Invitation to Aboliton and Its Discontents, September 24, 11 a.m - 2 p.m
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Yasmin Nair
Sep 21, 2011, 5:25:34 PM9/21/11
to Yasmin
Dear all,
Attached is a pdf describing an event I'm organising at Mess Hall, in Chicago's Rogers Park. I realise that not all of you are in Chicago and will be unable to attend, but I hope you will be able to take note of it and perhaps pass on the announcement to your friends and colleagues. This is the first of many in a series that explores some of the themes I've been exploring in the past few years, and I'm excited about getting it off the ground.
I've also inserted a description below.
Yours,
Yasmin
*****************
Abolition and Its
Discontents: Sustaining Work against the Prison Industrial Complex
September 24, 2011
Mess Hall, 6932 N. Glenwood Avenue,
Chicago
Brunchluck: Contributions of food to share are welcome
This brunchluck discussion will bring together activists who have been working against the prison industrial complex to discuss the particular frustrations, achievements, contradictions, collaborations, and sustainability of anti-PIC work. A core panel, facilitated by Yasmin Nair, will feature Ari Wohlfeiler of Critical Resistance, Karma R. Chávez, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Queer Migration Research Network, and Serpent Libertine, of SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project). The speakers will talk about their work and perspectives before we open the floor to a discussion.
Recent events like the release of the Memphis Three and the Pelican Bay Prison hunger strikes might persuade us that the prison industrial complex is weakening. Public conversations around sex offender registries demonstrate a sharper turn towards reform or abolishing them altogether; Obama recently announced that some undocumented immigrants, such as qualified DREAM Act-eligible students and same-sex partners of citizens/permanent residents, will be spared incarceration and deportation.
But behind such news lie complicated narratives about compromise, of communities and constituencies forgotten, and years of often frustrating activism by people behind the scenes. We still see an unquestioned widening of the criminalization of online sexual activity. Recent shifts in deportation policy also involve heightened policing and incarceration under the guise of maintaining “secure communities,” and LGBTQ immigrants, who are often more than the sum of their relationships, can still be jailed for any number of infractions – including “sex offences” – and be deported, along with countless other undocumented who cannot and will not use the rhetoric of exceptionalism or the military option of the DREAM Act to redeem themselves.
Amongst the questions we discuss might be: How do we build truly radical and sustainable networks of collaboration against the PIC? How do we mark our successes outside of the framework of necessity and compromise? When does compromise feel like surrender?
This September 24 event is designed as a precursor to "Beyond the PIC: The World We Want is the World We Need," Ruth Wilson Gilmore's talk at UIC the following week, where she willl present her critique of mass incarceration. This event is also be the first in a series curated by Yasmin Nair, as part of her year-long residency at Mess Hall. The series, "Strange Love," will address the ways in which neoliberalism deploys affect to sustain itself.
The discussion is a brunchluck. Mess Hall organizers will be “seeding” the event with food and drinks, but we also invite attendees to bring items to share. This event is open to the public.
Critical Resistance:
http://www.criticalresistance.org/
Ruth Gilmore, "Beyond the PIC" talk:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200197403375655
Karma R. Chávez:
http://commarts.wisc.edu/directory/?person=krchavez
Queer Migration Research Network:
http://queermigration.com/
SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project), Chicago:
http://www.swop-chicago.org/
Yasmin Nair:
http://yasminnair.net/
Brunchluck: Contributions of food to share are welcome
This brunchluck discussion will bring together activists who have been working against the prison industrial complex to discuss the particular frustrations, achievements, contradictions, collaborations, and sustainability of anti-PIC work. A core panel, facilitated by Yasmin Nair, will feature Ari Wohlfeiler of Critical Resistance, Karma R. Chávez, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Queer Migration Research Network, and Serpent Libertine, of SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project). The speakers will talk about their work and perspectives before we open the floor to a discussion.
Recent events like the release of the Memphis Three and the Pelican Bay Prison hunger strikes might persuade us that the prison industrial complex is weakening. Public conversations around sex offender registries demonstrate a sharper turn towards reform or abolishing them altogether; Obama recently announced that some undocumented immigrants, such as qualified DREAM Act-eligible students and same-sex partners of citizens/permanent residents, will be spared incarceration and deportation.
But behind such news lie complicated narratives about compromise, of communities and constituencies forgotten, and years of often frustrating activism by people behind the scenes. We still see an unquestioned widening of the criminalization of online sexual activity. Recent shifts in deportation policy also involve heightened policing and incarceration under the guise of maintaining “secure communities,” and LGBTQ immigrants, who are often more than the sum of their relationships, can still be jailed for any number of infractions – including “sex offences” – and be deported, along with countless other undocumented who cannot and will not use the rhetoric of exceptionalism or the military option of the DREAM Act to redeem themselves.
Amongst the questions we discuss might be: How do we build truly radical and sustainable networks of collaboration against the PIC? How do we mark our successes outside of the framework of necessity and compromise? When does compromise feel like surrender?
This September 24 event is designed as a precursor to "Beyond the PIC: The World We Want is the World We Need," Ruth Wilson Gilmore's talk at UIC the following week, where she willl present her critique of mass incarceration. This event is also be the first in a series curated by Yasmin Nair, as part of her year-long residency at Mess Hall. The series, "Strange Love," will address the ways in which neoliberalism deploys affect to sustain itself.
The discussion is a brunchluck. Mess Hall organizers will be “seeding” the event with food and drinks, but we also invite attendees to bring items to share. This event is open to the public.
Critical Resistance:
http://www.criticalresistance.org/
Ruth Gilmore, "Beyond the PIC" talk:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200197403375655
Karma R. Chávez:
http://commarts.wisc.edu/directory/?person=krchavez
Queer Migration Research Network:
http://queermigration.com/
SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project), Chicago:
http://www.swop-chicago.org/
Yasmin Nair:
http://yasminnair.net/
Yasmin Nair, Writer, Academic, Activist, Commentator
http://www.yasminnair.net/
http://www.yasminnair.net/
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