Today’s Care Package shows how art can be used to enact justice and includes ways to take actionable steps and support organizations who work towards dismantling systems of oppression, specifically in policing and the prison industrial complex. 

First up is the Race, Myth, Art, and Justice exhibition that ran from Nov. 15, 2018-Jun. 15 2019 at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). Bringing together a myriad of discussions and styles, this show “explores intersecting ideas of race, myth, art, and justice through the lenses and unique interpretations of twelve inter-generational photographers” with African or African Diaspora heritage. Learn more and peruse the online version of the exhibition here.  

Second is an exhibition put on by the For the People Artists Collective titled Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence. This exhibition brought together 43 artists from 25 different Chicago neighborhoods to make art in a variety of media concerned with facilitating discussions about police violence, policing and prison abolition, and community–oriented healing and safety. Check out this page for a video about the exhibition, a link to all of the artworks and artist statements, and the Do Not Resist? Mixtape. 

Want to learn more and take action? Here a few resources to start with. 

Check out Critical Resistance’s page on police abolition

Check out The Art for Justice Fund which is used, in their own words, to “make direct grants to artists and advocates focused on safely reducing the prison population, promoting justice reinvestment and creating art that changes the narrative around mass incarceration.”  

Also check out Black and Pink which, also in their own words, works “to dismantle the criminal punishment system and to liberate LGBTQIA2S+ people/people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system, through advocacy, support, and organizing.” There is a Milwaukee chapter that can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/MKEBlackandPink/