@ UM 2017-2018
What is a Disorientation Guide? This disorientation guide is a resource for new and current students at the University of Michigan to share and learn alternative perspectives about the University and what it means to be a part of the campus and Ann Arbor community. Drawing on a rich history of similar guides from campuses across the country, our Disorientation Guide exposes the cultures at our university and in our city that are complicit in systems of oppression; we hope that this zine speaks to the experiences of those of us who live under and within these systems. We invite all students to engage with this publication, to share it, and constructively critique its contents. We hope that the Disorientation Guide encourages students to build power and fight for our rights! The University of Michigan has a troubled history — ranging from the dispossession of indigenous land to endowment investments in both fossil fuels & the Israeli occupation of Palestine. UM also holds a beautiful, though equally complex history of radical activism and student organizing. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was formed at UM in 1960 by students opposed to the state of postwar American politics, and led the way for student anti-war and anti-oppressive organizing across the US. They most notably published the Port Huron Statement in 1962, which is now used as a model for student social justice organizing the world over. Gay Liberation Front, led by Jim Toy, worked to secure the first queer & trans resource center on a college campus, and Gayle Rubin led the RadicalLesbians to fight misogyny and homophobia on campus in the 70s. Black Action Movement led mobilisations in the 70s and 80s to vindicate the rightful place of Black students at UM. We see these struggles carried on by countless students, faculty, and staff to this very day. So where do we fit into this history as current students at the University of Michigan? If you’re just coming to the University, you might be feeling a sense of awe and excitation for the next period of your life. You may be anticipating ‘success’ to come from your time spent at this school, and to secure a six-figure job somewhere down the road. However, we should all be at least aware of the dynamics at work in our own community, no matter where you’re at in life or what your aspirations are. At best, we should be fighting for our collective liberation and creating a campus culture rooted in democracy, justice, and equity. Being a student-activist is a tough position to balance. We hope that the Disorientation Guide sheds light on the ways that students practice dissent. Dissent and radicalism at the U is defined by working intersectionally to provide an analysis of how hierarchical relationships and oppression works in our communities. It also is defined by acting against these systems in ways that are not sanctioned by the powers at be. At a University where the white supremacist hetero- and cispatriarchy are still at large, dissent and radicalism must be subversive. This work is not only critical, it holds the power to be transformative. This Guide showcases how we can build power as students against dominant culture while having fun and building meaningful relationships! The Disorientation Guide is a tool for students old and new to start on the path toward consciousness, discussion, action, and (ultimately) radicalization. Instead of gradually becoming aware of the ways in which UM is an oppressive institution and avenues to join activism, this guide provides alternative perspectives and pathways for further engagement. We invite you to interact with the Disorientation Guide in whatever way you wish, we hope it will bring students together and to mobilize our collective power, love, and solidarity!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS MANIFESTO
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DEAR FRESHMEN
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A CALL FOR STUDENT POWER
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RAD ACTIVIST’S SYLLABUS
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WTF IS A UM REGENT?
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#GTFOWEISER
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HOUSING ACTIVISM IN A2
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A RADICAL DECLARATION
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REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH ALLIANCE
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ALT. LEADERS AND THE BEST
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QUEER NIGHT AT RICKS
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WHY FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT?
