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In honor of Pride Month, O. Smith created this piece, The 3rd Sex
Hi Empowerment Avenue fam. June started on an intense note, with a New York DOC directive made public that essentially blocked incarcerated writers and artists from freely publishing their work. Freddy Medina, who reported inside New York prison with support from Empowerment Avenue, was quoted in the breaking news from New York Focus: “This is just another way to keep voices on the inside invisible.” A wave of public backlash followed and NYDOC pulled back a few days later.
We are heartened to see widespread support for this work but also aware of the risks and administrative backlash. To that end, we celebrate the dedication and persistence of this community, living out our First Amendment right to share this work with the world. “Art by any means,” as artist Corey Arthur recently painted for an upcoming project on prison censorship.
And so the work goes on! We are honored to be a partner for Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project, led by incarcerated journalist Juan Moreno Haines. Juan selected, and will support, 16 inside reporting projects. Congrats to Kwaneta, Chris, Felix, Steve and Kevin for your acceptance. We’ll also support other writers from this project who we are excited to welcome to EA.
As for art, Flyaway Productions officially announced the world premiere of IF I GIVE YOU MY SORROWS, an apparatus-based dance with an accompanying exhibition of visual art, in partnership with us and the Museum of the African Diaspora. 10 performances will take place at San Francisco’s Space 124 from October 6 - 15, with artwork and poetry on display by the talented folks at Central California Women’s Facility. Stay tuned for ticket info.
Read on for the stories published this month…
Our Latest Work
Over the next several months, we are partnering with Spectre Journal1 to publish Empowerment Avenue writers. This month we kicked things off with Corey Devon Arthur's powerful essay, "Don't Be Cruel." Read it here, and look out for more critical essays from the EA collective.
For Study and Struggle’s2 initiative to review radical texts, Paris Whitfield examined No More Police by Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie: “Kaba and Ritchie hold a mirror up to society's face and it reflects back a sad commentary: those who are most affected by carceral harm are the same people who can help heal many of societal issues.”
Now home, EA writer Jessica Phoenix Sylvia reported for her Shadowproof/Marvel Cooke Fellowship3 about starting over and rebuilding a life after being in prison. In addition to weaving in her own experience, she interviews formerly incarcerated people searching for jobs, housing, and a way forward without the weight of criminalization.
Also home and now advocating for social justice on the outside, EA writer Michele Scott reports for Knock LA about her fight to end Life Without Parole and support of California bill SB 94. “Imagine having your only chance, your only hope of freedom, wiped out by a single sheet of paper,” she writes. “The desolation of that moment brought a heaviness that lingered within me for decades. I still have that piece of paper today.”
EA writer Chanell Burnette is featured for Scalawag Magazine’s Abolition Week: "Sadly, my own children have felt this void for the past 18 years that I have been gone. I was taken away from them at the tender ages of six months and three years old."
Jonathan Kirkpatrick’s contributions for Filter Mag4 continues. He wrote about how allowing vapes in prison would be considered harm reduction: “Allowing prisoners to vape would go beyond just tobacco harm reduction. It would be a form of violence harm reduction. It would make prisoner-guard interactions more functional and less dangerous.” And he also wrote about the harms of Washington prisons’ staffing model; medical privacy as a right in prison unless it involves psych meds, prisoners’ choice between not getting meds or not going home; and how harm reduction meets people where they’re at — unless they’re in prison.
Also for Filter: Tony Vick penned a piece about how “rolling lockdowns” are a new post-COVID normal at one private prison in Tennessee. This is when half of the unit is confined to their cells at a time, without electricity and water. Then, the shakedown crew arrives to ruin citizens’ belongings. “My cellee sinks down on the wet floor and begins to weep; the shakedown crew broke his guitar,” Vick writes.
And Christopher Blackwell for Filter: “Our Prison Is Used to Mental Illness. Taking Care of Our Own Was New.” When a new person who talks to the voices in his head arrives at the Washington Corrections Center, peers take care of him and look out for him. “None of this came with with strings attached—prisoners just looked out for him because no one else was."
