Social change partners

California Coalition for Women Prisoners

California,with hubs in Oakland and Los Angeles

California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) is a grassroots abolitionist organization that challenges the institutional violence perpetrated on women, transgender individuals, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). They believe that the fight for racial and gender justice is essential to dismantling the PIC. The movement is driven by the leadership of those most impacted – including people inside and outside of prison, families, and communities.

They envision a world where the prison system, designed for punishment, control, and the incarceration of primarily people of color and the poor, is abolished. Their goal is a society that prioritizes education over incarceration, directs investment towards employment rather than prisons, rejects sexual violence, and upholds human rights for all individuals.

Chicago Torture Justice Center

Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Torture Justice Center is dedicated to confronting the traumas resulting from police violence and institutionalized racism by providing access to healing and wellness services, trauma-informed resources, and fostering community connections. The Center actively contributes to and aligns with a movement aimed at eradicating all manifestations of police violence.

Through a collaborative process involving CTJC staff, the Survivor and Family Advisory Council, and our Board of Directors established a cohesive set of organizational values that guide their actions and decisions, shaping the way they live and operate as a collective.

Both Sides of the Wall

Birmingham, Alabama

Both Sides of the Wall, a grassroots organization, is dedicated to reforming the Criminal Justice system. Their focus includes advocating for Prison Reform, restorative justice, participatory defense, reentry support, effective programming, and parole. Founded by spouses and family members of incarcerated individuals in the Alabama Department of Corrections, they work to ensure fair sentencing and rehabilitation through evidence-based programs. They stand in solidarity with all incarcerated individuals and their families, leveraging protests and rallies to raise awareness about inhumane treatment and poor living conditions in prisons.

Women Transcending

New York, New York

Women Transcending (WT) focuses on the impact of the mass incarceration system on women and girls, emphasizing women's crucial roles in driving change within these systems. Led by formerly incarcerated and directly-impacted women, WT strives to illuminate the factors leading women into the criminal justice system and raise awareness of the repercussions of punitive measures on individuals, families, and communities. Empowering women to lead and effect change, WT seeks to reshape the current narrative on incarceration through projects like the Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute, Oral History Research Project, public programming, and The Right/Write to Heal initiative in collaboration with the Center for Justice (CfJ) at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and VDay.

Barred Business

Atlanta, Georgia

Barred Business aims to uplift and empower marginalized justice-impacted individuals, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and Trans people of color, along with their families and communities. Their vision is a world where these individuals can live, work, and thrive without discrimination. To achieve this vision, they advocate for policy changes, institutional transformations, and electoral strategies to empower these communities and ensure their well-being and safety. They believe in redirecting resources from punitive systems to community-based services, addressing racial and economic disparities that have long persisted.

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Archival partners

Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem stands as a leading cultural institution dedicated to the examination, preservation, and presentation of materials pertaining to African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Operating as a division of The New York Public Library, the center boasts a collection of over 11 million items that shed light on the rich history, arts, and culture of the global Black community.

Within the center, the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division is focused on acquiring, safeguarding, and granting access to rare primary source materials that capture the history and culture of individuals of African descent across the world, with a particular emphasis on the Americas and the Caribbean. Originating in 1926 with the acquisition of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg's personal library, the division now houses close to 1,000 manuscript and archival collections, exceeding 7,000 linear feet, and over 9,000 rare book titles, including works by celebrated figures such as James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, and Maya Angelou.

As a cornerstone of Harlem's cultural landscape, the Schomburg Center serves as the premier national research library in the realm of African American and African Diasporic studies, offering unrestricted access to its expansive collections for scholarly research endeavors and educational purposes.

Freedom Archives

The Freedom Archives, a non-profit educational archive based in Berkeley, is committed to safeguarding and disseminating historical audio, video, and print materials that chronicle progressive movements and culture from the 1960s to the 1990s. In addition to maintaining a vast collection of over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings encompassing news, poetry, music programs, interviews, reports, prison voices, and recordings of demonstrations and activists, the archive is actively digitizing and organizing historical documents from radical organizations and movements.

