CREATIVE TIME PRESENTS BRING DOWN THE WALL WITH ARTIST PHIL COLLINS

FREE TICKETS BRING DOWN THE WALLS PRESENTED BY CREATIVE TIME AND THE FORTUNE SOCIETY WITH ARTIST PHIL COLLINS Weekend 2 of Bring Down The Walls is here! Join us at Firehouse, Engine Company 31 during the day in dismantling the prison industrial complex through conversations and workshops led by people directly impacted by the prison system and those working to change it. When the sun goes down, the venue will transform into a dance club, celebrating the political and communal aspects of house music featuring MikeQ's House of Vogue. REGISTER HERE SATURDAY PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE  THE CARCERAL CONTINUUM The second Saturday of Bring Down The Walls examines the expansion of punitive and carceral practices, and the ways they have been codified to extend beyond prison walls – through policies on immigration, surveillance, drug laws, and bail. We introduce some of the campaigns and organizations focused on dismantling these practices. Please note that Bring Down The Walls is an organically evolving communal space. Times may shift and programs added throughout the run of the project. Check back regularly for the most up-to-date schedule. School Is In Session 2:20 – 2:30 PM Welcome to Bring Down The Walls! Join us as we introduce the framework and themes for the day’s conversations, exchanges, and debates. Mapping the Prison Industrial Complex 2:30 – 4:00 PM / Big Room Ronald Day, Casimiro Torres How has the prison system evolved into an all pervasive industrial complex? Extending well beyond the confines of physical detainment facilities, the criminal justice system is driven by an overlapping set of bureaucratic, political, and corporate interests which capitalize on the proliferation of imprisonment, regardless of actual need. Ronald Day is Associate Vice President at the Fortune Society, a Justice Research Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for Justice, and an adjunct instructor at John Jay College for Criminal Justice. He previously served as the Director of Workforce Development for the nonprofit Osborne Association. After spending several years in and out of the criminal justice system, Casimiro Torrescollaborated with Fortune Society founder David Rothenberg on the theater production of The Castle, which follows four individuals’ journeys leading to incarceration, and the obstacles they faced upon release. Torres also serves on the Board of Directors at the Fortune Society. Rikers Debate Project: Face Off 2:30 – 4:00 PM / Small Room Felix Guzman, Camilla Broderick The Rikers Debate Project Fellows take on the most pressing issues in the field of criminal justice advocacy, such as voting rights, the “raise the age” campaign, solitary confinement, and bail reform. The Rikers Debate Project is dedicated to teaching people at Rikers Island the skills of competitive debate. As an intern for Rikers Debate Project, Camilla Broderick represents the organization at public functions and teaches classes on debate technique. Camilla currently attends Hunter College and was a Justice-in-Education scholar at The Center for Justice at Columbia University. Felix Guzman is an activist whose focus is supporting programs dedicated to successful re-entry following incarceration. He is a member of the Rikers Debate Project and credits much of his personal growth to the skills learned as a part of the organization. Legal Action Center 3:00 – 6:00 PM Legal Action Center will be providing help with a variety of issues, such as: how to apply for Certificates of Relief or Good Conduct, whether to obtain a copy of your NYS RAP Sheet and how to do so, information about one’s rights when seeking a job or license with a criminal record; information about NYC’s Fair Chance Act – the “ban the box” law, initial screenings for sealing eligibility, and other reentry services. More information here. Incarceration Now: Immigrant Detainees 4:15 – 5:45 PM / Big Room Abou Farman, Albert Saint Jean The U.S. currently maintains the world’s largest immigrant detention system, locking up more people for potential deportation than ever before as the fastest rising arm of mass incarceration. The current administration has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seemingly unfettered authority to remove entire populations from our country. What are the ramifications of those actions and how can we fight back? Abou Farman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research and a member of the New School Sanctuary Working Group. He is also an artist, screenwriter and producer. His work on Dogtown Redemption was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award. Albert Saint Jean is an organizer for Black Alliance for Just Immigration, an education and advocacy group comprised of African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The Making of an Abolitionist 4:15 – 4:45 PM / Small Room Pilar Maschi This session chronicles the journey of one woman who turned her own experience of incarceration to fuel her career as an organizer and a prison abolitionist. An organizer for Critical Resistance, Pilar Maschi is a proud queer Boricua mom who raised her now college-bound daughter in the South Bronx. She is a NY-born house head, former club kid, and DJ. As a formerly incarcerated, queer, anti-establishment abolitionist, Pilar uses her power to fight for the liberation of all people most impacted by the prison industrial complex. Campaign Step Up with Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, and Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Release Aging People in Prison, moderated by Scott Paltrowitz from the Correctional Association of New York 4:45 – 5:45 PM / Small Room Take action! Numerous New York City based campaigns are challenging the prison industrial complex and supporting those most affected by it. This weekly series will connect you with various local campaigns and present opportunities to join their work. Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) seeks to reform of New York’s use of solitary confinement and other forms of extreme isolation in state prisons and local jails. Coalition for Women Prisoners is a statewide alliance of over 1,700 individuals and 100 organizations dedicated to making the criminal justice system more responsive to the needs and rights of women. Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) works to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice by getting elderly and infirm people out of prison. Behind The Music 6:00 – 6:45 PM / Small Room Phil Collins and Collaborators Hear the classic house covers from the Bring Down The Walls benefit album, and the story behind the project from the artist and his collaborators. Economics of Bail 6:00 – 7:30 PM / Big Room Derrick Cain, Marvin Mayfield In a justice system where you are “innocent until proven guilty,” why are so many people languishing in jail simply because they cannot afford bail? The stated purpose of bail is to guarantee a suspect’s appearance at trial; the application of bail laws points to a different purpose that penalizes the poor and rewards the rich. This panel explains the intricacies and inequalities of the bail system. Derrick Cain is the Manager of Client Services at the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund. He works to provide support and services for individuals incarcerated on Rikers Island, to overcome the challenges that stem from their contact with the criminal justice system. Marvin Mayfield is a campaign leader for Just LeadershipUSA’s #FREEnewyork and #CloseRikers campaigns. Unable to pay his bail fees, Mayfield was detained for 11 months at Vernon C. Bain Correctional Facility, the floating jail anchored off the Bronx’s southern shore, nicknamed “The Boat.”. Mayfield now campaigns against the facility’s inhumane conditions, and advocates for its permanent closure. Policing Freedom 6:45 – 7:30 PM / Small Room Returning home from prison is not the end of most sentences. While over 2 million people are currently incarcerated in the U.S., over 8 million are serving sentences outside in the form of parole or probation. This session explores the added challenges parole and probation have on reentry and how we can support reform efforts. Ballroom Freedom School 7:45 – 8:45 PM / Big Room Michael Roberson, Robert Sember The LGBTQ+ community, especially trans folk of color, are hypervisible and hypercriminalized by law enforcement. The Ballroom Freedom School is a collaborative project building greater political literacy within the community, while helping and to help further autonomous, indigenous processes that promote freedom from homophobia, transphobia, racism, class oppression, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. The founders will discuss how the LGBTQ+ community is uniquely vulnerable to criminalization and incarceration. Michael Roberson is an advocate, activist and leader within the Black LGBTQ House Ball community, where he is the founder of House of Blahnik, Maasai and Garcon. He is also a public health practitioner, founded The Federation of Ballroom Houses, and is member of Vogue’ology, an initiative by and for members of the African American and Latino/a LGBTQ community in New York City. Robert Sember is an artist, scholar and Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at the Eugene Lang College at the New School. He is a member of the sound art collective, Ultra-red, which collaborates with constituencies involved in migrant rights, fair housing and anti-racist struggles. He established Vogue’ology, an initiative by and for members of the African American and Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in New York City. Say What You Mean, Mean What you Say 7:45 – 8:45 PM / Small Room #CloseRikers campaign with JLUSA Inspired by the day’s exchanges and call to action, school wraps up with sign-making and rally training. Join criminal justice organizers as we crank up the music and march on the streets, activating Manhattan’s civic center. Led by directly impacted communities and in partnership with 150+ organizations, the #CloseRikers campaign fights to close the Rikers Island Jail Complex & transform NYCs criminal justice system. SATURDAY NIGHT PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE HOUSE OF VOGUE 10 PM – 6 AM / All spaces House of Vogue is a monthly ball in Brooklyn dedicated to underground ballroom culture and the vogue-house communities of New York City, hosted by one of the leading figures of the scene, DJ and producer MikeQ. The second Saturday of Bring Down The Walls is a House of Vogue takeover, featuring a ballroom competition with cash prizes, MCs, special guest performances, plus music