San Quentin Families Project benefit

Saturday, Oct. 8 @ 7 pm
a benefit for the San Quentin Families Project
Larkspur Theater
549 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur 415.924.5111, http://www.larktheater.net
doors open at 7 pm. Keynote at 7:30

Please join us on October 8th for a heartfelt benefit for the San Quentin Families Project. Van Jones, reknowned Human Rights leader for prison reform will be giving a keynote address about the over-incarceration in California’s billion dollar prison industry, and the over-incarceration of marginalized peoples (Van is an undeniable human treasure of the Bay Area, for info on himsee end of announcement). Suzi Jestadt and Liza Klein will highlight the project during the evening. And others tied to San Quentin, either directly or indirectly, will touch on their experiences. We wholeheartedly invite you to come join us for a touching and worthwhile evening to benefit the San Quentin Families Project.

Food & Drink and Organic ice cream will be served fresh.
T-shirts of the projects' insingia will be available.
The autobiography (including poetry) by inmate Watani Stiner will be for sale (Watani's Six children were granted political asylum and arrived in California from Surinam last January).

Live music from Baflao (French West African Band from Oakland), music possibly written for the occasion by Shree Dove (Raw Soul singer/songwriter from Marin, http://www.shreedove.com), and gospel by Joanne Lawson (Vocalist from Los Angeles) will also be served. :-)

Hosted by Suzi Jestadt
Tickets: $15-$25
Tickets being sold at:
Bedrock Music 415.258.9745, 2226 4th St. San Rafael
e-mail:bedrockmusic@sbcglobal.net
and at the First United Methodist Church 415.453.8716, 9 Ross Valley Rd. San Rafael
e-mail: lhklein@earthlink.net
and will be available at the door of the Lark on the evening of the event.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
For questions and/or more detailed information call Suzi @ 415.485.0676
or Liza @ 415.453.8716

The San Quentin Families Project was outlined by Suzi Jestadt after her experience helping to facilitate a “positive attitude” circle with life inmates at San Quentin State Prison. The desire exhibited by the men in this group to develop a positive attitude and employ its constructive use in their personal prison lives, was enveloped with the grace and beauty to leave a deep transformative imprint on one's heart and mind. The project hopes to lift these true positive desires above the prison's walls and share them with people on the “outside”. With their wishes to be in community with San Quentin, and for a project to somehow help prisoners, Liza Klein, pastor of the First United Methodist Church of San Rafael, and Suzi created the start of the San Quentin Families Project. Members of the First United Methodist Church used these ideas to illustrate and finalize the project.

This project is dedicated to helping maintain relationships between inmates of San Quentin and their families. The project works to start and sustain relationships between men of the prison community and their children while they are incarcerated. It hopes to develop, cultivate, and sustain relationships thereby keeping families in touch, connected, and active We are hoping to enable visits by providing families with the essential funds to attain a place to stay and to make the trip, making a physical visit not only possible but economically feasible. The project wants to provide materials for contact, such as stationary, phone cards, and writing utensils. By easing the burden on the families the SQFP dreams for the incarcerated fathers to be active parents in their children lives.


Van Jones is the founding director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (http://www.ellabakercenter.org). The Ella Baker Center seeks to replace the U.S Incarceration industry with youth opportunities and community-based solutions. In 2002, the center's “Books not Bars” campaign helped stop the construction of a costly and controversial “Super-Jail” for Oakland's youth. Presently, the center is working to close all of California's scandal-plagued youth prisons and replace them with regional rehabilitation centers. Van, a spiritual activist, is a passionate advocate for the environment and for responsible business. By investing in “Green Jobs, Not Jails,” we can ensure that the “Green Wave” lifts up everybody. He serves on numerous governing boards including Bioneers, the New Apollo Project and the Rainforest Action Network. Van graduated from the University of Tennesee at Martin in 1990 and from the Yale Law School in 1993.

A more detailed article about Watani Stiner
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/04.20.05/stiner-0516.html

A Phoenix from the Ashes by Van Jones
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1164

if you read all the words down to here, give yourself some well-deserved love.
you read a lot of important things, thanks. : - )