Ellenville NAACP Presents

Ellenville NAACP Presents: “Where Do We Go From Here” A Panelist Forum, Tue, Dec 20 at 6 p.m.
Ellenville Public Library Community Room, 40 Center Street, Ellenville, NY 12428.
We invite the community to attend this open panel discussion on the current political landscape and the ways we can be active in making positive impacts in our local area.

The Panel:
Peter Heymann, community activist.
Imogene Simmons-Kelly, social justice advocate.
Dr. Albert J. Williams-Myers, historian in the Mid-Hudson Region and retired professor of SUNY New Paltz (Black Studies Department).
Michael Sussman, civil rights attorney. Dr. Zelbert Moore, retired professor of SUNY New Paltz (Black Studies Department)


For more information call Maude Bruce, President of Ellenville NAACP (845) 647-6371

Weekend Events

Saturday December December 10 from 10:30 - 11:30. Vigil and Protest. I trust that you have read the recent accounts of Ulster Savings Bank (my bank) being taken to federal court for excluding Blacks from receiving equal treatment when applying for loans. The tests that turned up this alleged disparity occurred at the bank’s offices in White Plains, Goshen, Poughkeepsie and Riverhead, in Suffolk County"  (WAMC).  I would like to be able to put together at least three sites: 
-Poughkeepsie (2680 South Road),
-New Paltz (Main St) and
-Kingston (180 Schwenk Drive, Kingston, NY 12401.- near the bus station)   
The Rev Richard Witt
Rural & Migrant Ministry
Rcyrilwitt@aol.com

Saturday, December 10 at 2 PM - 4 PM @ Mid-Hudson Heritage Center
317 Main St, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601
Slavery technically ended over 150 years ago. But Ava DuVernay wants you to take another look at the amendment that abolished it. Her documentary 13TH is a powerful look at how the modern-day prison labor system links to slavery. The film offers a timely and emotional message framed by the recent election and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Screening of PROFILED


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016 
3:00-5:00 PM
LGBTQ Community Center, 300 WALL STREET, KINGSTON, NY
After the 52 minute film, we will be leading facilitated discussions on the issues presented. This film screening is free, but we are asking folks to bring new or gently used popular fiction books for people behind bars at Green Haven Correctional Facility. 

LGBTQ Community for Racial Justice
presents a screening of

PROFILED


Profiled knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latinx youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims—Eric Garner, Michael Brown—are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods

Race Soldier


What White People Can Do About Racism

FUNDAMENTALS, Part 1

How to act against racism from a position of 

unearned (and unwanted) racial privilege

Saturday, December 3, 2016
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
The Kirkland Building, 2 Main St, Kingston NY 12401

United States society is historically and presently structured by race. White people have a privileged position within that structure. Many white people understand this implicitly and are uncomfortable with the inherent unfairness, but do not know what to do about it. This workshop is intended to give white people some basic knowledge about:

-racial structure
-building connections and cross-racial alliances
-finding direction on your journey as an effective change agent
-building a personal support network for the work you do

Cost: $95 per participant, including lunch.* Sliding scale available.

*Graduates of one of our prior workshops receive a $10 discount off the registration cost.

Format: a 6-hour workshop offered on a single day with a morning session, a lunch break, and an after- noon session. The workshop uses didactic presentation, small group discussion, large group discussion, and a slideshow presentation. Handouts are made available to participants.

The registration fee covers all materials, plus lunch. Participants also receive a free book. Available choices are either Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing: Stories from Our Work (list price $17.95) or Lifting the White Veil: A Look at White American Culture (list price $19.95). The workshop has been developed under the care of the Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. (CSWAC) in Roselle, NJ. Each workshop is conducted by a team of CSWAC trainers who are also white anti-racist activists with a history as organizers and facilitators working in cross-racial alliances.

Requirements: The workshop is appropriate for white people who are open to learning what to do about racism, perhaps feeling they should be doing something but not sure what. The workshop is also appro- priate for people of color who want to support white people who want to take action against racism.