Moreover, the Freedom Archives runs a youth development program that immerses participants in these historical materials and provides training in media production. The archive also creates original documentaries and educational resources for schools and organizations to utilize in fostering community development and advancing social justice initiatives. By offering free access to their digitized materials, the Freedom Archives serves as a valuable repository of cultural diversity and a crucial resource for students, educators, community groups, filmmakers, activists, historians, artists, media outlets, and researchers seeking to engage with and learn from the rich tapestry of progressive movements and cultural expressions spanning five decades.

Invisible Institute

The Invisible Institute emerged from the dedicated efforts of executive director Jamie Kalven during a crucial period characterized by the closure of high-rise public housing in Chicago. Between 1994 and 2007, Kalven focused his work on the Stateway Gardens public housing development, identified in the 1990 census as the most impoverished community in the United States. During this period, Kalven took on various roles, such as spearheading a "grassroots public works" initiative aimed at providing alternatives for individuals transitioning from incarceration and those involved in street gangs. He also advised the resident council and engaged in negotiations with entities like the Chicago Housing Authority, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and private developers. Kalven's approach included a unique form of human rights documentation, which was praised by the renowned Studs Terkel as "guerrilla journalism."

The name "Invisible Institute" went beyond being a mere organizational title; it symbolized a collaborative network and a distinctive investigative approach centered on exploration and relationship-building. Central to this methodology is a deep recognition of the urgent need for public and private discussions on the multifaceted issues surrounding "race." Despite this critical need, the lack of established relationships and shared language poses challenges to sustaining these discussions.

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Creative Partners

Empowerment Avenue

Empowerment Avenue's overarching mission is to facilitate the normalization of the inclusion of incarcerated writers and artists in mainstream venues through bridging the existing gap between these individuals and leveraging their creative talents as a means to foster de-carceration and enhance public safety. In pursuit of this noble objective, they have devised a comprehensive two-pronged strategy. Firstly, they provide unwavering support to exceptionally talented writers and artists incarcerated across the nation, equipping them with the necessary resources to showcase their creative endeavors outside the confines of prison walls, ensuring equitable compensation, and empowering them to actively contribute to movements advocating for the abolition, de-carceration, and liberation of incarcerated individuals. Secondly, they actively bolster the capacity of various publications, galleries, museums, and like-minded organizations dedicated to this cause, assisting them in authentically centering currently incarcerated individuals within creative spaces while ensuring fair compensation for their valuable contributions.

The genesis of Empowerment Avenue can be traced back to their aspiration to establish a robust framework that facilitates and nurtures inside-outside partnerships, effectively reducing barriers to collaboration with and just compensation for incarcerated individuals. This innovative concept was initially trialed under the umbrella of Prison Renaissance, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Rahsaan at San Quentin. Their strategic approach revolves around cultivating inside-outside partnerships anchored in distinct themes and providing essential support services to foster meaningful connections and collaborations. Presently, they operate three active tracks: Writing for Liberation, which focuses on supporting journalists, writers, and poets, and Visual Arts for Liberation, which is dedicated to empowering visual artists. Through these initiatives, their ultimate ambition is to seamlessly integrate incarcerated writers and artists into mainstream platforms by bridging the existing divide between them, thereby creating opportunities for their creative expressions to be showcased, valued, and embraced by a wider audience.

Street Theory

STREET THEORY, founded by Curator/Producer Liza Quiñonez, is an award-winning creative agency that specializes in activating communities, spaces, and global brands through various creative avenues such as street art, experiential marketing, cultural placemaking, branding, and design. As a BIPOC artist-owned agency with over 20 years of experience in large-scale public art production, artist management, art and design direction, exhibitions, and special events, they leverage their expertise to execute their client's objectives with the utmost strategic planning and creative expression. Their work spans across diverse fields including lifestyle, hospitality, retail, real estate, urban planning, and community development.

At STREET THEORY, they take pride in crafting authentic experiences that infuse art and street culture into every facet of life and work. From curating and producing events to empowering communities and collaborating with some of today's most prominent artists, they strive to foster a dialogue and inspire artists, organizers, and communities to support one another through creative channels. Their goal is to utilize these outlets to raise awareness and disseminate crucial information necessary to advocate for, uplift, and empower victims of racial and social injustice.

Central to their mission is the support and promotion of Black Artists and Artists of Color, as they believe their contributions are integral to reshaping cities, neighborhoods, institutions, and communities into more diverse, multicultural, and tolerant spaces.

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