March Solidarity Showcase for the Lucasville 5

Lucasville Uprising Solidarity Showcase. Another variety show fundraiser! This time we're raising money for the inmates at Ohio State Penitentiary who went on hungerstrike in January. Read more about them here. 

Friday, March 11th, 8PM at Kafe Kerouac (2250 North High Street). This is also the first public performance of Insurgent Theatre and Puppeteria's new play Ad Seg.

Ad Seg

Later this month Insurgent Theatre will tour with a new play about prisons, 1/3 of the funds raised on tour will go toward our efforts to support organizers and others trapped inside Ohio State prisons.

The first performance in Columbus of Ad Seg will be at our next Solidarity Showcase, on March 11th. Lots more information about the play is available here.

Ohio Prison System Maps.

A map showing prison locations in Ohio and county population size. Download a full-size version of this map here.

Report back on the Hungerstrike at the OSP.

Jan 15th- Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, members of Columbus ABC attended the Solidarity Rally for Lucasville Uprising death sentenced prisoners.

The most important thing is what we learned at the reception after the rally... Staughten Lynd (lawyer and author of this book on the uprising) told us all about the hunger strike, which was a mixed success. Thursday morning (the 13th) the prisoners (Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Namir Abdul Mateen, Bomani Shakur and Jason Robb) met with Warden David Bobby and other prison officials. Under their security conditions, this means they were in four separate cages, unable to see each other, but able to hear each other and all see the officials. The Warden had accepted most of the demands without any negotiation or concession by the prisoners other than they start eating again. 

Georgia Prison Strike Summary

I wrote this article for Street Speech, condensing the reading I've done on the subject into a single document. It's written for a newspaper, so there's minimum editorializing.  

On the morning of Thursday Dec 9th, thousands of inmates in six prisons in Georgia refused to leave their cells or go their work assignments. This non-violent sit-down protest lasted 6 days and has been recognized as the largest prison strike in US history. The organizing effort continues to this day. According to one inmate interviewed by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the prisoners only called off the strike because officials couldn't respond to the striker's demands while they were on strike. Officials were faced with hiring outside workers to maintain the prison, which normally depends on unpaid inmate labor to function.

Lucasville Uprising Hunger Strike

UPDATE: We'll be leaving from Columbus to attend this demonstration at about 9:15 on Saturday Jan 15th. Contact us by commenting here or emailing columbusabc@riseup.net if you'd like to come with or carpool. The demo starts at 12:45. See below for details. 


Here's an online petition you can sign right now! Here's a facebook page you can join to get more updates. See below for other ways to support the Lucasville 4. 

Dear family members, friends and supporters of the Lucasville uprising prisoners,

Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar), Jason Robb and Namir Mateen (James Were) will start a hunger strike on Monday Jan. 3 to protest their 23-hour a day lock down for nearly 18 years. These four death-sentenced prisoners have been single-celled (in solitary) in conditions of confinement significantly more severe than the conditions experienced by the approximately 125 other death-sentenced prisoners at the supermax prison, Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. They are completely isolated from any direct human contact, even during “recreation”. They are restricted from certain kinds of good ordering including gold weather items for the almost unbearably cold condtions in the cells. They are denied access to computer databases they need in order to prepare their appeals. It has been made clear to them that the outcome of their annual “security level reviews” is pretermined, as one reads, “…regardless of your behavior while confined at OSP.”

Third Solidarity Showcase Done!

We ended up raising $250 for the Mount Hope Infinity! More than I ever expected.

Thank you, thank you to those who donated.

With Insurgent Theatre now matching funds, that makes the total amount $500!

Holy fuck, $500!