Will Be Heard: the voices of mass incarceration

11/11

Mass incarceration panel

“Will be Heard: a performance and public conversation around mass incarceration in the United States” is the latest project of The Open Program of the Workcenterof Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards of Pontedara, Italy developed as part of this fall’s New York City residency. The performance piece emerged from extended conversations with formerly incarcerated people and a wide circle of community andadvicacy groups that relate to this issue.

Performing "Will Be Heard"

More than anything, “Will Be Heard” articulates and amplifies the voices of the people who shared their stories. The stories and commentary are interwoven, in a typical Open Center style, with work songs, spirituals and laments from the African Diaspora tradition. And in this performance piece, that is especially appropriate. What comes through beyond the pain and suffering inflicted on those in the corrections system is the reality of a “prison-industrial complex” through which prisoners lives are commodified. They are used to create commodities and become commodities themselves. In essence, the 13th Amendment allowed for the continuation of salvery by virtue of this clause which abolished slavery: "….except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…."

The performance was followed by a wide and diverse panel of community persons involved with mass  incarceration from clergy to former Black Panthers to activists  calling for the closing of Riders Island. 

Among the points to emerge from the conversation were these:

• There is a direct connection between gentrification, police violence and mass incarceration
• When we buy products that come from the prison labor system, we are participating in “complicit consumption”
• The system runs on a plea bargain default whereby 90% of those incarcerated never had the opportunity for a  trial (Walter Puryear, Mid Bronx Senior Citizen Council and Andrew Freedman Home)
• Solitary confinement must be understood to be the essence of illegal “cruel and unusual punishment” (Wesley Caines, Bronx Defenders)
• Solitary confinement has been especially used against the 65 “Political prisoners” in the US, i.e., those who have been placed in solitary because of their “dangerous ideas” (BJ , Black Panther Commemoration Committee and Incarcerated Nation)
• There are very special effects of incarceration on young women and re-entry presents a real challenge as prison has been internalized. TabaithaRodriguez, (G.I.R.L.S. Achieving Incorprotion)
• Actors need to remember that they are human beings first and must always honor community (Dilson Hernandez, Urban Art Beat)
• The Stella Adler School of Acting has Rikers as one of its studios and its participants are students whose address is Rikers. We will not say “living” at Rikers.  Engaging in the experience of drama and theatre becomes transformative. (Joanne Edelman, Tom Oppenhgeim, Stella Adler School)
• The American Friends Service Committee, which has been involved in working with incarcerated persons for over 100 years, Wesleyan  University and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music have been working together on a “Hope Lives for Lifers” project.  A performance using the experience of incarceration and Dante’s Inferno is being prepared for December
• Most prisoners at Rikers, mainly black and brown, have never been convicted of a crime and are there primarily because of lack of bail money and/or  adequate legal representation. 
• Pastor (Rev.Dr.)Patricia Sealy’s Mott Haven Reformed Church was a stop on the Underground Railroad helping escaped slaves to freedom.

  

  Myrto, Robert, Mario and Pastor Sealy

  She reports:
• 2.7 million children with at least one parent in prison
• 43% have seen there parent(s) treated violently by th eploice
• 1/9 African American children have a incarcerated parent as opposed to 1/28 Hispanics and 1/59 whites
• In Kenya, the standard greeting is “Are the children well?“ To which our answer must be “no”
• We ‘ve now entered into intergenerational incarceration, a difficult pattern to break

More conversation and a dinner followed. 

While the Open Program has always had a commitment to justice and civic engagement, this is the most explicit engagement of an issue they have done in their New York City residencies. This exploration of the intersection of  beauty and justice and ethics and esthetics is an example of exactly what the Center at West Park has as its vision. It I stood to see new Executive and Artistic Director Zachary Tomlinson keeping that vision alive and continuing collaboration with artists like the Ope Center.