East Coast 'In the Belly' tour report!

We just got back from a two week tour talkin' bout prison abolition along the East Coast. Here's our report-back, including where we went, who we met, and what we learned:

ATHENS, OH-

Played a performance art space in a converted church. It's an art center, subsidized by the city to encourage culture in Athens. Our audience consisted of maybe 30-40 people, students, artists, local eccentrics, old hippies. Athens is a college town, and it seems like most people in the audience were involved or associated with the university in some way. The audience was mostly white, but there was a pretty wide array of ages present.
It was interesting performing in a "real" theatre space, even though we had the audience come up on the stage with us. Having black outs and control of our lighting was nice. We felt good about our performances, and crashed with an old geography friend of Wes'. Stayed up into the night taking about Colorado and artificial arrangements of public space.

Ad Seg reportback...

We performed Ad Seg after the weekly 64 King potluck on Tuesday, and followed with an intentional and fruitful discussion about what we, as a group of people from various backgrounds and social groupings can do to reduce our dependence on police.

There were about 20 people there and we first talked about the play a little, then did a go around sharing stories of times we'd called the police, or avoided calling the police. Meg from CAAC was also there and shared insights about transformative justice and her experiences with CAAC.

Things that came from this discussion include:

• suggestion that housemates/friendship groups have intentional discussions among themselves about things like when they're comfortable or not

Special Performance of Ad Seg

Insurgent Theatre has been touring with this show called Ad Seg since February. After a recent jaunt to Ben and Kate's former homeland of Wisconsin we decided to do a local performance in Columbus focusing on the radical community here and centering the discussion on alternatives to police and prison.

This performance will be at 64 King Ave, following the weekly vegan potluck (food starts at 7, play around 9) and the discussion will feature members of RedBird Prison Abolition and Megan Zakany from Community Accountability Action Collective (CAAC). 

The potluck is not exclusively vegan food, but please label any non-vegan things you bring. The play is about 40 minutes long, and discussion will go as long as people want to talk about things. There is nudity in the play. A donation jar will be passed, some of the proceeds will go to covering RedBird Prison Abolition's very low operating expenses.

March Solidarity Showcase Report Back!

One week ago, Redbird Prison Abolition and Insurgent Theatre hosted yet another Solidarity Showcase at Kafe Kerouac, here in Columbus. A bunch of people turned out, including some moms and longtime prison abolitionists, as well as friends and showcase regulars. Two special occurrences marked this showcase as particularly resonant for me: one, Insurgent Theatre's Columbus debut of their new play, AD SEG, and two, a live phone call from Siddique Abdullah Hasan, who currently sits on death row in the Ohio State Penitentiary for a crime he did not commit.

This Solidarity Showcase was to raise funds (made $226 with Insurgent Theatre's matching donation) and awareness for those railroaded and placed on death row following the Lucasville Uprising. Five men from the Lucasville Southern Ohio Correctional Facility,