For more information, contact:
Robin Alpern (914) 736-5447, robin.alpern@gmail.com
Jeff Hitchcock (908) 245-4972, contact@euroamerican.org

4th Annual Walk for Gun Sense, Sat, Nov 5

ENJAN-Poughkeepsie agreed at our meeting last night to walk as a contingent in the 4th Annual Walk for Gun Sense sponsored by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence this coming Saturday. Please feel free to join us!  The march begins at 10 am on the Poughkeepsie side of the Walkway Over the Hudson. If you think you can make it, let me know so we know to look for you!  The weather should be nice: they are forecasting partly sunny skies and a high of 61 degrees!
Jeff


FROM #BLACK LIVES MATTER TO BLACK LIBERATION

KINGSTON
ENJAN
IS PROUD TO HOST A NEW
BOOK READ


FROM #BLACK LIVES MATTER TO BLACK LIBERATION
by Keenanga-Yamahtta Taylor


“Keenanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s searching examination of the social, political, and economic dimensions of the prevailing racial order offers important context for understanding the necessity of the emerging movement for Black liberation.” 
 Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Monday, November 7, 2016

At the new A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Library
43 Gill Street, Kingston NY

Starting Promptly at 6 PM


Books available for purchase at next ENJAN MEETING, October 24, 2016 at New Progressive Baptist Church, 8 Hone Street, Kingston, downstairs or online at Amazon

For Info: Call Odell at 914-388- 3092

DUTCHESS COUNTY JAIL EXPANSION TEACH-IN


DUTCHESS COUNTY JAIL EXPANSION TEACH-IN

Saturday, October15, 2016 9:30 am – 1 pm

Light Breakfast & Networking: 9:30am TOPICS:

Restorative Justice • Alternatives to Mass Incarceration School-to-Prison Pipeline • More 

In the Cafeteria, Downstairs at The Family Partnership Center 29 N. Hamilton Street, Poughkeepsie, 

WHAT:  Poughkeepsie’s End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) will host a teach-in on alternatives to Dutchess County’s plans to build a larger and more expensive jail. 

The teach-in is co-sponsored by Beacon Prison Action • Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance • Hudson Valley Black Lives Matter Coalition • Kingston ENJAN • New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) • Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson • Poughkeepsie Progressives • Poughkeepsie Unitarian Universalists • Race Unity Circle • Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library

 WHO: The event will feature several speakers and panelists, including noted civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, Dutchess County legislator Francena Amparo, Shannon Wong (NYCLU Lower Hudson Valley Chapter Director), and a representative from the Mid-Hudson Valley Black Lives Matter Coalition, among others. The End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) will also release its 7-point plan for reducing the county’s jail population.

HOW/WHY: A solution to Dutchess County’s “jail problem” is long overdue. Though the county legislature passed a $192-million-dollar bond for a new facility, a bigger and more expensive jail is the wrong “solution” to jail overcrowding. Because the real sources of jail overcrowding are the failed policies of mass incarceration, End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) calls on the county to implement several proposals that would significantly reduce the number of people in jail, increase public safety, and make Dutchess County a more equitable and just place to live for all its residents. This event informs concerned citizens about the complex and important issues of alternatives to mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and more.

www.enjan.org • enjanhv@gmail.com • 845.475.8781


From Center for Constitutional Rights

Police are a constant lethal threat to Black Americans 


"After the killing of 193 Black Americans this year," CCR Executive Director Vince Warren told Democracy Now!, "I'm quite prepared not to believe the police department narratives of anything that happened in these investigations." He was speaking last Wednesday after the police killings of Terrence Crutcher – the Oklahoma man whose car broke down who was shot with his hands in the air – and Keith Lamont Scott – the North Carolina father reading a book waiting in his car to pick up his son from school. The number has gone up since then.

In these cases and in so many others, video and eyewitness accounts contradict police explanations and excuses.

As usual, when police provocation escalated peaceful protests in Charlotte, officials and politicians were far quicker to denounce "unrest" than the police violence people were protesting. "Black lives are so dehumanized," said Vince, "that it is OK structurally – it's OK in the context of the police department, it's OK in the context of the criminal justice system – to kill Black people."

