Wednesday, September 27, 1-3 PM PST/4-6 PM EST
Prison Journalism and Censorship is a conversation between Empowerment Avenue incarcerated writers Christopher Blackwell, Kwanetta Harris, Sara Kielly, and Emily Nonko. Formerly incarcerated abolitionist Jessica Phoenix Sylvia moderates this virtual event.
This conversation focuses on the challenges incarcerated journalists face while communicating information through highly monitored structures that conspire to suppress information to and from the inside of prisons. Participants will discuss why prison journalism matters and why prison officials seek to censor and silence them.
About the Participants
Jessica Phoenix Sylvia is a formerly incarcerated abolition theorist, organizer, and writer. She organizes with www.studyandstruggle.com. You may commission her work at www.abolitionjess.org or abolitionjess1@gmail.com.
Kwaneta Harris is an incarcerated writer in solitary confinement in Texas focusing on the intersection of race, gender and place. She focuses on illuminating how different incarceration is for women. She is working on a book about youth transferred to adult solitary confinement.
Sara Kielly is a 33 year old Irish-American transgender woman who believes strongly in the written word being more powerful than the voice, and a key to healing communities & bringing light into some of the darkest corners of our society. She encourages those around her to write as well because journalism, poetry and literature has the ability to bridge divides that cannot be walked or spoken. She has survived domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, and served over a decade in NYS's prison industrial complex for the death of her abusive boyfriend - where a person's individuality, voice and self-worth are perpetually denied and silenced.
She has published articles with The National Lawyers' Guild, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Voice of the People section of The New York Daily News, and has written advice and public interest columns for publications like "What's The Tea" and "The Word is Out". Kielly's poetry appeared in the inaugural edition of: Convictions Beyond Convictions, published by Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, and she was selected as a steering committee member for the research and relaunch of Sylvia Rivera Law Project's groundbreaking report: It's Still War in Here - A Study of the Treatment of Transgender and Intersex People in NYS's Men's Prisons. She is currently writing her memoir, Cradle of a Firebrand, a scathing tell-all about her survival and journey to self affirmation as a transgender woman in New York State's maximum security men's prisons.
Sara Kielly is now incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, where she is pursuing her Bachelor's degree in "Politics and Human Rights" through Marymount Manhattan College. She uses her knowledge as a jailhouse lawyer & incarcerated journalist to change conditions of confinement for prisoners nationwide, and the conversation surrounding our mass carceral state.
Christopher Blackwell, 42, is serving a 45-year prison sentence in Washington State. He co-founded Look 2 Justice, an organization that provides civic education to system-impacted communities and actively works to pass sentence and policy reform legislation. He is currently working towards publishing a book on solitary confinement. His writing has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Huff Post, and many other outlets. He is a contributing writer at Jewish Currents, a contributing editor at The Appeal, and works closely with the prison writing program Empowerment Avenue. You can follow him and be in touch on Twitter @chriswblackwell
Emily Nonko is a director and organizer for Empowerment Avenue Writing for Liberation, a collective that supports incarcerated writers pitching, publishing and getting paid for their work. She has been a freelance journalist for the past decade. She also co-edited The Press in Prison, published by Haymarket Books in 2021.