Perform Love

"Theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings – and not by animals – to observe themselves in action. Humans are capable of seeing themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts." - Augusto Boal. You can follow my personal blog at: experimentwithtruth.tumblr.com just send me an ask for the password.

[fergusonresponse]

RICHMOND, VA

SAT JUN 20 - 12:00 PM

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS Corner of Floyd & Boulevard

Demo against the Confederate flag at VMFA

[performlove-blog]

Fuck... You... Cancer. I hate what you're doing to my family.

[sckrewedup-deactivated20220616]

Brothers are reunited after 11 years when oldest is released from prison.

[micdotcom]

Until the late 1960s, it was illegal for interracial couples to marry in most states across the U.S., but that changed  June 12, 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the fittingly named Mildred and Richard Loving, effectively and rightfully declaring that love can, should and does transcend race. This landmark Loving v. Virginia ruling is commemorated on Loving Day, which falls on June 12 each year, to teach others about this significant legal decision.

[millennial-review-deactivated20]

$80 Billion a Year For Universal Education, Over $50 Billion a Year for our Bloated Prison System. Time to Make Some Cuts.

In the land of the free more people are thrown behind every years than in every country in the world. The United States likes to tout freedom and democracy and it is time to end some of the hypocritical policies which impede on both those ideals. The prison complex, especially private for profit prisons, target marginalized groups at a much higher rate and profit off the tax payer. Imprisoning minority offenders indiscriminately costs the United States billions each year. Many of these crimes are simple drug charges which should not be prosecuted by prison to begin with. While prisons are certainly important, our current system costs far too much money and erodes some of the fundamental ideas the United States was founded on. The time to roll back prison spending and reinvest that money in our future came decades ago. It is time for a change and Bernie Sanders is the man who can help provide that change. Bernie Sanders 2016!

[performlove-blog]

My dad is dying. I don't know what to think or do. How do you wrap your head around knowing your saying your very last goodbye to the first man who ever loved you? I'm falling apart inside.

[attndotcom]

Strong sentiment from John Legend about the state of criminal justice in America.

[attndotcom]

Understand America’s addiction to prison in 3 minutes

[attndotcom]

The Horrifying Reality for Some Kids Sentenced to Life in Prison

A series of Supreme Court rulings in the past decade have amended the sentences that can be imposed on youth. In 2005, Roper v. Simmons abolished the death penalty for children under age 18. In 2010, Graham v. Florida mandated that the JLWOP was unconstitutional for non-homicide offenses. Finally, in 2012, Miller v. Alabama said that mandatory JLWOP sentences were unconstitutional, yet each state has been left to decide if it will apply this ruling retroactively to the 2,500 prisoners serving JLWOP.

[theginkgopapers]

Photos by Bruce Jackson

“…Everyone in the Texas prisons in the years I worked there used a definite article when referring to the units: it was always “Down on the Ramsey,” not “Down on Ramsey,” and “Up on the Ellis,” not “Up on Ellis.” It made no sense to me until I realized that nearly all of those prison farms had been plantations at one time, so it was like an abbreviated way of saying “I’m going to the Smith family’s plantation,” or “I’m going to the Smiths’.” Cummins Prison Farm 1975 “Convict Guards” at Cummins Prison Farm in 1971 Cotton picking prisoners at Cummins Prison Farm in 1975 with field lieutenant Cummins Prison Farm in 1972 Cummins Prison Farm 1973 Cummins Prison Farm in 1975 Cummins Prison Farm in 1973 Cummins Prison Farm Mess hall in 1975 Cleaning pistols at Cummins Prison Farm in 1975 Field guards at Ellis Unit in 1978 Death row inmates’ exercise yard at the Ellis Unite in 1979

[motherjones]

Out of 100 prisoners put to death recently, only 13 met the threshold for ‘extreme culpability,’ legal researchers concluded.

Stephanie Mencimer on “87 Reasons to Rethink the Death Penalty.”  (via motherjones)

[libertariantimes]

Libertarian Times

[democracynow]

In Dane County, there’s a 5 percent black population, but the jail population is roughly 50 percent black. The only way we’re going to end the disproportionate amount of black people incarcerated is to immediately release 350 black people, who are incarcerated due to crimes of poverty.

M Adams, Madison-based activist and organizer with the Young Gifted & Black Coalition and Freedom Inc. She joined Democracy Now! to discuss the Dane County district attorney’s decision not to press charges against the police officer who fatally shot Tony Robinson, an unarmed 19-year old biracial man. Watch the interview at democracynow.org. (via democracynow)

[fullpraxisnow]

Elsewhere it has been shown that prisons provide no real safety for society and no real reform of criminals. Most people realize this, at least insofar as they agree that crime is generally caused by social factors and in the long run can be dealt with only by changes in the social and economic spheres. Why the logical next step of abolishing the prison system is not made seems to be because, as with other aspects of our society, it is easier to fall back on a distant and impersonal system that already exists than to try to create new alternatives.

Gunnar Knutson | An Ex-Prisoner, “Behind Bars” (1970)

[micdotcom]

James Burns wasn’t sure if what he was seeing was real.

He saw a bed, linoleum floors and fluorescent lights, but the medication in his bloodstream had been causing him to hallucinate. He walked to the door and found it locked. He screamed in panic and kicked the door. People came into the room, restrained him and injected him with tranquilizers, knocking him out. When he woke up, the cycle repeated.

Burns was 6 years old, and was being subjected to two weeks of solitary confinement for the first time. It wouldn’t be the last.

[attndotcom]

Here are 4 Key People Getting Rich Off Prisoners

Many people are terrified by the idea of a for-profit prison system, and they should be. Just like oil companies that pollute the environment without consequence and influence policy making, it’s an industry that has gotten out of control. It’s gotten to the point that many private prisons have contracts with the government that guarantee they will remain 80 to 90 percent full, and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country’s largest private prison company, has seen a 500 percent profit increase in 20 years.

[salon]

Rampant privatization is wreaking havoc on our society. Case in point: what’s happened over the past few decades with prison phone services.It used to be that if you were incarcerated at, say, the state penitentiary or the local jail you could call your family collect for as little as $4 an hour. But then, states began signing contracts with private phone companies like AT&T, who, in turn, began charging sky-high rates for phone calls between prisoners and their families.

Thanks to kickbacks from phone companies, state and local governments are incentivized to keep their cells filled