Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Sat, April 11th: Pioneer Valley Zinefest & evening panel

In Western Massachusetts on Saturday, April 11th? I'll be at the Pioneer Valley ZineFest tabling copies of Tenacious: Art & Writings by Women in Prison as well as copies of the ABC No Rio history zines I co-wrote back in the 1990s and early 2000s. I'll have brand-new, hot-off-the-press copies of the Spring/Mother's Day 2015 issue of Tenacious for sale.

Western Massachusetts!! I'll be speaking about incarceration, gender and resistance with an emphasis on Massachusetts this THURSDAY, March 26th, at Hampshire College. The event is free and open to the public.

Hampshire College
WEST LECTURE HALL, FPH
This event starts at 5:30pm.

This event is organized by : Childhood, Youth and Learning Program, Critical Social Inquiry, CPSC, Queer Studies, The Law Program, Africana Studies, Hampshire Students Against Mass Incarceration, & Decolonize Media Collective

Join Justice Now, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the Correctional Association of NY's Women in Prison Project and me as we discuss and reflect on shared visions of change.

I'm pleased to be part of an on-line conversation with fantastic women of color like Veronica Bayetti Flores, Tasasha Henderson, Andrea Ritchie, Harmony Rodriguez and Jamia Wilson (whose cousin was Joan Little!) about police violence and women of color.

My contribution is "Why Aren't We More Outraged When Police Kill Black Women?"

It's short, so I definitely encourage you to read the entire se

Feminist Zine Fest

Once again, I’ll be tabling at the Feminist Zine Fest. You can pick up a copy of the latest issues of the zine Tenacious: Art & Writings by Women in Prison as well as copies of my books.

Saturday, March 7th, 12 to 6 pm
Barnard College: 3009 Broadway, NYC
https://feministzinefestnyc.wordpress.com/schedule/

This past Thursday, prison policy and advocacy organization the Correctional Association of New York released Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons. The report is a culmination of its five-year study and, not surprisingly, details horrifying experiences for women trying to access prenatal or other reproductive health care.

I've been covering Marissa Alexander's case on and off since her sentencing in 2012. Below are my latest two, one just before her final sentencing hearing this past Tuesday and one written in the hours that followed her release.

Two hundred years ago, quilts were an integral part of the Underground Railroad. Abolitionists sewed patterns into the squares of their quilts. They then hung the quilts in their yards, ostensibly to air them out.

CUNY Grad Center, 365 5 Avenue, NYC

Join me, Dan Berger and Bryan Stevenson (founder and director of Equal Justice Initiative) on Thursday, March 5th, for a conversation on race, the criminal justice system, mass incarceration and resistance as part of the Black Freedom Studies at the NYPL's Schomburg Center.

Thursday, March 5th, 6 to 8 pm
Schomburg Center
515 Malcolm X Blvd
The event is free and open to the public.
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversations-in-black-freedom-studies-race-...

Just in time for the start of 2015, my newest piece--on domestic violence survivors in prison--is up on Al-Jazeera America. Here's an excerpt:

NEW YORK — Valerie Seeley has been behind bars since 2003. But her troubles started much earlier, in 1995, when she first met Oliver Williams and his 10-year-old daughter while visiting a friend in Brooklyn.