A Bloomington nonprofit has joined forces with Illinois Humanities to address mass incarceration.
YWCA of McLean County is now one of six statewide "hubs" for the Envisioning Justice initiative supporting cultural programs for current and formerly incarcerated people and their families.
Last weekend, Bloomington Public Library hosted an Envisioning Justice symposium specifically focused on women, including a panel discussion on artist David Dow’s Perennial Optimism. The art exhibit, shown at Joe McCauley Gallery this spring, featured sculptures inspired by five formerly incarcerated women Dow met through Labyrinth House and Labyrinth Made Goods. Those YWCA programs provide transitional housing and job training for women exiting prison, most of whom come from Logan Correctional Center.
“Art is an expression to relieve emotion, stress, anger—all kinds of things,” said Candice Byrd, who participated in the panel. “It’s also an opportunity to connect with a whole other group of people you may not come across. Someone who can afford a $5,000 painting may not cross someone’s path who’s been incarcerated before. Having a space like this allows you to see people like myself who have experienced incarceration as human beings.”
Television and film frequently romanticize incarceration, particularly among women. There was Orange is the New Black and Wentworth (which is set to leave Netflix on Oct. 26). The latter was based on the Australian soap Prisoner, which ran from 1979-86. That’s not to mention an embarrassment of riches when it comes to reality TV and prison documentaries—some of which are built on flimsy or dubious foundations. But do any of these actually move the needle on needed systemic change?
Envisioning Justice provides a contrast, using arts and culture with and for those experiencing incarceration. Other partner hubs include the post-incarceration education and entrepreneurship nonprofit Beyond the Walls in Carbondale and Shakespeare Corrected, a theater program embedded at Decatur Correctional Center.
“The overall end goal is to reach an opportunity to reach rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration,” said Byrd. “What do these people really need? What were their basic needs prior to them coming here, and were they being met?”
Byrd is the director of Strive at YWCA, a professional development program that assists unemployed and underemployed workers, including formerly incarcerated people, with obtaining living wage jobs. She chose to continue working near the justice system after her own experience seeking employment after leaving prison.
“I was waiting for another job, and I got denied for my background,” she said. “It was at that moment that something clicked. It was then that I realized there are other people like me out here that need that opportunity. They need a real chance at survival. At life.”
Learning to listen
One conference session centered on More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row at Co-Prosperity in Chicago. The photography project, inspired by Humans of New York, shines a light people serving life sentences, including women at Logan Correctional Center and 15 inmates moved off of death row when Illinois abolished the death penalty. The transition meant moving from a private cell into general population.
“I love the honesty of that outcome,” Byrd said. “They said we never sat back and thought how this would actually affect them on the inside. It’s like, we want to do the work, but are we first talking with people who this work is going to affect?”
Byrd also heard poems and letters written by people in prison.
“They talked about what they cared about most and what they hoped to be able to do,” she said. “Can we provide those types of opportunities so they can have something to be proud of and something to live for? After you’ve served you time, do you have to continue dwelling on what’s happened?”
The sculpture Dow created after Byrd, called Candice, is now on display at Bloomington Public Library. An overarching metaphor of the show, Perennial Optimism, was nature’s way of renewing itself each spring—rebirth, renewal and rejuvenation.
“As a person who has gone through what I’ve gone through, never in my life would I ever think to be an inspiration to someone’s artistic abilities,” she said. “Or that they would even care to do so.”
As a happy accident, Dow chose burnt, reclaimed wood as the base for Candice, with whimsical tentacles symbolizing Byrd’s hair—and spirit.
“I experienced a home fire in 2013. I came from a shelter, rebuilt—everything was lost in a matter of minutes. It’s a feeling of, here we go again, back at square one,” she said. “It felt like it was meant to be, all the way up to the top with the crazy hair. I am the fun person. I hope people take me seriously, but I play a lot. I love it and I feel like it embodies who I am.”