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TERMS FOR CHANGE
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CONTACT RADFUN
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MANIFESTO Interested in radical activism, exposing umich for the fraud he is, and making the complacent student population of Ann Arbor uncomfortable? Care about anti-racism, housing rights, and affordable college education? Want to occupy university places, unfurl banners, squat, use art in activism, create modes of radical education in public space, and make a scene? We are a group of current and former students working to change our elitist campus culture and climate through direct action, education and the creation of subversive spaces. In this manifesto, we attempt to shed some light on various problems that impact students and citizens of Ann Arbor. Attempts by the university to improve campus climate aren’t working because umich does not care about students to the extent we deserve to be cared about. U of M works to exploit students, making itself rich, famous and sexy at the cost of our mental health, equity for marginalized students, and access to an affordable housing and education. The City of Ann Arbor and many of our classmates do not seem to care either. Neither the University nor the City want to see us co-organizing to claim our place as the rightful holders of our education and society. How does the University trick students into thinking it cares about us? For one, it encourages us to see our oppression as individual problems rather than as being interconnected and caused by the way in which our campus and society are run. Frustrated with hearing racist or homophobic bullshit spewing from your professors or classmates? Report them to the University and listen to defensive administrators explain why they can’t take disciplinary action. Having problems with mental health? Go to CAPS, sit under a sun lamp while you wait for short term care, and be sent to an off campus therapist who won’t accept your non-existent insurance to get better right away so you can go
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back to being a productive body for the University. Trying to live outside of the dorms? Consult the Dean of Student’s website on “Off-Campus Housing” to find a place where your landlord or management company can screw you over. Trying to solve our problems in this individualistic way ignores the interconnectedness and societal nature of our oppression. We are not saying that students should not use University resources, but rather that if we don’t take collective action these problems will continue to plague students and only get worse. Don’t let U of M make you feel like you’re a problem (sucking time and money out of the institution) that must be treated by ‘experts’, rather than a human with complex experiences and needs. We are working to challenge the narrative that we hear so often of a ‘liberal’ Ann Arbor and UM, and continue the inspiring legacy of radical activism on campus. All the heinous forms of oppression experienced in other communities are felt every day on our campus and in the city as well. We’ve seen this through the
OTSEFINAM critique of racism at UM provided by Black Action Movement in the 70s and 80s, as well as from #BBUM (Being Black at the University of Michigan) and Students4Justice in recent years. Consistent student and resident organizing against sexism, gender violence, homophobia, transphobia, and classism also attest to the fact that dominant culture continues to exist on our campus.
But why does the oppression continue? Maybe it’s because we’re a part of the legacy of the United States of America: a nation founded on settler colonialism, genocide, and slavery. Maybe it’s because the University’s administration and city officials have assimilated to a neoliberal, corporate model of governance. Maybe it’s because there are students at the University who refuse to challenge, and in fact, reproduce, the very systems of oppression that impact their peers. It’s up to us to demystify the air of Ann Arbor as a progressive wonderland and continue to expose its insidious underbelly. The University and administration are not the only issue. The University of Michigan is a place where oppressive systems are perpetuated not only by the individualistic, capitalistic University structure that brands its inclusivity and diversity (that only the privileged may afford) but ALSO by the majority of inactive peers, faculty, co-workers,
etc. that do not push back when others are tokenized, exoticized, harmed, and silenced. Some of these folks cannot show up and fight back because they have to work, commute and take care of a myriad of other responsibilities—and this too is part of the problem. We all need to be able to do community work: to fight for ourselves and to solidarize. Of course, there is a massive contradiction inherent to being a student against hegemony at UM. How can we be opposed to an institution from which we gain so much privilege and chose to attend? How can students justly criticize something that benefits them so much in the long run? First of all, we must escape the cultural Stockholm Syndrome in which UM firmly holds us. The University does give us power, yes. This power is immense. But this is not the power to remain complacent and complicit. No, this is the power to critique, fight for our rights, build power among communities, and create our liberation. As students, it is our position to use the privilege and resources that the University affords us to build a better world. We need to collectively change the way we think, act and interact at this University. We need to change the ways in which we understand the University, as a part in a capitalist system that exploits the most marginalized populations in our communities and around the world. No one will do it for us. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? It is our work to build alternatives to the current state of student culture, focused on cathartic acts and shallow liberalism, and replace them with fun and subversive action & meaningful care for our communities!
With Love and Rage, Guide The Disorientation Editors 4.
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A call for student power & action
from the michigan student Power Network
There are three types of power in the world: economic power, militarized coercive power, and the power found in people and communities. The ruling class might have control over the first two, but what about the latter? In an era of unprecedented rightwing populism, you might say that the ruling class holds power in the people too. But cut through the trumpisms and rallying cries of neonazis the world over, and you see quickly that the power that comes with building meaningful relationships and engaging groups of people is one that students and young people have an opportunity to build and use for justice, peace & equity. Power in people is the only conceivable position we can leverage to build the just world we’re fighting for without compromising our values. Historically, college campuses have served as organizing hubs for social movements. As students, we have enormous opportunities in our access to resources, knowledge, and collective space. We have the privilege to move through the world with a sense of idealism, to experiment with ideas and to imagine a new world. Harnessing our collective power is a strategic path to creating that world. In order to do so we must recognize our place within multiple communities—connecting community members, faculty, and hometowns. To make real headway we must build transformative relationships among one another. At the UM, this means that we must reject complacency to the economic & militarized powers of our governments and our university administration. Students should conspire with other residents and activists in the area to win victories that are mutually and equitably beneficial. In this way, we can be responsible for our student community and those we come from.
