Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2022
Welcoming new staff and celebrating transitions In August, we welcomed two new staff members to the organizing team. Welcome Kennedy Bartley, Director of Campaigns, and Rebecca Wilson Bretz, Community Organizer! We're so excited to have them on board and joining Mark Clements on the organizing team. We're also pleased to announce that Demond McIntosh, who has served as a part-time Learning Fellow at CTJC over the past year, has joined the Peer Reentry Program as a Peer Reentry Specialist. Demond will still continue as a Learning Fellow, but we are thrilled about bringing him on board full time to lend his skills to the reentry work.
Kennedy Bartley Director of Campaigns
Rebecca Wilson Bretz Community Organizer
Demond McIntosh Learning Fellow & Peer Reentry Specialist
Haiku exercise Everything I touch with tenderness, alas, pricks like a bramble. Kobayashi Issa
A lovely sunset. these brilliant-hued hibiscus In the twilight rain Matsuo Basho
In the moonlight, The color and scent of the wisteria Seems far away. Yosa Buson
Haiku is a poetry style that dates back to 9th century Japan. It is a 3line poem consisting of 17 syllables following the 5-7-5 rule: the first line has 5 syllables, the second has 7, and the third line has 5. Haiku doesn't have to rhyme, in fact most don't. Traditionally, haiku is about elements in nature, however it can be about anything the poet chooses. Here are some examples from famous haiku poets. Try writing some of your own! We'd love to read and publish any that you'd like to share. There is some space on the last page for you to write some to send our way.
6337 S. WOODLAWN AVENUE CHICAGO IL 60637 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG
What is counseling at CTJC by Dr. Nate Gilham, Clinical Director at CTJC Many asylum seekers come to the United States seeking refuge from the politically oppressive and violent regimes that torture its citizens. There are torture centers throughout the U.S. to help asylum seekers cope with the impact of torture on their emotional and physical well-being. However, there is only one torture center in the U.S. that is solely dedicated to those people that experience domestic torture in the U.S., and that is the Chicago Torture Justice Center (CTJC). The CTJC helps individuals, families, and communities cope with the impact of state sponsored violence here in the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities. Police violence against members of the community is state sponsored violence. The CTJC uses an approach referred to as Politicized Healing. This approach not only focuses on healing the wounds of emotional and psychological injuries, but on “working to dismantle the systems that have caused and continue to cause harm” to our communities. We know that police violence is largely motivated by race-based attitudes and policies that promote violence against people of color. We see it in the media every day. Therefore, healing services must address the social policies and racist actions that historically and currently shape the U.S. courts, policing, carceral systems, healthcare and every component of community life in black and brown communities. Our counseling services address the trauma associated with race-based police violence; however, Politicized Healing takes more than forming a therapeutic relationship with a licensed mental health professional. A holistic approach is used in an effort to eliminate harm. CTJC is staffed with Community Organizers, Peer Re-entry Services, Resources and Support, Case Management, and Clinical Services. These departments work together to develop holistic programming that address the political impact and trauma associated with police violence against our communities in Chicago.
Politicized Healing at CTJC means helping survivors of police violence to engage in changing the systems that caused their harm.
Participants benefitting from CTJC’s programs include; those that experienced the loss of a loved one due to police violence, people returning from periods of incarceration or those needing emotional support while incarcerated, those that have been exonerated due to police misconduct, and those who witness police violence and may have trauma. This trauma often takes the form of re-experiencing the traumatic event (often through intrusive memories), avoidance of things that remind you of the traumatic event, and negative changes in mood or in your body when thinking of the traumatic event. Participants also influence the design of these programs. Politicized Healing at CTJC means helping survivors of police violence to engage in changing the systems that caused their harm. This occurs by becoming aware of how this repeated, ongoing exposure to police violence impacts them and others, developing strategies that reconnect them to community, and developing support systems that validates their life experiences and enhances their own resilience. Participants are the architects to their own healing program. Our services are offered at no cost to participants. We’re located at 6337 South Woodlawn in Chicago. Visit us online at Chicagotorturejustice.org.
