Freedom Project
Saturday February 22, 2014 @8pm – Free
The Brain Café is a public forum that brings together artists, scholars, experts, and community members to share their knowledge and experiences in an open dialogue with the audience.
This Brain Café will ask questions about the roles that race and class play in shaping one’s interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system in America. The evening will begin with a performance by spoken word poet Christopher Johnson, hip hop dancer Sokeo Ros, and musician Rachel Rosenhrantz Riemer. Christopher has direct experience with the prison system and his poetry will touch upon some of those experiences.
David Ellison, a public defender in Fall River, will share his experiences working within the justice system. He provides legal representation and advocacy to indigent clients who are charged with criminal offenses within the final jurisdiction of the District Court of Massachusetts. He has a unique perspective on the justice system and its shortfalls from his position on the front lines, working to provide low-income defendants the best legal aid he possibly can.
The evening will also include a presentation from Steven Dy a youth organizer from Prysm (Providence Youth Student Movement). Prysm is a community organization that challenges and supports Southeast Asian youth to become leaders, organizers, and critical thinkers by offering educational workshops, leadership opportunities, mentorship, and oversight of youth-led community organizing projects. Steven Dy worked extensively on a campaign to end racial profiling in Providence.
The Brain Café will conclude with an open conversation with the audience about the issues that were brought up during the presentations.
This event is part of the Rhythm of Change festival. Click the link below for more info on the full festival lineup. http://
This Brain Café will take place at Ashamu Dance Studio, Brown University 83 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02906.
This Brain Café is part of the creation of Freedom Project and partial funding comes from Brown University Creative Arts Council and Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies.
This Brain Café is made possible through major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Everett Announces New Work – Freedom Project
Everett announces a two-year research and creation process for the development of a new touring piece. Freedom Project will be a multidisciplinary documentary theater production that shares the stories of people who have been marginalized by America’s criminal justice system. The project will examine and critique that system through the juxtapositions of personal stories with jarring statistics that reveal gross racial and socio-economic disparities in the way the law is applied, especially in regard to the War on Drugs. Read More
RI Monthly: Little Company, Huge Ideas
Everett: Company, Stage and School in Providence forgoes dusty playbills filled with decades-old ideas for progressive, thought-provoking material that can’t be seen anywhere else. The company, cofounded in 1986 by Dorothy, Aaron and Rachael Jungels, is known for producing powerful pieces of hybrid dance/theater backed by thorough academic and community research. Members are currently in the midst of a two-year research and development endeavor, called the Freedom Project, in collaboration with Brown University. Read More
Freedom Project Brain Café
The Freedom Project Brain Café examined issues related to incarceration, such as the disproportionate number of prisoners of color in the prison system, and the prison system’s default role as society’s solution to addiction and other mental health issues. The evening included poetry and personal stories from a Providence native who grew up in the prison system. Read More