Not all students at the University believe in the possibility of the just, peaceful, and equitable future we struggle to build. In fact, we clearly see that this is the case from recent alt-right and zionist student activities on our campus (e.g. racist and antisemitic flyering in Fall 2016, and continued student zionism partially organized by Hillel). Overcoming the alt-right and zionism is hard to envision if we can’t see that the white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal structure that feeds fascism in the US also spurs colonialism in Palestine/Israel and the silencing of students of color at the U. What we have in common as concerned students can help us construct a collective frontline so that we can take back our voices and fight oppression here and everywhere. As students we are exploited by predatory loans. Our struggles for racial justice are hijacked by fluffy bureaucratic plans (the DE&I plan at UM being a prime example), and are made to believe that we’re the natural subordinates to their ‘unquestionable’ power. Our administrators continue to marginalize staff & students of color and queer & trans folks in the University, while trying to convince us that we’re well taken care of in the web of ‘student life,’ and then use poc students to sell the UM brand for personal monetary gain. Our local officials collaborate with big developers and landlords to make it nearly impossible for students of low-income backgrounds to find affordable rent near campus. They make us believe in them more than ourselves with chants of “GO BLUE” and “Victors for Michigan”. They thrive off of us thinking that we cannot match their might. In turn, we have to realize that we are the ones that give the University its mandate. The powers that be cannot function without us—politicians in our 2-party system know this, as do our campus administrators. As students, now is our chance to prove that we know our power in people too. It’s in our hands.
To join the MSPN in building student power across the state visit facebook.com/michiganstudetpower
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is a UM Regent? If the University is a corporation, the regents are its corporate board. They are tasked with making sure the machine runs efficiently, making sacrifices where needed for the bottom line. In this context, we as students must play the dual role of both product and consumer. The board consists of eight regents in total, two of whom are elected to an eight-year term every two years.They are elected officials who have control over policy and budget decisions at our university. They are the powers that be. According to the Michigan Constitution of 1963, the Regents have “general supervision” of the institution and “the control and direction of all expenditures from the institution’s funds.” If you are a Michigan voter, you (could) have voted on them. Now they get to sit in meetings and decide how many thousands of dollars to increase your tuition next year and what subsequent pay raise Schlissel might take (he’s a non-voting board member). So who are these people anyways? They are lawyers, corporate business types, board members for national nonprofits, and wealthy alumni. While well educated, most do not have a background in higher education or administration. These are nevertheless the people making decisions that affect our everyday lives on campus. The most pressing concern we see is the amount of power invested in a group that most students are not aware even exists, and is not representative of the students and faculty who are impacted by their decisions. In a Michigan Daily article* written days after the 2016 presidential election, students reported not caring about the regents’ activities, and expressed little desire to know more. As members of the student body most directly affected by the board’s decisions we find this highly concerning.
We have seen social justice campaigns appeal directly to Pres. Schlissel, but in reality, it’s the regents who determine how policy decisions will be made. Even the university president is chosen by the board. They’re the man behind the curtain, with Schlissel as their figurehead. *
“Following decisive regents election, students say Board lacks transparancy” www.michigandaily.com/section/administration/ students-unaware-board-regents-say-lack-transparency-exists-administration
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REGENTS
Denise Illitch
Ron Weiser
Illitch is the president of Illitch Holdings which privately manages Little Ceasers, the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, the Fox Theater as well as 2 billion in property investments in Detroit #gentrification. Illitch holdings boasts $3.4 Billion in combined revenue from these properties.
Owns Mckinely Properties, based in Ann Arbor worth over $500 Million. Mckinely owns many commercial and retail properties downtown A2.
Illitch may be sympathetic to some social justice causes, however her form of support leans toward white saviorism in the flavors of charity and philanthropy.
Major fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. He was named to Trump’s inauguration committee in November and has remained a head figure in the RNC.
College affordability advocate, though she voted for the latest ‘17 hike in tuition.
True #RossSchoolofBusiness capitalist and #CorporatePhilanthropist
Michael J. Behm Democratic lawyer and current chairperson of the Board of Regents History of charity in Flint and in the STEM field through the Level Playing Field
Katherine E. White Democrat from Ann Arbor with a varied history which includes engineering, (patent) law, governance, and military work.
Andrea Fischer Newman Republican who has studied at UM and Georgetown, formerly complicit in the Reagan administration. Long history of government affairs work for large multinational corporations, particularly for airline companies. Only regent opposed to the latest increase in student tuition.
Shauna Ryder Diggs Democratic dermatologist from Grosse Pointe who has multiple UM degrees. One of two people of color on the UM Board of Regents (both happen to be women of color).
