantoja, Free Write Arts & Literacy

Two previously incarcerated men negotiate through discussion and story; through verse and theory, their journeys from being imprisoned to a level of participation many would consider success. How are they finding their way back? How difficult is the journey? How continuous the struggle? What if we didn’t frame the lives of the previously incarcerated as a series of hurdles that must be overcome in order to become full citizens again? What does rehabilitation mean in this environment?

To help guide our framing of these questions; to help us imagine the re-shaping of our imaginations, Tracie D. Hall, author, curator, cultural worker, will join us to moderate the discussion among Horton, Pantoja, and the gathered.

Dr. Randall Horton is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award, a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature and most recently the GLCA New Writers Award for Creative Non-Fiction for Hook: A Memoir (2015) published by Augury Books/Brooklyn Art Press. His previous work includes poetry collections: The Definition of Place (2006) and The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street (2009), both with Main Street Rag; and Pitch Dark Anarchy (Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press, 2013). Horton is Associate Professor of English at the University of New Haven. He is a member of the experimental performance group Heroes Are Gang Leaders, with recent performances at Berlin Jazzfest, Crossing the Border Festival in The Hague, and Jazz Jantar in Gdansk, Poland. Originally from Birgmingham, Alabama, he now resides in East Harlem, New York City.

Angel Pantoja‘s poetry is published in several anthologies and journals. He is a student at St. John’s University in Maryland. A native Chicagoan, he is alumni coordinator for Free Write Arts & Literacy.

Tracie D. Hall is Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program Director.  Previously, Hall served as Deputy Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, where she oversaw the Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Music Industry, and Farmers Market programs, as well as the Chicago Film Office. In addition to holding posts in the educational, non-profit, and public sectors across the country, Hall has taught as visiting professor at Catholic, Southern Connecticut State, and Wesleyan Universities. In 2016, Hall founded Rootwork Gallery, which is dedicated to showing art that has healing and the investigation of folk and indigenous cultures at its core. A graduate of the University of Washington, University of California, and Yale University, Hall was raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

More on the chef:
Chef Q Ibraheem has traveled through the restaurant scenes in Detroit, Atlanta, and Chicago, where she has worked at the Michelin-starred Elizabeth, among other restaurants. Along the way, she became an Executive Chef and Corporate Executive Chef at P.S. It’s Social, a restaurant training program for ex-offenders and at-risk young adults.  Her culinary arts curriculum has been implemented by Oakton Community College, where she has worked as a culinary art instructor.  Chef Q is now Owner & Executive Chef at Teertsemasesottehg – Secret Location Underground Supper Club. She serves on the Board of The Evanston Exchange as Vice President and is the Director of the Foster Street Urban Agriculture Program.

       

To kick off National Youth Violence Prevention Awareness week, we’d love if you joined us at our upcoming event, Lessons in the Cycle, featuring youth voices and verses regarding best practices in violence prevention and trauma-informed care. In partnership with UIC’s Urban Youth Trauma Center, the Free Write Alumni workshopped, created & performed their pieces on camera, each responding powerfully to one of the five trauma informed practices Best Practices for Violence Prevention and Trauma Intervention.

Dismantling Barriers to Life is a speak out about the impacts of mass incarceration. The event will also serve as a space for people to think through ways of collectively building resistance and taking action.

Event Highlights:

• Audio stories recorded in partnership with StoryCorps
• Panel discussion on ‘Barriers to LIfe’
• Peace Circles facilitated by Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation
• Share & connect to advocacy organizations

MC’ed by Colette Payne and Marlon Chamberlain.

Colette Payne is an organizer, leader, student, mother, and grandmother. Since 2014, Colette has acted as the head of the Visible Voices program for the CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers) Program and now serves as the Community Organizer for Cabrini Green Legal Aid. In 2015 Colette joined the delegation to assess women’s prisons in Illinois, becoming the first formerly-incarcerated woman to serve in this role in the entire United States. Colette was also selected as a 2016 Fellow for JustLeadershipUSA.

Marlon Chamberlain was released from Federal Prison on May 29, 2012 after serving 10 years. Following his release, he began working with the F.O.R.C.E. Project (Fighting To Overcome Records & Create Equality), an initiative of the Community Renewal Society led by people with records, and currently serves as its Organizer. Marlon is also a student at Kennedy King College in pursuit of his Master’s degree in Social Work. He is a devoted family man, who continues to put his faith into action by building relationships with congregations and like-minded people to fight against racism, discrimination, and poverty.

Light refreshments will be served. Doors open at 12:30PM. For accessibility needs please contact Chicago@StoryCorps.org. To RSVP, please visit our eventbrite.

This is hosted by StoryCorps, Cabrini Green Legal Aid, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, Community Renewal Society, Growing Home, Free Write and Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois.

Bound by Sisterhood: Women Sharing Stories of Love & Incarceration
An exhibition of art and writing by incarcerated people and their families

Opening reception March 8, 2017, 12pm-5pm

Private viewings by appointment and programmed events at

Art on 51st Street Gallery 1238 W. 51st St, Chicago IL 60609

Bound by Sisterhood tells the personal stories of women impacted by incarceration. In commemoration of International Women’s Day, this exhibit is a space where women tell their stories of life on both sides of the prison wall. In the United States, between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700%. Since 2000, Free Write Arts & Literacy has engaged incarcerated and court-involved youth in the performing, visual, and literary arts so that they become the narrators of their own stories and the authors of their futures. PBMR is a Community Restorative Justice Hub located in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. Motivated by the spirituality of the Precious Blood, we see our purpose as being agents of reconciliation helping our youth and their families experience radical hospitality, hope and healing as they strive to build a future. As most of those we serve are affected by incarceration, violence, poverty, racism and lack of resources, we attempt to restore broken relationships and remove some of these barriers.

Presenting work by participants of Free Write Arts and Literacy and Precious Blood Ministries of Reconciliation, the exhibition centers the experiences of incarceration through the perspectives of women directly impacted by mass incarceration. The exhibit will feature self portraits, a listening station featuring audio recordings of student compositions, drawings, paintings, a a quilt-in-progress juxtaposed by photographs curated by the mothers of children facing life without the possibility of parole. Sister Donna from PBMR says, “We want the public to become informed about the impact of incarceration. To engage with the exhibit and to build with each other through dialogue and action can be proactive in removing the causes of suffering and restoring the relationships harmed.”

Bound by Sisterhood will run from March 8th to April 8th, 2017 and will host weekly programming such as art classes, restorative justice circles, storytelling workshops. Private viewing is available by appointment. For more information, contact Sister Donna Liette at liettecpps@aol.com or Mathilda de Dios at mathilda@freewritechicago.org Curated by Free Write alumnae Mariela Villanueva and staff members Mathilda de Dios,

Elgin-Bokari Smith, Roger Bonair-Agard, and Ryan Keesling and Precious Blood Ministries Staff Sr. Donna Liette, Br. Juan Acuña, Diana Rubio and Julie Anderson and guest curator Jacqueline Montanez. Links:
Free Write Arts & Literacy – www.freewritechicago.org
Precious Blood Ministries of Reconciliation – www.pbmr.org
Sample Images. For high resolution images, email ryan@freewritechicago.org