CONFRONTING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX- A Sandbox Event

A benefit evening of documentary film, live theater and theater on film to celebrate the release of
Sandbox Magazine #10: Incarceration

Saturday, June 22nd
Galapagos Art Space
70 North 6th Street
(L train to Bedford/1st stop in Brooklyn)
Doors open at 9pm/ID required
Suggested donation: $15 + raffle ticket

FEATURING THE NY PREMIERE OF:
AT 11PM

WE JUST TELLING STORIES - Documentary about The Medea Project: Theater for
Incarcerated Women, a women's theater workshop founded by award-winning
actress and director Rhodessa Jones. Directed by Dr. Larry Andrews and
Rhodessa Jones, presented by Cultural Odyssey. (60")

ALSO FEATURING...

AT 9PM
Documentary Film
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES - The Mother of the New York Disappeared and their bus journey from NYC to Albany protesting the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Directed by Nina Rosenbaum, presented by Daedalus Productions. (15")

CORRECTIONS: LOUISIANA ADVOCACY VERSION - A 12 minute version of Ashley
Hunt's feature documentary Corrections, which exposes the brutal consequences of a profit-driven prison system, developed for advocacy efforts in Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FUNERAL - A community organizes a Jazz Funeral as a protest, calling for the closing of the Tallulah Juvenile Detention Facility in Tallulah, Louisiana. Directed by Ashley Hunt. (18")

Live Theater
LAB U.S.A. - Slide and sound adaptations of two prison-related chapters from Kevin Pyle's "docu-comic" Lab U.S.A.-Illuminated Documents: a history, in comic-book form, of science and medical research conducted in service of authoritarian and racist ideology. Written, directed & performed by Kevin Pyle. (10")

Theater on Film
JAILS, HOSPITALS & HIP-HOP, THE FILM - Excerpt from a film adaptation of Danny Hoch's acclaimed stage show in which Hoch masterfully brings 10 characters to life. The one presented tonight is a corrections officer sent to therapy for assaulting an inmate. Directed by Danny Hoch and Mark Benjamin with an original score by Mixmaster Mike. (10")

PLUS
FACES OF THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG WARS, a limited edition poster by artist/activist Anthony Papa.

PROGRAM NOTES
9PM
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES -
A 15 minute film directed by Nina Rosenblum, follows the Mothers of the New York Disappeared on their bus journey to Albany, New York to protest the New York Rockefeller Mandatory Minimum Drug Laws and tells the stories of several people recently granted clemency by Governor Pataki. Nina Rosenblum is an Oscar-nominated, award-winning producer, director & writer of documentaries, shorts and segments. She is currently editing Hospital at Ground Zero, and directing An Empty Place at the Table, about women and children killed in domestic violence. President of Daedalus Productions, Inc. she has produced and directed for TBS, HBO, PBS, NY Times Television, Showtime, ABC, and NBC.

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FUNERAL & CORRECTIONS: LOUISIANA ADVOCACY VERSION
Ashley Hunt is a visual artist and filmmaker, living in Brooklyn, NY. His documentary project, Corrections, and a series of Footnotes on Corrections, explore and explain the politics, economics, and socio-political consequences of massive incarceration in the US. Both New Orleans Jazz Funeral, picturing a community protest against the US' most notoriously brutal youth prison, and a shortened, Louisiana specific version of Corrections, are being used currently to organize community groups across the state in pushing for a shut-down of the Tallulah juvenile prison, and a return of those youth to their communities. Hunt is currently in production of and fundraising for a new feature documentary project about this campaign to close the Tallulah prison. Corrections was selected at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival.
(www.independentfilms.com/corrections)

LAB U.S.A. - Kevin C. Pyle will be performing slide and sound adaptations of two prison-related chapters from his "docu-comic" Lab U.S.A.- Illuminated Documents. Lab U.S.A. is a history, in comic-book form, of science and medical research conducted in service of authoritarian and racist ideology. It is published by Autonomedia and available at www.autonomedia.org/labusa/index.html. Kevin Pyle is an artist/illustrator whose work has been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Progressive, and countless other publications. He is an editor of World War 3 illustrated, America's longest-running radical comix compendium.