courtesy of MikeQ and members of his label, Qween Beat Records. ABOUT THE PROJECT  Bring Down The Walls pulls into focus the dichotomy between the sense of freedom, unity and joy ingrained in house music, and the punitive control and violence—physical, mental and emotional—perpetuated by the U.S. prison system. Set up as a deeply collaborative framework defined by the impulse to meet, listen and cultivate more comprehensive knowledge about mass incarceration, the project is inspired by the ethos of early house music venues, which often functioned as hubs of political engagement as much as spaces of personal liberation and collective transcendence. At the heart of Bring Down The Walls is the pairing of knowledge built from research with that which has been gained by experience, including a wide range of views and a focus on prison abolition. Daytime programs will be primarily led by people who have experienced the system and those working to change it, drawing powerful new connections on the issues and campaigns around decarceration, immigrant rights, ending cash bail, closing jails and prisons, and improving reentry. By night, this communal space will also convene DJs, musicians, performers, and other influential contributors to New York City’s current club scene, acknowledging the history of nightlife as a haven of abandon and temporary relief in which divisions of race, class, gender, and sexuality are often crossed in unexpected ways. The unusual connection between house music and incarceration comes from years in which Collins worked with men serving long-term sentences at Sing Sing in New York. Structured around the formation of an unofficial band, sessions repeatedly turned to a canon of dance floor anthems, which were a formative influence for both the band members and Phil. Deepening this personal connection is the historical context, as in 1980s the exponential rise of mass incarceration in the U.S. coincided with the emergence of a new dance sound coming out of the communities disproportionately targeted by regressive criminal justice policies. This experimental electronic music soon took over downtown Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Manchester in England, where Collins grew up, as well as, in quick succession, the rest of the world. ABOUT CREATIVE TIME Creative Time, the New York based public arts non-profit, is committed to working with artists on the dialogues, debates, and dreams of our time. Creative Time presents the most innovative art in the public realm, providing new platforms to amplify artists’ voices, including the Creative Time Summit, an international conference convening at the intersection of art and social justice. Since 1974, Creative Time has produced over 350 groundbreaking public art projects that ignite the imagination, explore ideas that shape society, and engage millions of people around the globe. Since its inception, the non-profit organization has been at the forefront of socially engaged public art, seeking to convert the power of artists’ ideas into works that inspire and challenge the public. Creative Time projects stimulate dialogue on timely issues, and initiate a dynamic experience between artists, sites, and audiences. ABOUT PHIL COLLINS Phil Collins' films, installations and live events explore the intersections of art, politics and popular culture. Often working with disregarded or marginalized communities, Collins looks past conventional media portrayals, aiming instead for a more nuanced and empathic vantage point. Since the 1990s he has collaborated with, amongst others, disco-dancing Palestinians; Kosovan Albanian refugees; the youth of Baghdad; teachers of Marxism-Leninism from the former German Democratic Republic; a leading anime studio in Tokyo; anti-fascist skinheads in Malaysia; a homeless centre in Cologne; and prisoners, pensioners, school kids, and a symphonic orchestra in Glasgow. Reflecting critical consciousness, immediacy and commitment to myriad forms of experience, Collins' projects question the cut-and-dried meanings of social situations and definitions of language, economic status and locality. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented around the world, including Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (2017); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (both 2016); Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2015); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2013); and British Film Institute, London (2011). Collins is Professor of Video Art and Performance at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. ABOUT FORTUNE SOCIETY Founded in 1967, The Fortune Society has advocated on criminal justice issues for five decades and is nationally recognized for developing model programs that help people with criminal justice histories to be assets to their communities.  Fortune offers a holistic and integrated “one-stop-shopping” model of service provision. Among the services offered are discharge planning, licensed outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment, alternatives to incarceration, HIV/AIDS services, career development and job retention, education, family services, drop in services and supportive housing as well as lifetime access to aftercare. CONNECT Instagram: @CreativeTimeNYC Twitter: @CreativeTime Website: www.creativetime.org #BringDownTheWalls