A well-attended fundraising event sponsored by Legal Services For Prisoners With Children (LSPC) was held in August at the Luggage Room Gallery on Market Street in San Francisco.
LSPC is a nonprofit organization located at 1540 Market St. in San Francisco. Its main mission is to organize communities impacted by the criminal justice system and advocate to release incarcerated people, to restore human and civil rights and to reunify families and communities. LSPC focuses on providing legal support, trainings, advocacy, public education, grassroots mobilization and development of community partnerships.
Dorsey Nunn, executive director of LSPC, has more than 35 years of experience working on prison- related issues. He was a co-founder of All of Us or None, an LSPC project started by formerly incarcerated people in 2003. Nunn was involved with many social justice organizations from their beginnings, including Critical Resistance and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.
This event was to raise public awareness about the horrific effects Security Housing Units, often referred to as “solitary confinement,” through visual and written art forms donated by inmates currently incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison, San Quentin Prison and prisons elsewhere in the country. Featured were works by San Quentin inmate artists Thomas Winfrey, Ronnie Goodman and others.
In addition to thought-provoking art, photos and written works on display, Nunn read his original poems and Mark G. performed a dramatic monologue.
The evening also featured a screening of a short film, “Well Contested Sites,” a 13- minute dance/theater performance that explores the issue of mass incarceration and the complexity of experiences faced by those incarcerated. The film was a collaborative effort by Bay Area performing artists — some of whom were previously incarcerated — and filmmaker Austin Forbord and choreographer Amie Dowling. The performance piece was developed and filmed on Alcatraz Island.
After the event, a senior friend who attended commented, “I grew up pretty straight-laced without much prior sympathy for those who committed crimes and have to pay the penalty. Thus, I know prison life is awful, especially solitary confinement … Fortunately, the beliefs we grow up with often change or diminish as we age, and from my own experience, I can now empathize with the feeling of isolation.”
The evening’s purpose was summed up by Amie Dowling, co-director and choreographer of “Well Contested Sites:”
“…(may) our efforts and investments continue to interrupt the oppression of mass incarceration and celebrate the artistic and intellectual genius that resides in the men and women most impacted by the prison industrial complex.”