JAILS, HOSPITALS & HIP-HOP, THE FILM - The film expands on the stage version of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop which spent 11 weeks at PS 122 before touring over 25 US cities and colleges. Danny Hoch is a globally acclaimed actor, writer and solo performer. His 3 solo shows Pot Melting, Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop have toured over 50 cities to sold out houses, and have wone numerous awards including 2 Obies, the Sunbdance Writers Fellowship and most recently a fellowship from the New School's Vera List Center for Art & Politics. Much of Hoch's work has been not-for-profit, including spearheading efforts to bring conflict-resolution-through-drama to adolescents in NYC's jails and alternative high schools with New York City's Creative Arts Team. Written and directed by Danny Hoch and Mark Benjamin with an original score by Mix Master Mike. Produced by Michael Skolnik and William O'Neill of Kicked-Down Productions. Danny Hoch is currently producing the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in NYC. (www.dannyhoch.com)

INTERMISSION

11PM

WE JUST TELLING STORIES - Created by film artist and U.C. Santa Cruz Professor Dr. Larry Andrews and Director/ Founder of The Medea Project, Rhodessa Jones, the film documents The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, a women's theater workshop led by Rhodessa Jones of Cultural Odyssey in the San Francisco County Jail. It follows the theatrical development process which unveils the stories of four women and other inmates. The film reveals unique techniques that Rhodessa Jones has developed for working with incarcerated populations -- an alternative rehabilitation process. As the stories unfold, the viewer gains an understanding of racial, social, economic, and psychological factors shared by women in American jails.

This groundbreaking, historic film was nominated for a Golden Gate Award by the San Francisco International Film Festival and winner of Best Documentary by the San Francisco Black Film Festival in June 2001. Jones is an award-winning actress, dancer, singer, writer and teacher as well as Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco-based performance company Cultural Odyssey. She tours internationally and nationally performing, teaching and speaking to her vision for "Performance in the 21st Century". Rhodessa Jones and The Medea Project were honored with a Community Bridge Builder award from the San Francisco Foundation this past December. Jones was also honored as Working Woman of the Year by the Working Women's Theater Festival.

The Medea Project has staged 7 productions: Reality is Just Outside The Window (1992), Food Taboos in the Land of the Dead (1993), A Place at the Table: A Taste of Somewhere Else (1994), Requiem for A Dead Love (1998), Slouching Towards Armageddon: A Captive Conversation/Observation on Race (1999), and It's a Pasttime Paradise: Nobody Gets Out Alive (1999).

In 1998, Ms. Jones was awarded the President's Pathfinder Award by the National Black Theater Network for groundbreaking work in the theater. She was awarded a 1993 Bessie for her one-woman show Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed
Women which was presented at La Mama in 1992. She has also won several Isadora Duncan Awards for her performance projects and the productions of the Medea Project.
(www.culturalodyssey.org)

FACES OF THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG WARS - In conjunction with the film Unintended Consequences, a limited-edition poster created by artist/activist Anthony Papa will be distributed giving information about the draconian drug laws of New York State. Papa was sentenced to 15 years in Sing Sing for drug posession where he became a painter, earned 3 college degrees, and running a prison art program before being pardoned by Governor Pataki in 1996. He has since devoted himself to fighting the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Papa¹s work has been shown at the Whitney Museum and the Outsider Art Gallery and can be currently seen at www.15yearstolife.com.

MISSION:
Sandbox Magazine, Sandbox Performance/Installation Events and Sandbox
Webzine are projects of Sandbox Open Arts, a not-for-profit arts organization whose mission is to encourage experimentation in the visual arts, the performing arts, music, and literature with a particular emphasis on interactive and multi-media work. We are also particularly committed to exploring the connections between art, culture and society.

Sandbox, Magazine of Creative & Subversive Play is published semi-annually. Each issue is theme-based and is released in conjunction with a performance and installation event. Our organization is run entirely by volunteers.

The magazine may be purchased in NYC at the following locations: Clovis Press, Printed Matter, Tower Video, The New Museum & Untitled

Editor/Curator: Sylvie Myerson
Art Director: Vid Jain
Associate Editor/Curator: Lauren Shpall
Stage Manager: Sue Shannon

Sandbox Magazine
PO Box 150098
Brooklyn NY 11215
http://www.sandboxarts.org
sandbox@echonyc.com