Past as Prologue: Storytelling about Resistance to Incarceration

Conversation featuring Kathy Boudin, Monica Cosby, Laura McTighe, and Toussaint Losier, moderated by Mariame Kaba. Live transcription available here.

For centuries incarcerated people and others have painted a grim and gruesome picture of conditions inside prisons and jails. There have been countless reports, testimonies, exposes, and essays addressing the brutality and violence that incarcerated people are subjected to daily. Often these terrible conditions have led to uprisings and rebellions by prisoners. Attica is among the most well-known, however it is far from the only example. The reality is that incarcerated people have always and continue to resist daily and everywhere.

Too often accounts of this brutality are met by the general public with indifference or tacit support. This is to all of our shame. We need to be in solidarity with incarcerated people who deserve freedom and at least to be treated with care while locked up.

Survived and Punished NY and the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) hosted a discussion of the current horrific conditions that incarcerated people are enduring under the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are resisting this violence. In addition, the conversation focused on historical examples of prisoner resistance to the violent conditions of confinement.

Joined by formerly incarcerated organizers and leading thinkers about criminalization, Monica Cosby and Kathy Boudin, along with historians Toussaint Losier and Laura McTighe.

Hear about how people are currently organizing to improve conditions of confinement and learn about how incarcerated people and others have done so in the past.

For speaker bios and additional information, visit the event page.