One of two people of color on the UM Board of Regents.
Mark J. Bernstein Bernstein is president and managing partner of The Sam Bernstein Law Firm, PLLC. If there is a potential (semi) ally among the Regents, Mark Bernstein may be it. He has a history of legal civil rights work. Former Board of Trustee member at Michigan Hillel with ties to zionists.
Andrew C. Richner Republican lawyer and politician from Grosse Pointe Park who was a delegate during the Republican National Convention that nominated George W. Bush in 2004.
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Source: Ann Arbor News, www.annarbor.com/news/gop-operative-ron-weiserof-ann-arbor-in-hot-water-over-remarks-about-detroit-voters/
Student campaign against Weiser from the 2016 election. Weiser was elected, despite the student opposition to his regent candidacy. Design credit: Eva Roos
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HOUSING ACTIVISM IN A2
RY A BRIEF HISTO
In recent years more and more new ‘luxury’ student apartment complexes have been built up in Ann Arbor, rents elsewhere are rising, and students and community members are being pushed out of the city where they work, study, play and live. Students from the 1% (or maybe even the 10%) are forking over thousands of dollars a month to live in cinder block towers, while more and more folks are pushed into precarious housing situations from rising rents and unethical landlords and management companies screw over their tenants (edit: serfs?) with our government’s approval.
These housing problems are not new in Ann Arbor, and have existed before the recent increase in mid- and highrise apartments. The Ann Arbor Tenant’s Union (1969-2004) was born out of a rent strike to gain support for the 1978 Truth in Renting and Fair Rental Information legislation--a law regulating landlord practices. For decades, AATU provided invaluable resources to student renters to avoid legal conflicts with their landlords and to fight for their rights. AATU organized more rent strikes and advocated on behalf for tenants, anti-racism, women’s rights, disability rights, and environmental protection. They released newsletters to share information about Ann Arbor housing and even published How To Evict Your Landlord: An Ann Arbor Tenant’s Primer (1989). Even though AATU was funded by CSG, it was targeted by University administration (including VP for Student Life, E. Royster Harper) and in 2004 it lost its funding and dissolved. Today, no alternative to AATU works in our campus or city. Where do we go now if our landlord is using us, and who’s there to counter the pressure of the housing developers and management companies in our local government? No one, though we need it now more than ever.
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A Radical Declaration:
Domestic Abuse and the Necessity of Speaking Up
By the Anonymous spark
Goals of this Section: 1. Educate the reader on domestic abuse 2. As an educated reader, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG, SPEAK THE FUCK UP
Domestic abuse is real. “Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats, and emotional or psychological abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence varies dramatically.”
Domestic abuse happens everywhere: on campus and off campus. “Domestic violence is prevalent in every community and affects all people regardless of age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or nationality. Physical violence is often accompanied by emotionally abusive and controlling behavior as part of a much larger, systematic pattern of dominance and control. Domestic violence can result in physical injury, psychological trauma, and even death. The devastating consequences of domestic violence can cross generations and last a lifetime.”
Victim-survivors are real. Their actions and feelings are valid. “One of the most common questions people ask about victims of domestic violence is, ‘Why don’t they just leave?’ People stay in abusive relationships for a variety of reasons including: • The victim fears the abuser’s violent behavior will escalate if (s)he tries to leave. • The abuser has threatened to kill the victim, the victim’s family, friends, pets, children and/or himself/herself. • The victim loves his/her abuser and believes (s)he will change. • The victim believes abuse is a normal part of a relationship. • The victim is financially dependent on the abuser. • The abuser has threatened to take the victim’s children away if (s)he leaves. • The victim wants her/his children to have two parents. • The victim’s religious and/or cultural beliefs preclude him/her from leaving. • The victim has low self-esteem and believes (s)he is to blame for the abuse. • The victim is embarrassed to let others know (s)he has been abused. • The victim has nowhere to go if (s)he leaves. • The victim fears retribution from the abuser’s friends and/or family”
I distinguish between the term victim and survivor:
• A victim experiences domestic abuse. Victims can experience trauma. • A survivor is recovering from domestic abuse. Survivors can experience post-trauma. Victim-survivors can distinguish these words as they please (these definitions are only pertinent to me). Victim-survivors can describe themselves however they see fit; they need not use either word.
