Leeway Foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund present RELEASE, an exhibition and program series that explores the intersection of gender justice and mass incarceration. RELEASE aims to provide shared spaces for women, transgender, and gender non-conforming survivors of the prison industrial complex, local artists, cultural producers, and activists to critically reflect and build power for change.
RELEASE includes a collection of portraits and narratives curated by Chicago-based activists M...
Leeway Foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund present RELEASE, an exhibition and program series that explores the intersection of gender justice and mass incarceration. RELEASE aims to provide shared spaces for women, transgender, and gender non-conforming survivors of the prison industrial complex, local artists, cultural producers, and activists to critically reflect and build power for change.
RELEASE includes a collection of portraits and narratives curated by Chicago-based activists Mariame Kaba and Rachel Caidor, and paintings by Leeway grantee, Mary DeWitt (LTA '10, ACG '09, WOO '03, '00)
Join Rachel Caidor and Mary DeWitt for a tour and artist talk at the Opening Reception on Thursday, February 26 from 5:30pm-8:00pm at the Leeway Foundation (1315 Walnut Street, Suite 832).
Details about the program series will also be announced.
For more information and to RSVP:
www.leeway.org/events/release_exhibit_opening_reception
About RELEASE
No Selves to Defend, is a collection of portraits and narratives, curated by Chicago-based activists Mariame Kaba and Rachel Caidor, it features the stories of women of color who have been criminalized for self-defense. No Selves to Defend, examines the contested meanings and historical and contemporary understandings of self-defense, and seeks to locate Marissa Alexander’s story within a broader historical context and legacy. The work also addresses the campaigns and mobilizations that emerged to resist their criminalization and demand their freedom. Finally, it considers how we can support current survivors of violence who have been criminalized for self-defense.
The collection includes original art by Micah Bazant, Molly Crabapple, Billy Dee, Bianca Diaz, Rachel Galindo, Lex Non Scripta, Caitlin Seidler, and Ariel Springfield. It also includes ephemera and artifacts from Mariame Kaba’s collection.
For almost 30 years Mary DeWitt has painted portraits and recorded the stories of women sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania. Mary first met these women when she taught art at SCI Muncy as part of Pennsylvania Prison Society Arts and Humanities Program. Lifers, is a series portraits that tell the stories of these women and expose the injustices they have suffered before and after their sentencing.
Community Partners
This exhibit is presented with the support of our community partners: 1 Love Movement, Address This!, ART SANCTUARY, The Attic Youth Center, BlackStar Film Festival, Books Through Bars, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts, Decarcerate PA, Feminist Public Works, Galaei Philly, Gender Reel, Girls Justice League, Hearts on a Wire, I'm F.R.E.E. Females Reentering Empowering Each Other, Institute for Community Justice, Juntos, Let's Get Free Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee, Morris Home, National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, Pennsylvania Innocence Project, People's Paper Co-op and Expungement Project, PhillyCAM, Scribe Video Center, Sisters Returning Home, The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, Trans Justice Funding Project, Trans Oral History Project, Trans Wellness Project, Victim/Witness Services of South Phila., Why Not Prosper?, William Way LGBT Community Center, and The Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project.
Exhibit Hours: By appointment only. Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 5:00pm. Please call 215.545.4078 to schedule a viewing.
Image Credit: Cyd Berger by Mary DeWitt, Cece McDonald by Micah Bazant; Rosa Lee Ingram by Billy Dee.
