Sky Hopinka and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Courtesy of the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz (IAS) hosts a public conversation between Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) and Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Sky Hopinka: Seeing and Seen, co-organized with IAS as part of the series Visualizing Abolition.
Location
The Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz
100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Visualizing Abolition
Visualizing Abolition is an ongoing initiative exploring art, prisons, and justice, collaboratively organized by the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz and San José Museum of Art.
Letters from the Inside
As part of Visualizing Abolition’s exhibition Barring Freedom, Tim Young—who is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State prison—wrote a letter, sharing his experience living in prison, which was mailed to museum membership. Many of you wrote notes in response.
Since 2020, the letter writing campaign has expanded to include April Harris, currently incarcerated at California Institution for Women in Chino, California, and a third participant who will join the campaign in late 2023. A letter-writing station onsite at SJMA extends invites visitors to participate by writing a letter or note of support. They can include their addresses if they are interested in receiving a response.
A letter-writing station onsite at SJMA extends an invitation to the visitor to write a letter to one of our incarcerated partners. Visitors can include their addresses if they are interested in receiving a response. This campaign is intended to provide a network of support and connection and to serve as an opportunity to actively listen to and learn from one of our incarcerated neighbors.