Vince was joined by Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson and Bree Newsome, the artist and activist who removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capital. Commenting on the fact that the police simply left Terrence Crutcher to die, Rashad said Black people, "even in their death are seen as deserving – not deserving of medical support – deserving of the situations." Earlier this year Color of Change and CCR filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents on the police surveillance of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"We've lost complete faith in the system because the system is designed to do the exact opposite of what Black people need," Vince told Democracy Now!.

Underscoring the systemic nature of police bias against Blacks, a Massachusetts court ruled last week that Black men who encounter Boston police have a legitimate reason to run away. Being "motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled" is a rational response to such encounters.

"This issue is as old as policing in America," Bree Newsome told Democracy Now!

There’s oppression, there’s social injustice, and these kids live it.


Woodrow Wilson players and coaches
take a knee during national anthem.

Nearly every player and coach on the Woodrow Wilson high school football team kneeled for the playing of the national anthem on Saturday, following head coach Preston Brown’s decision to do so. After Brown told the team and his staff of his plans to protest his concerns over racial inequalities, Phil Anastasia of Philly.com reports, most of them chose to do the same. “I still love America. I still love our military,” Brown said, according to Philly.com. “But this was our way of saying that things have to change in our country. There’s oppression, there’s social injustice, and these kids live it.”

Reclaiming Our Schools

The Race Unity Circle of Poughkeepsie and the Alliance for Quality Education is sponsoring a public forum and community discussion Reclaiming Our Schools on Wednesday, September 21, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, 317 Main Street, Poughkeepsie. Speakers include Albert Cook, Jasmine Gripper, and Paul Donnelly.

A Vision for Black Lives

A VISION FOR BLACK LIVES
POLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM & JUSTICE

PLATFORM

Black humanity and dignity requires Black political will and power. Despite constant exploitation and perpetual oppression, Black people have bravely and brilliantly been the driving force pushing the U.S. towards the ideals it articulates but has never achieved. In recent years we have taken to the streets, launched massive campaigns, and impacted elections, but our elected leaders have failed to address the legitimate demands of our Movement. We can no longer wait.

In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country have come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda. We are a collective that centers and is rooted in Black communities, but we recognize we have a shared struggle with all oppressed people; collective liberation will be a product of all of our work.

We believe in elevating the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized Black people, including but not limited to those who are women, queer, trans, femmes, gender nonconforming, Muslim, formerly and currently incarcerated, cash poor and working class, differently-abled, undocumented, and immigrant. We are intentional about amplifying the particular experience of state and gendered violence that Black queer, trans, gender nonconforming, women and intersex people face. There can be no liberation for all Black people if we do not center and fight for those who have been marginalized. It is our hope that by working together to create and amplify a shared agenda, we can continue to move towards a world in which the full humanity and dignity of all people is recognized.
While this platform is focused on domestic policies, we know that patriarchy, exploitative capitalism, militarism, and white supremacy know no borders. We stand in solidarity with our international family against the ravages of global capitalism and anti-Black racism, human-made climate change, war, and exploitation. We also stand with descendants of African people all over the world in an ongoing call and struggle for reparations for the historic and continuing harms of colonialism and slavery. We also recognize and honor the rights and struggle of our Indigenous family for land and self-determination.

We have created this platform to articulate and support the ambitions and work of Black people. We also seek to intervene in the current political climate and assert a clear vision, particularly for those who claim to be our allies, of the world we want them to help us create. We reject false solutions and believe we can achieve a complete transformation of the current systems, which place profit over people and make it impossible for many of us to breathe.

Together, we demand an end to the wars against Black people. We demand that the government repair the harms that have been done to Black communities in the form of reparations and targeted long-term investments. We also demand a defunding of the systems and institutions that criminalize and cage us. This document articulates our vision of a fundamentally different world. However, we recognize the need to include policies that address the immediate suffering of Black people. These policies, while less transformational, are necessary to address the current material conditions of our people and will better equip us to win the world we demand and deserve.

