We are grateful for another incredible year of the Beyond the Bars Conference! If you couldn’t join us, or just want to relive the moments of community throughout the weekend, find a recap of the Conference below.
About Beyond the Bars
The Beyond the Bars Conference is an annual student-driven interdisciplinary conference on mass incarceration held at Columbia University. Each year the conference brings together students, faculty, activists, advocates, practitioners, those who have experienced and/or been impacted by incarceration, community members and more to connect, galvanize, and deepen the work of building justice and equity and ending mass incarceration. This year's conference hosted over 1100 participants with 40 workshops, 5 panel discussions, plus art performances, healing and somatic offerings, film screenings and more throughout the weekend.
Beyond the Bars 2026 Theme
This year’s theme, "Rooted In...", was created in response to our current times. We know many people are feeling a sense of instability and may not feel equipped to meet this moment. We wanted to provide a space where people can think about the roots that already exist that they can rely on and where they can plant roots to ground themselves and their communities during rising authoritarianism. Together we explored roots of resistance, solidarity, community, and mutual aid that exist in history, in the current moment, locally, and globally.
Thursday Night
As we do each year, we started off the weekend by celebrating our Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute (CLI). The Collective Leadership Institute is inspired by our radical hope to strengthen the leadership of formerly incarcerated and directly impacted women, and expand their capacity to contribute to the women’s justice movement to end mass incarceration. CLI offers leadership development that includes: capacity building, legislative and advocacy tools, community organizing, and communication skills.
Our 7th Cohort of CLI members graduated the program and passed the torch to the incoming 8th cohort through our annual Tree of Life Ceremony. We were joined by special guest speakers including First Deputy Commissioner Meg Egan, Assemblymember Al Taylor, and Councilmember Yusef Salaam.
Friday Night
Friday night was a powerful opening night at the historic St. John the Divine Cathedral. This was our first year at St. John and we could not have asked for a more beautiful space to celebrate, learn, grow, and dance together.
The night kicked off with a triumphant performance from Batala NYC. We heard from powerful speakers including Commissioner Stanley Richards, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and two panels of leading voices in the movement to end mass incarceration and criminalization. We also experienced artistic performances from dancer Kiki King, the performing group Right/Write to Heal, and a call and response from Kairos Center.
The first plenary was titled Liberation in the Midst of Expanding Criminalization and Rising Authoritarianism and featured Gina Dent, Erin Miles Cloud, Sulma Arias, Talitha LeFlouria, and Michael Roberson. It explored how systems of criminalization continue to expand—often in response to social, economic, and political instability—and how communities have historically resisted efforts to punish, marginalize, or silence them. The second plenary was titled Rooted in Spirit, Grounded in Dignity and featured Desmond Meade, The Very Reverend Winnie Varghese, and Chaumtoli Huq. It explored how faith traditions have helped people stay grounded during difficult times and how faith and other leaders can take a stand in defense of marginalized and vulnerable communities.
Saturday & Sunday Plenaries
Saturday morning we opened with a plenary titled Rooted in International Solidarity: Global Lessons in Justice and Resistance that focused on international issues around incarceration and criminalization. We heard from Dawn Harrington from the International Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women, Teresa Njoroge of Clean Start Africa, and Mariana Vianna from the CUNY Grad Center who works with families impacted by policing. The plenary was moderated by Doug Wood of the Aspen Institute.
In the afternoon, the second plenary was titled Rooted in Local Community: Building Networks of Care and Collective Safety which focused on local efforts to support and galvanize communities to respond to the ongoing oppressions we are facing. The plenary, moderated by Clinton Lacey of the Credible Messenger Mentoring Movement, featured Daryl Atkinson of Second Chance Federation, Tara Raghuveer of the Tenant Union Federation, and Manuela Osorio of Bikes for Migrants.
On Sunday morning, we started the day with the plenary Rooted in Mind, Body & Spirit: Reclaiming Traditions of Healing and Care and focused on what it means to heal right now both individually and collectively, and how modalities are often colonized from communities and repackaged back to them. The panelists included Brandon Sturdivant of Mass Liberation Project, Author and Psychologist Elias Dakwar, Tony Koji Wallin-Soto of Zen in Prisons, and Ifetayo Harvey of the People of Color Psychedlic Collective, with Kassandra Frederique from Drug Policy Alliance as the moderator.
This is our time to see past some of our petty divisions, to let some of our old turf battles go, and either we are going to meet this moment or they're going to win. And I'm built to meet the moment.
Workshops
On Saturday and Sunday we had two blocks filled with workshops that shared skills and resources related to community defense, mutual aid, healing and somatics, art and performance, and more. Our incredible workshop leaders held space for participants to gain more skills needed to be rooted in their communities and histories of resistance. Workshops are always a highlight of the weekend for participants and we were grateful to be able to offer a wide variety of workshop topics. See the full program for Saturday and Sunday here.
Art Room
This year’s art room was carefully curated by a group of students, Beyond the Bars fellows, staff, and staff’s children. The room captured just a few of the ways people are establishing roots and experimenting with strategies to meet the needs of their local communities in an age of rising authoritarianism and depleting access to resources. Throughout the room were representations of basic needs all humans have–like food, shelter, safety, relationships–and examples of pockets of the world where people are taking it upon themselves to provide these for each other rather than relying on the state. Additionally, a group of Beyond the Bars Fellows completed their solidarity project as a part of the fellowship by contributing to the art room through the start of a podcast called Dreaming Beyond the Bars. They captured audio interviews with currently incarcerated people and their family members to share how people are currently caring for themselves and others inside New York State prisons given the recent events inside, including deaths, CO strikes, and lack of sanitary conditions.
Healing & Spirit Room
Each year we are blessed with the offerings of The Givers Revival, co-created by Wakumi Douglas who was the School of Social Work student who inspired the Beyond the Bars Conference back in 2011.
The Givers Revival offered basic care items including over-the-counter medications, period products, toiletries & other items; a radical rest station featuring lounge chairs, pillows, blankets and restful music; a spiritual bath and smudge station and ancestral altar; spiritual care mini-sessions; and body work mini-sessions.
Film Screenings
On Saturday night, we screened four films: Free Joan Little, Held & Healing, How Did I Get Here, And Beyond Survival. Each film screening highlighted the stories of women either currently or formerly incarcerated and the struggles and triumphs they faced. Filmmakers were present for talkbacks at each screening with the audience.
Closing Circle
Due to feedback from previous conferences, we decided to end this year with a closing circle to give us all one last chance to be together before departing. Wakumi Douglas led us in an exercise to visualize how the conference supported all of us staying more rooted in ourselves, our communities, and our purpose. We then tied what we wrote onto the paper roots on the wall. We sang together and reflected on a incredible weekend of community and movement building and we can't wait to do it all again in 2027!
Thank you to all who attended and made this year one of the best Beyond the Bars Conferences yet! We look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
See photos from Thursday night here and photos from Friday night here. Photo credit: Angela James Photography
See photos from Saturday & Sunday here. Photo credit: Echoes of Incarceration