6337 S. WOODLAWN AVENUE CHICAGO IL 60637 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG
JUNE 2022 NEWSLETTER
A week of healing and restoration In a time when so many lives are considered ungrievable (as coined by Judith Butler), grieving is a politically necessary act. This evocative collection reminds us that vulnerability and tenderness for each other and public grievability for life itself are some of the most profound acts of community resistance.
Last month, we closed the office from August 29-September 5 while our team took some time to rest, restore, heal and nourish after a month filled with loss for many of our staff and community. As Harsha Walia stated, we see grieving as a politically necessary act, not only for ourselves but for our collective aliveness and wellbeing. We want to be in practice of our values, which sometimes means taking a step back, slowing down, and moving through the grief with care and tenderness for ourselves and each other. Below is a piece about politicized grief, which was included in the Grieving is Healing zine we released last year.
Artwork by Molly Costello
- Harsha Walia, author of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
What is Politicized Grief?
We know how our unrest, our pain, our loss, our trauma is deeply political. At CTJC we've begun to claim this as Politicized Grief. Just as our healing is political, our grief is also political. Our grief is political because in this time of global pendemic and uprising there is new grief upon old grief. New wounds upon old wounds. Wounds seen and unseen. Our grief is political because our pain, loss, and our rage extend across time and space--this grief is generational and systemic. Together rage, grief, radical care, and healing all fuel our desire and our struggle for a world in which all Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples are truly free. Our surviving, our unapologetic truth-telling, and our power to heal reach across time, connecting past and future. Choices we make to care for oursevles and our communities, to claim our resilience and brilliance, extend across the generations as well. And so we ground our grief healing in ancient wisdom--in the season wisdom of the earth and of our bodies--yet knowing the calamity of injustice is not always as tender as the flow of the seasons. We claim the healing that is always available to us, right here right now, not from some fix that is far away or outside ourselves. Healing can happen in a lot of different ways. Part of healing is tending to the layers of loss we have experienced individually and collectively. We experience loss not only from covid-19 and at the hands of the police, but also have endured incredible harm and loss in the courts, in the jails and carceral facilities, in our communities, and in centuries of dispossession. We seek to name and honor who and what we have lost and all that we are losing--to recognize this as grief--and to create and hold space for moving through grief as we nurture resilience and liberation. Grieving is part of healing.
Book Requests? We're thinking about ways to connect with our community inside at the end of the year. We'd love to send you the gift of a book of your choosing. Would you be interested in receiving a book? If so and you haven't already, send us your request! Name: Book or Type of Book: Any other feedback for us:
JUNE 2022 NEWSLETTER
Your Contributions We're always honored to hear from our community inside, and we love uplifting the powerful and brilliant words you all share with us. This is a poem submitted to us by one of our community members, Frank. If you have anything you'd like to share, feel free to write to us!
You are approached and given notice. You are a suspect or witness to something atrocious. Knowing you're innocent convinces you to surrender to the circumstances with out representation. If only you knew what you would be facing. You're taken to the station, placed in a room, and asked if you are hungry or thirsty. A gesture meant to ensure trust, some mercy. After you been giving a soft drink, a question followed by multiple smacks imprison how you think. Fleeing possibilities leaves in a blink. They are searching for a weakness that will allow the aggressive manipulation of touch to replace the truth with lies, that comfort their conscious with prideful alibis. They repeat the questions, but this time they use a asp to ask. A light tapping to the knees, until your mind begins to bleed. This is a pain you wouldn't believe. Your pleas are ignored and your screams go unheard. Two hands around your neck minimize your words. They wake you up with punches that are distributed in bunches, and as your body is beat you grasp onto your innocence. Your resolve becomes weak. The kidney and liver blows are wearing you down. The phonebook placed by your head is hit with a pipe introducing you to the ground. The kicks are mixed, but the blows to the nuts help do the trick. Their illusion is becoming your reality. Maybe you will fix. Broken, they gather the pieces and sit you back up, placing a gun to your head . Once they tell you to open your mouth you know you are dead. A question repeated is greeted with a answer manifested from a nightmare lived and before you know it, its your soul you give, by responding .. Yes I did.
Haiku exercise