We recognize that not all of our collective needs and visions can be translated into policy, but we understand that policy change is one of many tactics necessary to move us towards the world we envision. We have come together now because we believe it is time to forge a new covenant. We are dreamers and doers and this platform is meant to articulate some of our vision. The links throughout the document provide the stepping-stones and roadmaps of how to get there. The policy briefs also elevate the brave and transformative work our people are already engaged in, and build on some of the best thinking in our history of struggle. This agenda continues the legacy of our ancestors who pushed for reparations, Black self-determination and community control; and also propels new iterations of movements such as efforts for reproductive justice, holistic healing and reconciliation, and ending violence against Black cis, queer, and trans people.

Stand with us any Saturday- 12:45-1:30 in front of Elting Library!


Dear WIB and Friends of WIB,

Hope this finds everyone doing well and getting through this zany political season OK. The good news, I think most of us can agree on, is that Trump's numbers are falling. May he continue to be his bigoted, misogynistic self and may they plummet further! ...

Lastly, we want to thank our WIB member Shirley Warren for making us a terrific new sign which we will be displaying tomorrow. We are in the process of endorsing the platform for the Movement for Black Lives. A Vision for Black Lives is an impressive, thoughtful and comprehensive document and we encourage everyone to read it. We also invite you to stand with us any Saturday- 12:45-1:30 in front of Elting Library!


Gathering of groups inspired by Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow"

United to End the New Jim Crow

a Mid-Hudson Valley Regional Gathering 
 

On Saturday, August 6th there will be a gathering of groups inspired by Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow.  People will have an opportunity to build connections, discuss key issues, and think together about how we might support each other's efforts into the future.
 
August 6, 11:30 am - 4:00 pm
Optional 10:30 am SAFE Parole Act Workshop
Christ the King Episcopal Church
3021 State Route 213 East, Stone Ridge, NY

Please bring a dish to share.
 
Schedule of Events
10:30 SAFE Parole Act Workshop-optional
11:30 **Main event begins - Introductions & Welcome **
12:45 Potluck lunch and BBQ
2:15 Breakout groups
3:30 Closing

Join us for the SAFE Parole Act Workshop at 10:30 am! This is an opportunity to learn from statewide organizers more about this act and how you can get involved. The Safe And Fair Evaluation (SAFE) Parole Act will make the parole board accountable for its decisions, empower applicants to take concrete action to improve their readiness for parole, and reunite families across the state.

This is a collaboratively organized event and your thoughts and energy are welcome as we work to plan this gathering. Questions, suggestions, and offers to help may be directed to Shelley Friedmann at shelley.friedmann@gmail.com

Black Lives Matter in Poughkeepsie


The rally on Sunday, July10, 2016 in Poughkeepsie, NY
was organized by members of Black Lives Matter and
End the New Jim Crow http://www.enjan.org

Video of Hudson Event


HUDSON-More than 200 people gathered to listen to speakers in front of the Columbia County Courthouse Tuesday evening at a vigil for the recent police killings of black men.

HUDSON-More than 200 people gathered to listen to speakers in front of the Columbia County Courthouse Tuesday evening at a vigil for the recent police killings of black men.

Surveillance of people of color

Working to expose surveillance of Black Lives Matter

Last week CCR and Color of Change filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security seeking documents about the apparently coordinated local, state, and federal surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists protesting the senseless killings of predominantly Black people by police forces nationwide – a crisis that continues unabated as demonstrated last week by the brutal execution-style shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Our intent is to use the FOIA to expose the widespread and systemic nature of the surveillance of activists seeking to hold the police and government to account and, in the words of Color of Change’s Brandi Collins “to inform the public narrative around what surveillance actually looks like for people of color.” Read the rest of Brandi’s powerful guest blog, “To be Black is to be Surveilled” on The Daily Outrage.

'She was making her stand'


Photo which shows Iesha L Evans standing still in the face of two Louisiana state troopers in riot gear has drawn comparisons to other historic protest images.


