Find photos, videos, and more from the 15th Annual Beyond the Bars Conference: Sankofa: Looking Back to Move Forward
In celebration of our 15th conference, this year's theme, Sankofa: Looking Back to Move Forward, encouraged us to mine the lessons of our past to envision and design strategies to bring into being a future of collective thriving and collective care. In the spirit of Sankofa: SAN (return), KO (go), FA (look, seek, and take), this year featured topics discussed at Beyond the Bars over the past 15 years and envisioned the future of our movement together. In our current times, it is so important that we look back at and preserve our histories and how our ancestors and those who have come before us have succeeded in organizing, advocating, and taking care of their community when systems of oppression seemed too overpowering.
Thursday Night
We kicked off the weekend at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with a celebration of our Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute (WTCLI). WTCLI offers leadership development for women impacted by the justice system that includes: capacity building, legislative and advocacy tools, community organizing, and communication skills. In addition to conference attendees, over 100 alumni from the Collective Leadership Institute were present to celebrate the graduation of the sixth cohort and welcome in the seventh. There were performances by Batalá New York and Kierah “Kiki” King.
Friday Night: Sankofa: Looking Back to Move Forward Opening Night
Friday was held at the historic Riverside Church. Plenaries focused on the global struggle of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and the worldwide resistance against colonialism currently and historically.
We also honored 10 years of the Beyond the Bars Fellowship and watched a moving performance by our Right/Write to Heal group.
Plenary #1: Wisdom Circle: Past Lessons for Future Actions
This plenary engaged movement scholars and leaders in discussing how we can come together in solidarity to craft a future of dignity and joy in this time of deliberate fracturing of communities and the fomenting of fear, despair, and isolation.
Panelists: Angela Davis (pre-recorded), Gina Dent (pre-recorded), Beth Richie, Katherine Franke, & Mary Hooks
Moderator: Amanda Alexander
Plenary #2: Until She’s Free: How Women Leaders Challenge Oppression Across the Globe
Across the globe, women are subjected to violence and incarceration in alarming numbers. Yet space, resources, and support is rarely given to the unique ways in which women are subjected to violence and harm. This panel of global women discussed how they are challenging oppression across the globe and fighting for women and girls to be free.
Panelists: Andrea James, Carol Bispo, Teresa Njoroge, Dr. Genevieve Duncan Sackey
Moderator: Dawn Harrington
If we can't figure out how we can cook for and tend to one another on the basic things, how in the world are we to be able to govern ourselves in these broader ways in community? We must continue to choose each other when everything around us is saying we should retreat. We must be in the business of choosing one another over and over again.
Thursday and Friday photos by: www.day1pictures.com
Saturday and Sunday
On Saturday and Sunday, we gathered for three plenaries full of incredible panelists and four workshop blocks.
Saturday Plenary #1: Healing & Rest in these Political Times & Beyond
The first panel focused on the "San" part of "Sankofa"–the looking back. We talked with elders and young people about how we can rest and heal and take care of each other in this current moment and why it is so important that community care is built into our movements.
Panelists: Esperanza Martell, Cara Page, Vincent Duarte Pinedo, & Corey Greene
Moderator: Wakumi Douglas
Saturday Plenary #2: Rights, Resistance, and Resilience
This panel focused on the "ko" part of "Sankofa" which means "go" and that we used as a call to act. In the face of losing basic rights, there are communities across the globe that refuse to be quieted. They are determined to rise against the inhumane policies. In this plenary, we highlighted the leaders of these movements as they explained how they use community organizing and collective aid to combat the rampant inhumanity inflicted upon them.
Panelists: DaMareo Cooper, Emani Davis, Andrea James, & Dhaksh Sooriya
Moderator: Andrea J. Ritchie
Sunday Plenary #3: Forward Ever: Young People and Their Visions for the Future
This panel focused on the "fa" part of "Sankofa" taking lessons from the past and moving forward. We heard from young people how they assess this current political moment, how they are fighting back, and how they think we should move forward. This panel is one you won't want to miss watching back, especially if you had to leave the conference early to catch a flight. The energy and hope the youth provided was a perfect closing plenary for the conference.
