Daily Detailed Schedule of the 2025 Beyond the Bars Conference
THURSDAY NIGHT, MARCH 6TH
WOMEN TRANSCENDING COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP CELEBRATION (SOLD OUT)
TIME: Doors at 5:30pm, Event begins at 6pm
LOCATION: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
FRIDAY NIGHT, MARCH 7TH
OPENING NIGHT
TIME: Doors at 5:30pm, Event begins at 6pm
LOCATION: Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive
SATURDAY, MARCH 8TH
BEYOND THE BARS: SANKOFA: PLENARIES AND WORKSHOPS (SOLD OUT)
LOCATION: Columbia School of Social Work (1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027)
Saturday and Sunday Program
SCHEDULE:
9:15 am: Light Breakfast
10:00 am: Plenary #1: Healing & Rest in these Political Times & Beyond
11:45 am: Plenary #2: Rights, Resistance, & Resilience
1:15 pm: Lunch
2:15pm: Workshop Block #1
- Hands On Defense Model
- Erase the Database: Ending Gangs Policing
- The New Mass Incarceration Population: Women and Girls and their Babies
- Art, Harm and Healing: A Journey in Resisting Life Sentences
- Method of the Streets: On Revolutionary Conscious Building in Illinois Youth Prisons + Cumbernauld Pamphlet Making Workshop
- Pathways to Freedom
- The Poetry of Rap for Justice-impacted Lives
- Confronting Governance through Punishment in 2025
- Training A Circle Keeper: Building Abolitionists, Beloved and Caring Communities through Restorative Justice Praxis
- Healing the Leaders: Lessons Learned and Practices Rooted in Ancestral Wisdom
-
Connecting the Dots: Family Separation Across Carceral Systems
3:45 pm: Workshop Block #2
- Demystifying Civil Litigation: Preserving Your Right to Pursue a Damages Lawsuit
- Sankofa Stories: Harnessing Narrative Design to Transform Pretrial Justice
- Beyond Bars, Beyond Resilience: Climate Justice for the Carceral Population
- Cop Nation. Incarceration Nation. Common Struggle and Resistance.
- The Mourning After: Using Collective Grief and Loss to Fuel Collective Action
- Out of the Jail and Into the Capitol: A Grassroots Effort to Promote Safety and Dignity Behind Bars
- Up to Us: Sex Ed Films by and for Justice System-Impacted Youth
- Beauty Beyond Bars: Reclaiming Identity Amidst Incarceration
- Freedom to Breathe: Restorative Breathwork for Rebuilding Strength and Calm
- Transitioning from Student to Leadership: Insights and Challenges Navigating Higher Education ft Underground Scholars Programs
-
The Struggle of Pregnancy Behind Bars
5:30 pm: Saturday Night Film Screening & Talkback: Time II Unfinished Business
If you are not registered for the conference but would like to attend this event, please register here.
SUNDAY, MARCH 9TH
BEYOND THE BARS: SANKOFA: PLENARY + WORKSHOPS
LOCATION: Columbia School of Social Work (1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027)
SCHEDULE:
9:15 am: Light Breakfast
10:00 am: Plenary #1: Forward Ever: Young People and Their Visions for the Future
11:45 am: Workshop Block #1
- Project Restore Bed-Stuy: From Rivals to Collaborators
- Navigating the Now: Strategic Rapid Response
- Stronger Together: The Necessity of Attorney & Community Organizing Collaboration in the Wake of Project 2025
- From Attica to Marcy: It's Time for Abolition
- Self-Defense and Community Care: Equipping Ourselves to Protect and Care for Each Other
- Reclaiming Mental Health and Resilience for Formerly Incarcerated College Students
- Exploring the Art of Community Resilience: Artivism & Photovoice as Participatory Action Research Methods
- Let Her Go: The Fight to Decarcerate Women at Rikers Island
- Securing Funding Opportunities in Challenging Times
- Making Social Impact through Healing and Collaborative Work Within and Beyond the Walls
-
Bridging the Gap: Creative Advocacy for Reentry and Community Healing
1:15 pm: Lunch
2:15 pm: Workshop Block #2
- Fighting for a Second Look Inside and Out
- Participatory Defense: Helping Our Loved Ones
- Fighting for Youth Justice
- Abolitionist Organizing Under Authoritarianism
- From Harm to Healing: Alternative Responses to Intimate Partner Violence
- Advocacy and Abolition for Beginners
- See Me: Reframing Our Stories
- Justice at the Gate: Building Bridges for System-Impacted Women
CONFERENCE EXTRAS
Learn about the healing room, art room, film screenings and more happening throughout the conference here.