Playing back the prison experience whilst dancing with elders : An Abolition State of Mind

My research includes working with African Caribbean elders, and young African Heritage men who have had experience of or are in prison. The overarching aims also include an exploration of African diaspora heritage and identity through connecting to music, visual art and traditional Ghanaian dance in a way that may foster healing and empathy.

Digital exclusion to inclusion

It became quite evident early on via wider conversations that digital exclusion was going to be a thing. It has always been a thing but that thing had not been brought to light until COVID and lockdown struck. My project involves elders and so combining my fellowship with my political hat, I actually started by setting out to get more people access to being online and launched the #GiveNTech initiative encouraging businesses and individuals to donate unwanted laptops that can be given to those in need. One recipient included an 84 year old we had a ‘fun’ back and forth on the phone. I also visited down at her house (masked and distanced) helping her work to get to grips with navigating zoom, which she is now very confident at.

You can read more about this process here at Bristol Threads.

Moving words elders creative dance exercise class

I have over ten years experience of leading dance exercise with elders and I decided to pick this up online as part of this fellowship. The weekly zoom creative dance classes were launched back in May, supported and promoted further by Alive! and Friends of St. Paul’s Library. The class participation has steadily built up over the weeks and there are now 7 regular participants, all but one are of African Caribbean descent. The session has a warm up, then a discussion on a given theme which informs the movements and dance that we create. So far we have created a new dance sequence each week and the topics have ranged from going out during COVID to proverbs and folk tales.

The sessions with the elders will continue and we recently had a mini showcase at a Friends Of St Pauls Library online open mic event. My next intervention with the group will be introducing some traditional Ghanaian dance movements into our sequences that are connected to an accompanying historical narrative. I would also like to work with better sound quality - this may be via good headphones or a small mini rig or connection within individuals homes. I know from personal experience and through my work over the years as a dance facilitator that bass and feeling bass, which is a key component of Reggae music, is absolutely essential in inspiring movement and fulljoying music. Feeling bass is something that I believe is important to us culturally as African Caribbean people regardless of age because although tastes and genres shift, the importance of bass lines do not.

Feeling bass is something that I believe is important to us culturally as African Caribbean people regardless of age because although tastes and genres shift, the importance of bass lines do not.

Next moves

As well as establishing the online elders Moving Words group, I have also been researching the possible ways to collaborate with prisoners and those with experience of the criminal justice system, prison and incarceration. Part of the impetus for this came from some work I undertook last year at Guys Marsh prison in October 2019 for Black History Month where my organisation Black* Artists On The Move delivered a number of pieces ranging from poetry, theatre, dance and playback. Out of everything that was presented, it was the Ghanaian dance performed by a male dancer Fofoo Attiso that really captivated the audience of around 20, with the majority being of African descent and a good number from Bristol.

I have no experience of being in prison but I was once a pen pal to a friend who sadly ended up in a young offenders prison. We communicated through letter which leads me to consider how a letter can form part of an expanded performance. What if a letter was opened in a performance and informed a playback response?

In A Cell, Sickle Cell, COVID laws and systemic flaws

During lockdown I became aware that there were provisions set out for potential early release from prison for those nearing the end of their sentences or temporary release for those with specific serious health conditions including Sickle Cell. My understanding however is that the process of early or temporary release due to COVID was so bureaucratic that it was never likely to be able to release many despite a growing lack of capacity and overcrowding. Out of the thousands that may have qualified, it's been openly known that only a couple hundred were actually released. What I have learnt about how the system pans out in reality is deeply disturbing, it is painful and destabilising to say the least.

COVID has also meant less access to fresh air, prison ‘privileges’ and visits. Some prisons have been able to adopt a secure video link visit (Purple Visits) and I am exploring this as a possible tool for prison outreach too.

Abolition Shed to Abolition head - There needs to be reform

Abolition is not a historic term or concept that has been actioned and shelved. Abolition beyond freedom from chattel enslavement is once again a topical concept particularly when reflecting on conversations happening in the US. The main focus is abolition of police and abolition of the prison industrial complex which some argue acts like modern day slavery and disproportionately effects people of African descent. The African American Harvard Professor of Philosophy Tommie Shelby has a very powerful book called Dark Ghettos in which he calls for a contemporary ghetto Abolitionist movement to end urban deprivation. Stating we need a similar scale of organisation and effort as that required to end slavery.

With so much out of the control of these people who find themselves in prison - my mind considers looks away from punishment and lack of agency, to a more empowered determined space of healing.

How can the architecture of identity in incarceration be altered through expanded performance, technology and social interaction? As I move forward with my research I will be working with a small group to pilot an expanded performance through playback responses that are live and not premeditated, via zoom and radio, letter writing, purple visits, video music and dance. In a way that will genuinely connect prisoners, elders, community and audience.

I have been inspired by an article in the modernist ‘UNBUILDING RACISM Designing Justice + Designing Spaces’ and conclude this blog post with the following quote:

‘Prisons and jails are the built environments knee on the necks of our systemically marginalised brothers and sisters. Now is the time to close these buildings and liberate our cities and rural communities. Tens of thousands of men and women are already being released from our prisons and jails in response to the pandemic. They and their families need places that offer healing, job training, short-term shelter and other resources. ... we know that the architecture of mass incarceration is the expression of racism in the built environment. The time is now to unbuild its structures and imagine the architecture of liberation.’