Panelists: Elianny Innocent, Keishon Groves, Selah Blue, & Angelique Williams
Moderator: Jarrell Daniels
Saturday and Sunday Workshops
On Saturday and Sunday we held more than 40 workshops from activists, organizers, healers, practitioners and more, from all across the US and around the globe. Workshops covered a wide range of topics from restorative breathwork, self defense and community care, post incarceration civil litigation, the incarceration and criminalization of women and girls, transformative and healing justice, media storytelling and participatory action research, writing raps, zine creation, grant writing in difficult times, healing and grief processing, and much more. We are so grateful to our incredible workshop leaders for creating such amazing spaces for people to connect and gain skills.
Beyond the Plenaries
Throughout the weekend, we had extra conference offerings and events including a Healing & Spirit Room, Art Room and Display, Tabling Event, Non-Traditional Approach Museum, and our first ever Beyond the Bars Film and Discussion Series.
Healing & Spirit Room
Curated by The Givers Revival, the annual Healing & Spirit Room is a much needed space for rest, healing, insight, and rejuvenation for conference goers.. Through the generous sponsorship of the Movement 4 Black Lives, the Healing & Spirit Room was able to provide more space, more sessions, and more healing than ever before. The Healing & Spirit Room is an integral part of Beyond the Bars every year and we are so grateful to be able to offer it for attendees.
Non-Traditional Approach Museum
Curated every year by How Our Lives Link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A.), the Non-Traditional Approach Museum highlights one of the many formations of Black Liberation Praxis developed by the Black Power Movement while captured as prisoners of war in the 1960s/1970s/1980s. One formation of this legacy is the 1970 Prison Rights Movement developed in New York State, and, in particular, the Non-Traditional Approach to Criminal and Social Justice. This exhibit honors the long tradition of Community-Specific approaches that came out of the prison system and directed back into local communities in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which contributed to the current movement for reform, reentry, and the abolition of the prison/criminal justice system across the country led by formerly and currently incarcerated people.
Art Room and Display
As attendees entered the 3rd floor of Columbia School of Social Work, they encountered a celebration of 15 years of Beyond the Bars Conferences on the walls, including a quilt made of past Beyond the Bars t-shirts, merch, flyers, memories, and more. Special thanks to the artist Jackie Patterson.
The art display continued into the art room in 304 where a timeline of Beyond the Bars over the years was displayed, ending with this year's theme of Sankofa, and inviting attendees to create their own art inspired by the conference, past and present. Artwork created in the art room will be added to the quilt display after the conference. You can submit any art created before, during, or after the conference by emailing us [email protected]
Tabling Event
Organizations and groups across the country and NYC table every year to connect people to their work to challenge carceral systems.
Beyond the Bars Film and Discussion Series
This year, in collaboration with Union Theological Seminary, we hosted our first ever Beyond the Bars Film and Discussion Series. The documentary series was carefully curated to stimulate discussion on the expansive injustices of the US carceral system and how incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, their families, and allies are fighting for freedom and dignity before during, and after incarceration. The series featured the films, Trial 4, the Sing Sing Chronicles, Beyond Surival, and Time II: Unfinished Business. A discussion panel of filmmakers and directly impacted leaders from the movement to end incarceration followed each documentary.
Thank you to all who joined us for an incredible weekend, and especially to all of our volunteers, Schomburg, Riverside, and Columbia School of Social Work staff, and partners who made this event possible! Thank you to Echoes of Incarceration for live-streaming the plenaries and for photos from Saturday and Sunday. Additional thanks to Johnny Perez at www.day1pictures.com for the photos from Thursday and Friday night. And to all of our sponsors for your support.
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Find program links and more here.