Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

I'm participating in two workshops at CR10 in Oakland!

SATURDAY, 9 TO 10:30 AM:
"AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN US AROUND": the development of a national movement of women prisoners, women released from prison, and their allies.

AND

SATURDAY, 2 TO 3:30 PM:
MEDIA ACCESS FOR PRISONERS

Thursday September 25th – ‘Incarceration, Resistance, Costs And Consequences: A Discussion with Authors, Activists And Former Political Prisoners’. At the First Congregational Church in Oakland 7pm. $10 (no-one turned away).

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners/Rainbow Books
426 W. Gilman St., Madison, WI 53703
Camy Matthay
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
608-455-2712

August 4, 2008

Email: maha@chorus.net

Molly Stentz/Rainbow Books
608-257-6050

John Peck

September 26-28: CR10 in Oakland!

I'll be a presenter in two sessions:

PITO No. 08-100-07
Prison Issues Talk Online

The Michigan Citizen covered our presentation on Prisoner Access to Media at this year's Allied Media Conference:

One such Sunday morning session concerned the growing prison industrial complex in the United States. Currently, one in every 100 adults is incarcerated in this country. Women are said to be the fastest growing population due to mandatory sentencing policies and the “war on drugs.”

A panel of prisoner advocates conducted a workshop, Media Access For Prisoners.

At the workshop on Prisoner Access to Media at this year’s Allied Media Conference, we discussed ways that media activists and alternative media makers can facilitate and support prisoners' access to media.

• Start a zine!
• Make room in your print publication for prisoner voices and stories.
• start a website: Prisoners don't have access to the Internet. Setting up a website allows them to reach a whole new audience than they could just by writing letters:

Issue #14 of "Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison" is finally ready and includes:

*Letters, musings and poems from mothers separated from their children
*Incarcerated women's tributes to their own mothers
*Reflections on the relationships that women form while in prison
*Health care (or the lack of health care) in prison
*Fighting for clean drinking water in a Texas prison
*An open letter to the governor of Colorado about higher education programs in women's prisons
*Colorado's new prisoner farm crews

I will be at this year's Allied Media Conference in Detroit discussing prisoner access to media:

While working towards the long-term goal of prison abolition, we must also take on more immediate efforts to support those silenced by incarceration. Those dedicated to independent media should consider reaching out to and collaborating with those lacking media access as a way to amplify marginalized voices and to make the movement for participatory media more inclusive. This session will include a discussion with independent media makers and prison activists on current initiatives, barriers and possibilities of media access for prisoners, sustainability and growth of prisoner-focused media.

with Kameelah Rasheed of the Building Bloc Collective, Dannette Hoarde of Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance and Anthony Rayson of the South Chicago ABC Zine Distro

also, with Mai'a Williams, I will be facilitating the Radical Parenting Caucus on Saturday, June 21st, from 12:20 to 2:10 pm: