Return to Sender: Prison as Censorship

The prison is the frontline war in a society that seeks to censor and control people and ideas. The current wave of censorship in schools and public libraries is an extension of the more highly advanced structures of control that have and are being developed in prisons and jails. The prison has always been a testing ground for perfecting surveillance and creating unfreedom.

Return to Sender is an exhibition that maintains that the prison itself is censorship, which is multifaceted and complex. Therefore, the only way to end prison censorship is to end prisons. This is a call for prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition.

When I conceived this exhibition, I decided to invite other voices to join in its creation. I reached out to several people who generously agreed to contribute and when you visit the exhibition, you will encounter some of their ideas and visions. Those ideas and visions however are in the service of a broader abolitionist politic that is my own. As the curator of Return to Sender, I wanted to tell a specific story based on my experiences and understanding of prisons and jails over the past couple of decades. Informing my analysis is the cultural and intellectual production of currently and formerly incarcerated/criminalized people who have contributed their visual art, writing and guidance. Not every person or organization that worked on Return to Sender and shared their ideas are prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionists. For example, PEN America has co-organized this exhibit to showcase prison censorship and does not support abolition.

The exhibition features writing and art by incarcerated creators that examine how prisons enact censorship and limit free expression for incarcerated authors, readers and artists.

6pm - 9pm

Free & open to the public

RELATED EVENTS:

Sat, Oct 7th 12pm - 6:30pm
Free & open to the public
Take Action Day at People’s Forum
Banned Book Week Event

Join us on October 7 as part of Banned Books Week (October 1-7) to discuss prison censorship and to take actions against it.

People’s Forum
320 West 37th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
New York, NY

Thu, Oct 26th 6pm - 9pm
In person at EFA Project Space
Free & open to the public
PEN America Report Release 
A part of Prison Banned Books Week

This report release will feature Die Jim Crow artists who are currently incarcerated including Spoon Jackson, The Masses, Territorial and B Alexis. Producers from Die Jim Crow will discuss the censorship these artists face and Moira Marquis, co-author of the report, will discuss the significant findings.

Sat, Oct 28th, 4pm - 6pm
In person at EFA Project Space
Free & open to the public
Closing Reception

Join partners and artists to mark the end of the exhibition.
ASL Interpretation Available

EFA Project Space
323 W 39th Street

New York, NY