"Celebrating/Commemorating Juneteenth - Abolition Then and Now"
Thursday, June 17, 2021 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (ET)
Do you know that many have charted the evolution of the modern carceral system beginning with its roots in slavery, officially ended 150 years ago, and connect the movement to abolish slavery in our historical past with today's movement to abolish prisons?
Roughly 2.3 million people sit behind bars in carceral detention facilities across the United States - more than any other nation. As Michelle Alexander writes in The New Jim Crow "More African American adults are under correctional control today - in prison or in jail, on probation or parole - than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began."
By centering the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people through poetry, Meredith Nnoka '14, carceral justice advocate and published poet, commemorates (celebrates) Juneteenth, with a virtual talk that outlines the history of mass incarceration and the current national debate around criminal justice reform in the U.S.
About Meredith Nnoka
Meredith Nnoka is a Chicago-based writer, educator and carceral justice advocate originally from southern Maryland. She has a BA from Smith College, Class of 2014, and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both in Africana studies. She currently works for the Illinois Humanities Council on their statewide Envisioning Justice initiative and volunteers with Parole Illinois and the Defund CPD (Chicago Police Department) campaign.
Nnoka is also a published poet. Her work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, HEart Online, Mandala Journal, The Collapsar and elsewhere. Her poem "Prelude to Your Leaving" was nominated for inclusion in the 2017 Best of the Net anthology. Her first chapbook, A Hunger Called Music: A Verse History of Black Music, won C&R Press's Winter Soup Bowl Competition.
Topic: "Celebrating/Commemorating Juneteenth - Abolition Now: Incarceration as Modern Slavery"
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2021
Time: 7 PM to 8:30 PM (ET)
Limit: 100 participants
Cost: Free to Members and Non-members
You must be registered before 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 17 to join the event.
The Zoom link and password details will be shared by 5:00 pm on the day prior to the event and again, a few hours prior to the event.