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I am a survivor of domestic abuse. I am a student. My father was my abuser. I found that there are few consolidated resources for victim intervention on campus or off campus in Michigan (I will define intervention below). One reason (among many) I felt that I could not exit the relationship was my lack of awareness of options. My father capitalized on isolation and manipulated my ideas about “the real world”. What really helped me get out of the relationship was my significant other repeatedly reminding me of the (reality of) options available to me. At that point, I had seen about three different therapists and I directly told them about the abuse I experienced. I sought advice and help, but they were neutral absorbers of information. They counseled me on how to “deal with it.” They were complicit in the perpetuation of my abuse. Fortunately, with the support of my S.O., I gained the confidence to separate from my father. The process was messy. I needed to meet with at least 5 different people across campus and the city in order to ensure personal safety and to ensure that I continued school with sufficient aid. There is a clear need for a domestic abuse intervention center. There is a need for increased campus awareness of domestic abuse (beyond and including sexual abuse).
My definition of an intervention includes:
• The victim can deny any step of intervention • Advocate(s) asking explicit permission to engage the victim with any step of intervention before any attempt of engagement • Advocate(s) respecting the choices of the victim • Advocates(s) practicing clear communication skills • Advocate(s) speaking personally only with the victim • Advocate(s) providing a safe space for the victim • Advocate(s) consistent, repeated emphasis of support to the victim • Advocate(s) consistent, repeated renouncement (anti-support) of the abuser • Advocate(s) reviewing the victim’s abusive relationship with the victim • Collective identification of the abusive tactics of the abuser • Advocate(s) emphasizing options and resources for the victim • Advocate(s) working intricately with the victim on a separation plan • Survivors require the same amount of respect and safe space as described above
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:noitaralceD lacidaR A
pU gnikaepS fo ytisseceN eht dna esubA citsemoD kraps suomynonA eht yB
In general, there is a need for proactive advocates. Advocacy requires significant emotional labor and training on victim-survivor collaboration (see below resources). Those near the victim-survivor can make a difference. If you observe domestic abuse, you can and should personally reach out to the victim using the above guidelines (of course, be wary of how much energy you can devote and remember that you are not obligated to provide all of the above if you are unable). If you’d like to help, but find you are unable, communicate this to the victim-survivor! If you’re on campus, start by encouraging them to contact the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC)! Accompany them there! Support them as much as possible! Seek resources and education yourself (SAPAC provides these too)! Speaking up and TAKING ACTION in the face of injustice fuels change for the better.
Advocate’s Resources: • http://www.wikihow.com/Help-Your-Friend-Who-Is-Being-Abused • http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-Signs-of-Domestic-Violence • Skills for Successful Collaborations: A Skills Building Curriculum in Negotiation, Collaborative Mindset, Strategic Thinking and Meeting Facilitation” Day Piercy, The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, 2000. • Jill Davies & Eleanor Lyon (1998). Safety planning with battered women. Thousand Oaks London‐ New Delhi: Sage Publications General Resources: • SAPAC: University of Michigan Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center promotes healthy relationships, teaches non-violence and equality, supports survivor healing, and fosters a respectful and safe environment for all members of the University of Michigan community. SAPAC provides educational and supportive services for the University of Michigan community related to sexual assault, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, and stalking. We are committed to fulfilling this mission in a culturallysensitive, empowering, and empathic way to University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. We serve all racial, ethnic, religious, class backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender and social identities. www.sapac.umich.edu • National Coalition Against Domestic Violence www.ncadv.org • Empowerment Guides from WomanSafeHealth, an excellent Ann Arbor health center http://www.womansafehealth.com/guides.html
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PRISON CREATIVE ARTS PROJECT In 1990 two intelligent, passionate women with life-sentences, Mary (who also happens to be the lead Plaintiff in Glover v. Johnson, a 1979 landmark class-action lawsuit that won equal educational and constitutional rights for Michigan woman prisoners, past, present and future—look it up!) and Joyce, strategically seeded what has become a multi-dimensional organization that focuses on bringing creative arts— and thus, compassion, connection, and humanity— to incarcerated people in Michigan. Mary and Joyce were asked by a student in the RC, Liz Boner, if they would like to take a social-justice oriented theater class at U of M while students with Buzz Alexander, and they said yes— within the walls of the facility. Buzz readily agreed and within the year their two-person class had grown into The Sisters Within— a talented, vivacious, dedicated theater troupe led by incarcerated women and facilitated by PCAP members, which still continues to create and perform incredible plays at Women’s Huron Valley. From there, Buzz and Janie Paul— a professor