Art and Storytelling to Recreate Lives

Dances for Solidarity co-creates choreography with people who are in prison and those who have returned home. Our choreographic collaboration empowers the incarcerated, creating a connection with the outside community. The process of embodying and performing this work with formerly incarcerated individuals is one where we all come together to create, to care for one another, and to collectively reimagine what justice looks like.

Re/Creation is a service organization to provides a pipeline to positive re-direction and self actualization for people in different stages of incarceration, reentry, and recovery. As writing is an integral practice to recreating one’s life, Re/Creation serves as a publication hub for work that is developed in opposition of the American carceral apparatus.

Both of our organizations work in collaboration with communities of justice-affected people, creating stories, dances, and other forms of art with people behind bars and who have returned home from prison. The pandemic has made it very difficult for many of our collaborators to connect and collaborate due to lack of access to technology and reliable Internet. Bridging this technology gap will allow our communities better ability to conduct aspects of life that require reliable technology, such as attending school, applying for employment, attending college prep classes and tutoring, and collaborating with us and each other to write, choreograph, and create.

We have assessed the needs of our community members, and as soon as funds are disbursed, we will be able to purchase appropriate technology and set up data plans for devices. Our goal is to make these purchases immediately, so we can get our community members online ASAP.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis of inequity. While so much of the world pivoted their activities online, many people were left out, and many of those people are in our communities. We have witnessed the difficulties associated with joining a Zoom class, hunting down a wifi connection to fill out an application, or having to drop out of classes and internships due to lack of access. We are doing this fundraiser to provide the technology that will help bridge these gaps and bring so many of our community members back into the fold.