Prison Papers Opening Reception

Prison Papers: Organizing Inside/Outside Solidarity examines how prison newspapers facilitate exchange and solidarity across prison walls. Drawing on archival materials, interviews, art, and writing, the exhibition traces a lineage of prison newspapers — from their boom in the 1960s and ’70s, through their near disappearance in the ’90s, to the present resurgence in inside/outside publishing. At a moment when free speech in the U.S. is under attack and print media is increasingly inaccessible to incarcerated people, the need to sharpen our organizing strategies has never been more urgent. These publications offer an intimate view into how prison newspapers have connected inside and outside communities in a shared struggle to overcome the censorship and segregation endemic to the carceral state. By examining how these papers are made, circulated, and used to challenge the limits imposed by prison administrations, Prison Papers offers critical insight into how we might forge deeper bonds with incarcerated communities to organize for freedom and liberation.

Join us in celebrating the opening of the exhibition with food and community!