Prison Focus Week

So I wanted to take advantage of this space to let you all know about the Prison Focus Week. We have some really interesting people coming to speak to us throughout the week and, next weekend, is our yearly Green Haven Reunion. If you are interested in the criminal justice system, have taken Mamiya’s class or just want to learn more, please come by!

Monday, March 31:
7pm in the AULA
Opening of the Prison Art Exhibit. Calvin Frett who works on the Peter Black Prison Art Collective is going to set up his work in the AULA. Come to our opening, or just stop by the AULA during the week. The exhibit will be open on Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 5pm, on Wed. from noon to 9pm and on Friday from 5 to 7 pm.

Tuesday, April 1:
5:30pm in Taylor 203
Mary-Beth Pfeiffer will speak about her book “Crazy in America: The hidden tragedy of our criminalized mentally ill”. A former editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal, Ms. Pfeiffer did a series of investigative articles exposing the treatment and problems of the mentally ill in N.Y. State Prisons. As a sign of her success, she is now permanently banned from N.Y. State prisons.

Thursday, April 3:
5:30pm in the ALANA Center
Karla Brundage, an English major at Vassar (class or 1989) will be doing a poetry reading from her first published poetry collection, “Swallowing Watermellons”. She tracks her life experiences as a biracial young woman, a single mother, and an artist activist. She has participated in Poetic Protests, and teaches poetry to youth in the penal system, as well as men and women in maximum-security prisons.

Saturday, April 5:
10:30 am to 5pm, AULA
Green Haven Reunion! This annual event brings together formerly incarcerated men from Green Haven and Otisville prisons, formerly incarcerated women, Vassar alums who worked with them, community activists on prison issues, and current students, faculty, and administrators in a day long focus on prison issues. We will have workshops in the afternoon, which people are more then welcome to participate in. The workshops will be: “College Prison Program at Vassar”, where we will discuss efforts to get Vassar to teach classes in prisons, “Women in Prison”, where we will discuss the experiences of women in the criminal justice system, and a workshop with people from Drop the Rock (the coordinator and other Vassar alums involved in the program are coming to Vassar!), who work on repealing the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Please come!
Juliana