Join us Sunday, July 10th at 7:00PM

Join us Sunday, July 10th at 7:00PM for a vigil for #AltonSterling and #PhilandoCastile .

A time to mourn our fallen brothers, support each other, and call for justice.
#blacklivesmatter

Bring candles if you have them. 

We will be in the empty lot on Main Street in Poughkeepsie near the corner of Market and Main.

Vigil on Thu, July 7 in Kingston

There is a vigil for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both killed by police, tonight in Kingston at 7 pm, on the corner of Broadway and Grand Street.

Public forum and panel discussion

Hyde Park community member Paul Donnelly is facilitating a public forum and panel discussion:
Topic: Preventative Measures To Costly Incarceration

Date: Thursday, June 30, 6:00 -- 8:00 PM
Location: Hyde Park Town Hall, 4383 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park

Panelists include: 
  • Assemblyman Frank Skartados
  • Dr. Roger Christenfeld
  • Honey Minkowitz, Mediation Center of Dutchess County
  • Albert Cook, New Paltz High School Teacher

Priority on schools and education, not jails

It's time to end the 'school-to-prison pipeline'

The recent phenomenon of high-stakes tests along with cutting school funding has led to teacher layoffs and overburdened counselors, which puts stress on students, parents and teachers alike. It has left administrators and teachers unable to manage students effectively and has resulted in excessive suspensions, expulsions and even arrests of millions of public school students across the country.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon disproportionately affects students of color and those with disabilities. This tragic combination of pushing kids out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice system now has a name: The “school-to-prison pipeline”.

Sadly, this process is happening right here in Dutchess County. Eighty-six percent of students in the Poughkeepsie City School District live in poverty and more than 77 percent of the students at the high school are eligible for free and reduced lunch. Concurrent with those stark facts, Dutchess County is set to build a $192 million jail in the City of Poughkeepsie.

As a U.S. history and government teacher, I often bring up current events to make history more relevant to my students. After the jail’s bonding was passed by the County Legislature, my students asked me why a new, larger jail would be built at a time when Poughkeepsie’s schools in the city are threatened to be closed due to poor performance.  When I asked my largest class of 27 students how many of them had a family member that is currently incarcerated or has been incarcerated, all but one raised their hands.

Nobody wants to appear weak when it comes to crime, however, the United States currently has more than 2.3 million people behind bars — more than any other country in the world. In fact, over the last 30 years, the jail population has skyrocketed by 400 percent. For example, 41 percent of American juveniles and young adults have been arrested by the time they turn 23. Once convicted and in the criminal justice system, their lives deteriorate. Convicts are ineligible for state aid, student loans, public housing or food assistance, and often become socially disconnected from community and family support structures. So, in addition to having high rates of recidivism, convicts also have high rates of suicide and homelessness.

It is time to rethink our approach to criminal justice. The current system is not only expensive, costing approximately $75 billion a year, but it also bears an incredible social cost. A cost to people whose lives are changed forever, as well as their families, communities and, ultimately, ourselves. The way we treat criminals is a reflection of our society. “Wars on crime” and “wars on drugs” are really just wars on people. So, instead of locking people up and forgetting about them, the new thinking involves alternatives to incarceration.

A few options the county should look into to lower the numbers of those incarcerated, particularly juveniles, include: speeding the case processing system by hiring another county judge (on average an inmate waits about 52 days until trial), greater investment in outpatient mental health counseling and investing in youth employment programs.

This country has made significant strides to broaden the scope of participation in government for women, immigrants, African-Americans, Hispanics and, recently, the LGBT community. However, during the last 40 years, mass incarceration has created a new caste system that has targeted mostly people of color. Once people are swept into this system, they are then stripped of the rights supposedly won by the civil rights movement. Dutchess County ought not perpetuate such a wrong. It is time put a priority on schools and education for the youth, not jails and incarceration.

Paul Donnelly has worked as a teacher in the Poughkeepsie City School district for 11 years. He also is an instructor for Vassar College's Urban Education Initiative.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Saturday June 18, KINGSTON and NATIONWIDE. A Celebration of Juneteenth takes place here today at the New Progressive Baptist Church, 8 Hone St. promptly at 5 p.m. 

