Bioneer, In this week's newsletter, we're diving into the transformative power of restorative justice. In a society in which purely punitive legal systems very often perpetuate cycles of harm, restorative justice offers a hopeful alternative rooted in healing, accountability and bringing communities together in the mediation of conflict.
Join us as we explore a range of different aspects of the restorative justice movement shared by several leading figures who are seeking new, far more enlightened approaches to criminal justice: architect Deanna Van Buren, activists and attorneys Fania Davis and Claudia Peña, the late exemplary young organizer Cameron Simmons, and formerly incarcerated author, poet, MacArthur Fellow, and founder of Freedom Reads, Reginald Dwayne Betts. |
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Achieving Equity in the Built Environment | Deanna Van BurenIn this video, architect Deanna Van Buren illustrates her lifelong commitment to ending mass incarceration by building infrastructure that addresses its root causes. She shares how her studio works to counter the traditional adversarial and punitive architecture that characterizes our legal system by creating spaces and buildings that enable restorative justice, community building, and housing for people coming out of incarceration. |
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Restorative Justice: From Harm to Healing | Fania Davis & Cameron SimmonsThe restorative justice movement has boldly shown that arresting the cycle of youth violence and incarceration early can lead to significant changes. In this podcast episode, restorative justice leaders Fania Davis and Cameron Simmons describe the incredibly effective work being done to transform schools and juvenile justice policies in Oakland, California, and around the country. |
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Claudia Peña at BioneersBioneers 2024 speaker Claudia Peña is the founding co-director of the Center for Justice at UCLA, home of the Prison Education Program. The program creates innovative courses that enable faculty and students to learn from and alongside currently incarcerated participants, allowing all involved to challenge bias, discrimination, and injustice in a shared and collaborative learning experience.
Register for Bioneers 2024 to hear Peña's keynote presentation about how the mass incarceration system has wreaked havoc on our society and what we can do to amend it. |
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Watch Calls from Home at Bioneers 2024Join us at Bioneers 2024 for several screenings of cutting-edge documentaries, including “Calls from Home.” In an intimate portrait of rural prison expansion, “Calls from Home” documents WMMT-FM’s longstanding radio show that sends familial messages of love over public airwaves to reach people incarcerated in Central Appalachia. For many, the show is a lifeline to the world outside. Directed by Sylvia Ryerson, a former DJ for the show, the film portrays the many forms of distance that rural prison building creates — and the ceaseless search to end this system of racialized mass incarceration and family separation. |
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House of Unending | Reginald Dwayne Betts“I think part of the loneliness that comes with being incarcerated and motivates us to do the work of building libraries in prison is that we’re sort of singing into the darkness.” - Reginald Dwayne Betts
In a conversation with Interview Magazine, MacArthur fellow and founder of Freedom Reads Reginald Dwayne Betts talks about his new album of poems, “House of Unending,” which shares his incarceration experience, the dark realities of prison life and the injustices many Black men face. |
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Upcoming Bioneers Learning Courses & Community ConversationsThrough engaging courses and conversations led by some of the world's foremost movement leaders, Bioneers Learning courses and Community Conversations equip engaged citizens and professionals like you with the knowledge, tools, resources, and networks to initiate or deepen your engagement, leading to real change in your life and community. Upcoming Bioneers Learning Courses: - Speak Your Truth: Leadership, Writing & Public Speaking for Social & Environmental Justice | Starting March 1 | Gain specific tools for effectively communicating your vision for a positive future, as well as strategies for building a campaign to make your vision a reality.
- Attuning to, Aligning with & Serving the Impulse & Flow of Universal Evolution | Starting March 20 | Wake up to a radical reality and discover as a species who we really and truly are and who we can evolve to become.
- Being a Good Relative: Allyship with Indigenous Peoples | Starting April 24 | Understand and come to embody what it means to be a good ally through interactive teachings, discussions, and hands-on activities.
- The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times | Self-Paced | Discover how the Four Sacred Gifts of forgiving the unforgivable, unity, healing, and hope in action provide us with a path to our most grounded, loving, healed, and generous selves.
- Regenerative Agriculture: Nourishing the Soil, Healing the Planet | Self-Paced | Be enlightened on the practical applications and impressive potential that regenerative agriculture has to revive healthy landscapes; contribute to human and animal health; create an equitable food system; and help heal the climate.
Upcoming Community Conversations: - Youth Activism: A Conversation on Youth Led Movements and Actions | March 13 | What does youth-led activism look like? What role should youth voices play in movements? Join Zain Khemani, Lauryn Smith, and Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri in this community conversation if you are curious about how youth are paving the way or looking for inspiration.
- More coming soon!
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