Writer: Siena Iwasaki Milbauer
It can be hard to feel connected to community when you can’t physically be in community. However, organizations are stepping up to provide opportunities to connect virtually. To celebrate the wealth of online events out there, and to make content from these events accessible to folks who may not be able to virtually attend, AAOP is recapping 1-3 online opportunities each month! You can see our past and future recaps at http://aaopmn.org/tag/virtual-event-recap/
On February 16, Voices for Racial Justice hosted a virtual celebration and reading to mark the release of the chapbook “What Color is Freedom?” This collection of writings is the result of the work of the Bridge Prison Justice Writing Cohort. Many of the contributors came together for the event, which was moderated by Voices for Racial Justice’s Kevin Reese.
Reese opened the evening by talking about the inspiration for the book. The title question came from the final poem that Reese had written behind bars prior to his release from prison after 14 years of incarceration. He shared that poem, which centered around reflections on the meanings and manifestations of imprisonment and freedom.
“So I wrote myself free” -Kevin Reese
Throughout the event, many contributors noted that their writing and artistry was a tool for survival and a way to achieve liberation when your body and/or mind was locked in a cage. Essence Blakemore shared that “I just love to write because it is something to do besides being trapped in your own mind.”
Alex Cardenas just came home from prison in the last few months. While incarcerated for over a decade in California, he was part of an organized hunger strike to protest conditions in the SHU. Reflecting on the guiding question of the chapbook, he said that “Somewhere along those lines [of pen and paper] is the color of freedom to me.”
“Freedom is humanizing. Freedom isn’t up for debate.” -Essence Blakemore
One of the things which makes “What Color is Freedom?” a truly unique publication is the variety of perspectives on incarceration it showcases. Included in the collection are pieces from folks who have worked in corrections, including Monique Weber. In the introduction to her two poems, she stressed that “[healing] should be the purpose while incarcerated.” However, her poems showed how deeply that is not the case in our current system. Addressing the incarcerated men she had met and worked with, Weber observed the horror of “Bars that dissipate your ever so beautiful humanity.”
Many of the writers who are part of “What Color is Freedom?” are still behind those tyrannical bars. Reese read aloud the work of Calvin Boswell, a Minneapolis native who has been in prison from the age of 15 to his current age of 32, and Antoinette Johnson, who is serving a life sentence without parole. In one of the evening’s most powerful sections, Reese also shared audio from a call he had made to Jeffery Young, another currently incarcerated artist. Young read aloud two poems which spoke about the heritage and enduring pride of Black Americans and Black culture. After Young’s reading, Voices for Racial Justice’s Julia Freeman remarked that “His spirit is free although his body is locked up.”
“I think he [God] is laughing at the hateful” -Jeffery Young
The entire celebration of “What Color is Freedom?” is available on Voices for Racial Justice’s Facebook page. Stay tuned to Voices for Racial Justice’s social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and website for more information on how to get your hands on a digital copy of “What Color is Freedom?” We can’t recommend strongly enough that you read the vital work of these luminous writers who are reckoning with our unliberated reality, and imagining a future where we are all truly free.
“The youth in every shade are stirred to action, to march for freedom, holding and waving and wrapping themselves in a Black banner that we matter. They know that freedom isn’t color blind. The color of freedom is Black.” -Julia Freeman
Sources:
Photo Credit: Voices for Racial Justice
Queally, James, “Peek inside ‘the SHU’: What it’s like for California inmates in solitary confinement”, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sept. 2015. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-solitary-confinement-california-20150901-htmlstory.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2021.
Special thanks to Voices for Racial Justice for allowing AAOP to attend and recap this event!
If you are interested in learning more about the Bridge program and how you can support their work, please visit https://voicesforracialjustice.org/what-we-do/bridge/
If you are interested in learning more about other programs that work to bring writing into incarcerated settings, we recommend checking out the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop