Symposium ‘BRIDGES: WALLS TURNED SIDEWAYS’ March 5th Program
March 5, 2020
3-5 PM: Mirror/Echo/Tilt Workshop led by Shaun Leonardo, Devan Fulton, and Saint James
This workshop has limited capacity, see linked PDF for more information
6 PM Keynote Talks: Laurie Jo Reynolds & Shaun Leonardo
Laurie Jo Reynolds is a policy advocate and artist who challenges the demonization, warehousing, and social exclusion of people in the criminal legal system, often long-term efforts at the margins of political viability.
Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood—namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities—along with its notions of achievement and collective identity and the experience of failure.
More information about the keynotes:
Keynotes
Laurie Jo Reynolds is a policy advocate and artist who challenges the demonization, warehousing, and social exclusion of people in the criminal legal system, often long-term efforts at the margins of political viability. She was the organizer of the campaign to close Tamms Correctional Center, the notorious Illinois state supermax prison designed for sensory deprivation. She also focuses on conviction registries, housing banishment laws, and public exclusion zones, which destabilize families and lead to unemployment, incarceration, and homelessness. Reynolds is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is coordinating an alliance to support the Chicago 400 (@Chicago400). The Chicago 400 are people with past convictions that require registration who are experiencing homelessness and therefore have to re-register weekly at Chicago Police Headquarters.
Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood—namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities—along with its notions of achievement and collective identity and the experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly, a diversion program for court-involved youth, is participatory in nature and invested in a process of embodiment. A Brooklyn-based artist originally from Queens, Leonardo received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice, and A Blade of Grass have supported his practice, and he was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at the Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and Recess, with a current exhibition at the New Museum. Leonardo joined Pratt Institute as the School of Art Visiting Fellow in fall 2018.
For more information, see the Tufts University Galleries website.
This symposium is produced in collaboration with Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College of Civic Life and it is presented with support from the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University and Tufts University School of Arts & Sciences and School of Engineering Diversity Fund.