Visualizing Abolition

What does it mean to think of abolitionism as a vision—one that challenges the social, economic, and political worldviews that prisons promote? For the 2020/21 academic year, UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with Gina Dent, associate professor, feminist studies, is pleased to present a series of online events featuring artists, activists, scholars, and others united by their commitment to the vital struggle for prison abolition.

The events accompany Barring Freedom,, a bi-coastal exhibition of art on view at San José Museum of Art October 30, 2020-March 21, 2021 and featuring Solitary Garden, a public art project, at UC Santa Cruz. Barring Freedom, travels to NYC John Jay College of Criminal Justice April 28-July 15, 2021.

Visualizing Abolition Schedule (All events are from 4-5:30 P.M. PST unless otherwise noted). Registration is required; see individual event listings for more information.

October 20,2020
Visualizing Abolition
Angela Y. Davis and Gina Dent

October 27, 2020
Images, Memory and Justice
Bryan Stevenson

November 13, 2020
Moor Mother + Rasheedah Phillips:
Black Quantum Futurism
Livestream at indexical.org

November 17, 2020
Visuality and Carceral Formations
Nicole Fleetwood, Herman Gray, Nicholas Mirzoeff

December 1, 2020, 12-1:30 p.m.
Abolition Then and Now
Isaac Julien and Robin D.G. Kelley