Carceral Media Ecologies—and How to Break Them

@ Organized by Pooja Rangan, Visiting Scholar, Visualizing Abolition at University of California, Santa Cruz Carceral Media Ecologies—and How to Break Them is the culminating in-person event in a series of conversations examining how contemporary documentary forms participate in both the making and unmaking of carceral power. This symposium brings together organizers, filmmakers, scholars and artists—both with and without experiences of mass incarceration—for a daylong conversation on disrupting the carceral state and its media ecologies across multiple scales of intervention: from feminist organizing and prisoner-initiated programs to incarcerated media production, participatory defense, counterforensic art, and legal advocacy.  RSVP Symposium Program 9:30 am onward – Coffee + Pastries 10:00–10:15 – Welcome (Rachel Nelson + Pooja Rangan) 10:15–11:15 – Conversation: Adamu Chan + Gilda Sheppard, moderated by Gina Dent A conversation on the challenges of pursuing anti-carceral aesthetics and the political stakes of speaking outside the carceral frame. 11:15–11:30 – Break 11:30–1:00 – Panel: Counterforensic Advocacy (Ashraf Hamdan, Silicon Valley Debug, Sharon Daniel), moderated by Pooja Rangan A panel on decarceral legal and policy interventions, including participatory defense, advocacy media, and counterforensic art  1:00–2:00 – Lunch 2:00–3:30 – Panel: Fugitive Media (Keisha Knight, Thanh Tran, Anthony Tafoya), moderated by Rachel Nelson A panel on media produced behind bars and the activism involved in building oppositional circuits of visibility and solidarity 3:45–4:00 – Break 4:00–4:30 – Concluding Reflections – Gina Dent 4:30–5:30 – Reception Speakers Adamu Chan is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and community organizer from the Bay Area whose artistry is rooted in relationships and lived experience. His film What These Walls Won’t Hold, filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic in San Quentin State Prison, chronicles the organizing and connections that emerged despite incarceration. His work invites viewers into conversations about social justice, resilience, and community. Sharon Daniel is a media artist and innovator in interactive documentary whose online artworks and multimedia installations examine social, racial, and environmental injustice. For over two decades, her creative research has focused on the criminal legal system, often in collaboration with incarcerated people and other impacted communities. Her work has been exhibited internationally and supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright Program, and Rockefeller Foundation. Gina Dent is Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies at UC Santa Cruz and Faculty Research Director of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences. A longtime prison abolitionist scholar and advocate, she is the principal investigator and co-director with Rachel Nelson of Visualizing Abolition, an initiative that uses art and education t...