in the School of Art and Design —continued to grow PCAP to be what it is today. When Mary was released after 26 years of incarceration she joined the PCAP team “on the outside” and still serves as an integral part of the organization as the program coordinator (and, let’s not forget, co-founder), where she currently works at the helm. Today PCAP has grown to be a family of hundreds of members and alumni associates that provide creative-arts workshops in adult and juvenile facilities in Michigan, ranging from creative writing to theater to music (new this year!!), and annually puts on the largest art exhibition of prisoner-created work in the country, showcasing drawings, paintings, and sculpture from artists in every facility in Michigan. Additionally, PCAP organizes the Linkage Project, which connects formerly incarcerated youth and adults with PCAP mentors who provide re-entry support and help the artists grow their portfolios, publishes a wonderful literature journal of writing by incarcerated authors, and instructs PCAPaffiliated classes. In an essence, PCAP’s objective is simple: bring joy, enhance and celebrate creative skill, and connect people who could not
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otherwise become connected. Yet in doing this, PCAP is inherently working to humanize the criminal justice system— a massive apparatus that deprives people of their humanity, limits connections, and removes more than 2 million people from society each year. However, the main problem is that the criminal justice system is not broken; it is working exactly how it intends to work. It is no coincidence that the majority of the prison population is African American and Hispanic people (for example, black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men) or that the private prison corporations like the Corrections Corporation of America make billions of dollars in revenue each year. It is also no coincidence that prisons tend to thrive up in poor, rural, working-class white towns that are desperate to improve their economy. And it is certainly no coincidence that the “war on crime” began just as the African American community was gaining rights during the civil rights area. Thus, PCAP operates within a complex system but the work it does brings everything back to a human-to-human level. In PCAP workshops, the leadership is not one-directional. It is interchange of ideas and creativity between facilitators and artists; it is through our mutual connection and care for one another that our art is able to come alive. PCAP simply provides a supportive space for the artists to use their agency; agency that they already hold within them but don’t have much opportunity to express within the walls of their imprisonment. The tendency to make art is a human phenomenon. It is something that defines us as humans and is something that we all share across cultures, borders, experiences, times, and spaces. The work that PCAP does gives talented, thoughtful, resilient artists the chance to be seen as people—not prisoners—and it challenges us, as their community, to review our perceptions of the incarcerated. We would love to have you join us in this experience.
ning: facilitator trai new workshop 30 am - 4:30 pm sept. 10 from 8: 1405 east quad /jfe/ h.qualtrics.com sign up at umic Yyl4dRhqXX form/SV_d9Xt3 ich.edu
pcapexeco@um
TRUTH
TO POW ER
REWOP OT HTURT *WORDS MATTER: RADICAL means striking at the ROOT of the problem. This is why we advocate for radical activism, which attacks the root causes of the problems we face in our communities.
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*Not sponsored by Rick’s
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Design credit: Eva Roos
Words matter
change some terms for
Dialectical Change: The process by which the internal contradictions of existing institutions/ ideas create their own opposite through struggle to resolve those contradictions. The resolution of this struggle creates a new institution/idea, which then repeats the process.
Classism:
Discrimination or oppression against people on the basis of their lower socioeconomic class status.
Heteronormativity:
relating to, or based on the attitude that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of sexuality. *see ricks
Intersectionality: he concept that when trying to understand the experiences of Black women, one can not do so without taking into account that issues of race will intersect with racism thus giving them a unique type of lived experience. The term was originally coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 for this reason and has since been expanded to also grapple with the idea of other parts of a person’s identity impacting their lived experiences all at once by shaping the way they experience oppression.
Neoliberalism: a theory of political and economic practices asserting that human well-being can best be advanced by the expansion of free markets, free trade, and individual freedoms. The role of the state is to create and preserve these markets, but not to intervene in them.
Racism:
The belief that all members of a specific race are in some way superior in comparison to another. Usually accompanied by the systematic oppression of one or more racial groups through a variety of social, political and cultural systems of domination.
Sexism:
Prejudice, discrimination, or stereotyping against people based upon their sex, again generally enhanced by societal structures of oppression/domination
Solidarity:
The value and execution of the connectedness of the common nature of all liberation struggles
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Connect with Radfun* *radical anticapitalist deviants & forum of united nonconformists
zine release party: sat. sept. 9 @ 8PM 602 lawrence st. initial gathering: wed. sept. 13 @ 6:30 1432 east quad
disorientationmichiganwordpress.com radfunUM@gmail.com facebook.com/radfunUM 27.