Support ICE Detainees in West County Jail Facility - Benefit Concert

Raise your voice, rouse your body, and move to the rhythms of the highly spirited Dance Chants and smooth jazz of Humanistic on Sunday, the 28th of January. Calpulli Huey Papalotl, a Danza Mexica and cultural circle open the days cultural jamboree with danza and songs to honor the fight for justice for all immigrants. Danza Mexica,a vibrant meditation in movement, connects the dancers to the Cosmos and to their Indigenous Ancestors through the movements of their bodies, accompanied by the beat of the Huehuetl, the Ancient drum.

The opening ceremony will set the stage for Humanistic, a diverse soulful jazz band with a flare for funk. The group features international artist, Otoe Mori on the saxophone, Greg German on drums, and Vince Khoe on keys. Grab a preview of their music here. Poetry by local artist Pennie Opal Plant will lead us to the highly energetic finale featuring Dancechant, a unique gathering of 12 musicians who cultivates love, joy, and community with simple meaningful chants and melodic phrases that invite listeners to join in and sing and dance along with the band.

The cultural workers of Artists for Humanity are performing to raise funds for the Bay Area Bond Fund, a project of the Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC).
You can support men and women targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) due to their citizenship status. ICE detainees at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond are not provided legal counsel if they cannot afford a lawyer. and often times, due to a backlog in the court system, wait years for a hearing. Imagine being forced to sit behind bars, unable to work, isolated from family and friends, and too poor to afford an attorney to pay for bail. The average bond of $3,411, is often times an impossible sum for detainees to raise. According to CIVIC, immigrants who secure bond during their case and find legal representation are about 8 times more likely to win their cases than those who remain incarcerated and unrepresented.

We need a revolving Bond Fund now! You can be a part of the movement to end the isolation and help build the Bond Fund to get our residents out of detention and back into society with family, friends and co-workers. Share out!