Appearing will be Professor A. J. Williams-Myers, famed civil rights photographer Jim Peppler, and the Redwing Blackbird Theater performing a short mask and puppet show. All are invited. (Information, Odell Winfield, [914] 388-3092). 

Juneteenth is also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day. Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in June 1865, and more generally the emancipation of African-American slaves throughout the Confederate South. Celebrated on June 19, the term is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth and is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states. 

The holiday is observed primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs and Lift Every Voice and Sing, and readings by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations may include parades, rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, and reenactments. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was originally a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), now often referred to as the "Black American National Anthem." For a 3 minute 32 second version of this powerful song (with lyrics) go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7Bn7kPkLo

“three black teenagers” turns up prisoners’ mugshots

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/09/three-black-teenagers-anger-as-google-image-search-shows-police-mugshots

'Three black teenagers': anger as Google image search shows police mugshots


A simple Google image search highlighted on Twitter has been said to highlight the pervasiveness of racial bias and media profiling.

“Three black teenagers” was a trending search on Google on Thursday after a US high school student pointed out the stark difference in results for “three black teenagers” and “three white teenagers”.

Kabir Alli of Virginia posted a clip to Twitter of himself carrying out a straightforward search of “three black teenagers”, which overwhelmingly turns up prisoners’ mugshots.

“Now let’s just change the colour ...”

He and others erupt in laughter when the result for “three white teenagers” show stock photos of smiling, wholesome-looking young people.

May 23rd at 6pm

White Privilege Forum Part One B – May 23rd at 6pm
At the New Progressive Baptist Church, 8 Hone Street, Kingston, NY
For info contact Odell Winfield at 914-388-3092


First Professor A.J. Williams-Myers will talk about the History of Racism then the Panelists Peter Heymann, Break Through Career and Life Coach, ENJAN member and Undoing Racism presenter, along with Tracy Givens-Hunter, former Southern Dutchess NAACP Criminal Justice Chair, Board Member ACLU of Lower Westchester, and Undoing Racism presenter, will lead an interactive discussion with the audience. Minister Rita Worthington of New Progressive Baptist Church, known to many as speaking out against the unequal treatment of black youth, will be the moderator.

The intent of part One B of the forum is to continue to raise awareness of what white privilege and institutional racism are and show how they affect us all. Again please look at Chapter Six of Michelle Alexander’s pioneering bestseller, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, will serve as a focal point of the discussion. “Perhaps the time has come to give up on racial bribes and begin an honest conversation about race in America. The topic of conversation should be how us can include all of us”, p. 257.

Unitarian Universalist Event

 
Contact: Barbara Stemke
bstemke@gmail.com
845 339 3207

Mariposa & the Saint:
Play exposing harms of solitary confinement comes to Kingston

- Rev. Laura Markle Downton, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy & Program
National Religious Campaign Against Torture


Kingston, NY (Friday, May 20, 2016) – Julia Steele Allen, an award-winning playwright and activist, announced the play, Mariposa & the Saint, will come to Kingston, NY. Mariposa & the Saint: From Solitary Confinement, A Play Through Letters is based entirely on letters written between Sara (Mariposa) Fonseca and Allen while Mariposa was held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of a California women’s prison. The play is directed by Noelle Ghoussaini and performed by Julia Steele Allen and Ray Huth.

The event, hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, located at 320 Sawkill Road, Kingston, will consist of consciousness raising entertainment with the performance of the play Mariposa & the Saint followed by a workshop exposing the harms of solitary confinement in the United States. 
 
KINGSTON, NY PERFORMANCE DATE:
Doors open 30 min. prior to each performance. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $10-$15 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds, formerly incarcerated come for free.

Friday, May 20, 2016- Kingston at 7PM: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, 320 Sawkill Road
(Please note, due to the Washington Ave. entrance to Sawkill Rd. being closed, please use Rt. 209 and the Sawkill Rd. exit and go south on Sawkill to 320 Sawkill Rd.)