Please join Rittenhouse for a discussion about abolition, transformative justice, community accountability, and building bridges between prisoners and members of the outside community.
When: Thursday January 26th from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Fife House (490 Sherbourne St., 1st floor)
Mike Larsen (co-managing editor of Journal of Prisoners and Prisons; Criminology Professor at Kwantlen University) will join us via Skype to give an introduction to abolitionism, and talk about the idea of ‘carceral abolition’ as a framework for thinking and action in opposition to the expanding prison industrial complex.
Kyisha Williams’ film Red Lips [Cages for Black Girls] will be screened (kyisha is a radical, Black, queer, high femme, ma’star. she is a sex positive, vibrant, survivor, fighter, writer and film/video maker. kyisha is also a community organizer and support worker who does work within Black/queer/trans/racialized/criminalized/HIV+/HCV+ communities.)
There will then be a panel discussion featuring:
Simone Davis (Simone teaches American Studies and Ethics at the University of Toronto, and works with the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. She’s coordinating Inside-Out’s emergence in Canada.)
Dave Blow from Circles of Support and Accountability (Dave is a pastor who has served with the Mennonite Central Committee for the past 4 years. Circles of Support and Accountability is a program that works with men who have reached their warrant expiry to help them reintegrate into the community)
Arti Mehta- Arti helped organize the Community Accountability Learning to Action Group for Two Spirit, queer and trans folks in Toronto that began in November of last year. The reading group is committed to community accountability and transformative justice principles as a strategy to build safer communities and end the prison industrial complex.
Free!
Fife House is accessible.
ASL interpretation available.
Refreshments will be served.
Artwork and 2011 PJD t-shirts will be for sale, and given as gifts for being a member of Rittenhouse