Kwaneta Harris co-reported with Leigh Goodmark for Truthout5 on how criminalized survivors often face judgment and abuse from their defense attorneys. “They’re offering you 40, I think you should take it” was Kwaneta’s first interaction with her lawyer.
For Waging Nonviolence6, Antoine Davis and Darrell Jackson share powerful personal testimonies about how Juneteeth is honored in prison. The piece starts out, “Juneteenth is a bittersweet day for us — and all Black people in prison holding onto the promise of freedom.” The piece was also published by Truthout.
In honor of Pride month, Felix Sitthivong’s International Examiner7 On The Fence Line column is about what it’s like for his LGBTQIA+ peers in prison. “I can say without any hesitation that the carceral system is not built for humanity, especially for those of us brave enough to live life outside of patriarchal norms,” Sitthivong writes.
Logic(s) Magazine8 published Phill Smith’s piece about the surveillance of digital tools in prison. “I have been locked up for more than two decades while serving a life sentence for murder,” Smith writes. “I have seen enough to know that what companies like TextBehind and Smart Communications are selling isn't security. It's surveillance."
Published by the Marin Independent Journal9, EA and San Quentin writer Steve Brooks wrote about how California Governor Newsom's proposed plans for San Quentin’s future don’t hold up. “It’s time to advocate for more meaningful change that prioritizes rehabilitation and community well-being,” Brooks writes.
Finally, listen to Corey Devon Arthur read his piece “I’m the Black Crayon Nobody Wants” on the Writing Class Radio podcast:
Inside/Outside Insights
Bay Area folks! Mark your calendars for this Sunday, July 2nd, when we’ll be selling some stunning works by incarcerated artists at the YBCA Art + Makers Market. More details here.
Directed by Rahsaan Thomas, the documentary Friendly Signs, about Tommy Wickerd, who is serving 57 years at San Quentin and using his time to help the deaf community, premiered at Roxie Theater in the Bay Area. Donate to the film here.
EA volunteer Khawla Nakua wrote for Slate about ongoing discrimination against Muslims in the prison system. “Ultimately, the discrimination against incarcerated Muslims is not confined to one institution in Nevada. Muslims across the country are experiencing repeated roadblocks when deciding to congregate and pray,” she writes.
Solitary confinement is “a slaughterhouse for souls,” says Kwaneta Harris, who has endured long stretches of isolation in Texas. She was interviewed by Al Jazeera about this common form of punishment and its severe psychological consequences.
Following his New York Times op-ed, Christopher Blackwell was interviewed this month by NPR KUOW about how jails are different from prisons. You can listen to the entire conversation here.
Study and Struggle launched a campaign to raise funds for Atlanta Solidarity Fund in response to escalated targeting. T-shirts, hoodies, and sweatshirts featuring art by incarcerated activists are on sale here. July’s featured artist will be none other than Corey Arthur!
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Spectre is a new Marxist journal that understands anti-oppression struggles as constitutive of class struggle. It aims to promote analysis, discussion, and debate on the revolutionary left, both in the United States and around the world. They’re paying $50 per essay.
Study and Struggle is publishing book reviews written by, edited by, and designed for incarcerated folks. They pay $50 per review.
Shadowproof is an abolitionist publication that hosts the Marvel Cooke Fellowship, which funds independent journalism from writers of color on abolitionist organizing around the world. Pay depends on the piece accepted.
Filter's mission is to advocate through journalism for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy, and human rights. They typically pay $300 per essay.
Truthout is a nonprofit news source publishing on a wide range of social justice issues. They pay around $300 for essays.
Waging Nonviolence is a non-profit media platform dedicated to providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements around the world. EA has partnered on four stories so far. They pay $100 for commentary and $150 for reporting.
International Examiner is the oldest and largest nonprofit, pan-Asian Pacific American publication in the Northwest. They pay $100 for an opinion piece.
In 2023, Logic Magazine was relaunched as Logic(s), the first queer Black and Asian tech magazine. The mission of Logic(s) is to draw in voices and perspectives that remain outside, underexplored, and essential to thinking critically about technology from below. They pay several thousand dollars for their essays, which go through an intensive editing process.
The Marin Independent Journal is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. Local newspapers typically do not pay for op-eds.